Keyboard device and musical sound emission method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11423868-B2
Application number	US-202117387946-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 28, 2021
Priority date	Dec 16, 2020
Publication date	Aug 23, 2022
Grant date	Aug 23, 2022

Abstract

A keyboard device and a musical sound emission method are provided. A top lid is formed into a hollow structure including a lower plate and an upper plate facing the lower plate. Since vibrating bodies are fixed to an inner surface of the lower plate, the vibrating bodies can cause the lower plate to vibrate and thereby emit musical sound generated through the vibration from an outer surface side of the lower plate to the outside. On the other hand, the musical sound emitted from an inner surface side of the lower plate is blocked by the upper plate, and it is thus possible to curb mutual cancelation of musical sound in opposite phases emitted from each of the inner surface and the outer surface of the lower plate. Therefore, it is possible to efficiently emit musical sound to the surroundings of the top lid.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A keyboard device comprising:
a casing;
an opening/closing member that opens and closes a part of the casing; and
vibrating bodies that are attached to the opening/closing member and vibrate on a basis of a musical sound signal when a key is pressed,
wherein the opening/closing member is formed into a hollow structure including a first plate and a second plate facing the first plate, and
the opening/closing member is caused to vibrate to emit musical sound through vibration of the vibrating bodies fixed to an inner surface of the first plate.

2. The keyboard device according to claim 1 , wherein the first plate is a plate located on a lower surface side of the opening/closing member or a plate facing a key side in a state in which the opening/closing member opens the part of the casing.

3. The keyboard device according to claim 2 , wherein the second plate is formed to have higher rigidity than the first plate.

4. The keyboard device according to claim 3 ,
wherein the second plate is formed to have higher rigidity than the first plate by a plate-shaped reinforcing material being bonded to an inner surface of the second plate, and
the reinforcing material is formed to have a thinner thickness in a region in which the vibrating bodies face the second plate than in the other region, or the reinforcing material is not bonded to the second plate in the region in which the vibrating bodies and the second plate face each other.

5. The keyboard device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
sectioning members that are fixed to the inner surface of the first plate and section vibrating regions of the first plate vibrated by the vibrating bodies.

6. The keyboard device according to claim 5 , wherein a pair of the sectioning members are provided with the vibrating bodies sandwiched therebetween.

7. The keyboard device according to claim 5 , wherein the second plate and the sectioning members are brought into contact with each other.

8. The keyboard device according to claim 5 ,
wherein the vibrating bodies are configured at least with a first vibrating body and a second vibrating body that vibrates in a higher frequency bandwidth than the first vibrating body, and
a vibrating region of the first plate vibrated by the first vibrating body and a vibrating region of the first plate vibrated by the second vibrating body are sectioned by the sectioning members.

9. The keyboard device according to claim 8 , wherein a distance from keys to the second vibrating body is set to be longer than a distance from the keys to the first vibrating body.

10. The keyboard device according to claim 5 ,
wherein the opening/closing member opens and closes the part of the casing through rotating about a rotation axis along a horizontal direction, and
the sectioning members are provided to extend in a direction that perpendicularly intersects an axial direction of the rotation axis.

11. The keyboard device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
fixation bases that are fixed to an inner surface of the first plate; and
a restriction member that is supported by the fixation bases in a state in which the restriction member is separated from the first plate by a predetermined interval,
wherein the vibrating bodies are fixed to the inner surface of the first plate in a state in which the vibrating bodies are sandwiched between the first plate and the restriction member.

12. The keyboard device according to claim 11 , further comprising:
a vibration-proofing material that is sandwiched between the vibrating bodies and the restriction member.

13. The keyboard device according to claim 11 , further comprising:
a fastening member that has a shaft part and a head part with a larger outer diameter than the shaft part and fastens the restriction member to the fixation bases;
a first vibration-proofing material that is sandwiched between the fixation bases and the restriction member; and
a second vibration-proofing material that is sandwiched between the head part of the fastening member and the restriction member.

14. The keyboard device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a casing speaker that is provided in the casing and emits musical sound based on the musical sound signals,
wherein a timing at which sound emission of the opening/closing member starts when a key is pressed is configured to come later than a timing at which sound emission of the casing speaker starts.

15. The keyboard device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the casing comprises a main body part to which the opening/closing member is attached, leg parts extending downward from the main body part, and a base part that supports the main body part via the leg parts,
the base part comprises a base part speaker that emits musical sound based on the musical sound signals toward the main body part,
the main body part comprises a cavity penetrating through the base part speaker in a sound emission direction, and
an opening part of the cavity on an upper end side is opened and closed by the opening/closing member.

16. A musical sound emission method for a keyboard device, wherein the keyboard device comprises:
a casing,
an opening/closing member that opens and closes a part of the casing, and
vibrating bodies that are attached to the opening/closing member and vibrate on a basis of a musical sound signal when a key is pressed,
the method comprising:
forming the opening/closing member into a hollow structure comprising a first plate and a second plate facing the first plate; and
causing the opening/closing member to vibrate to emit musical sound through vibration of the vibrating bodies fixed to an inner surface of the first plate.

17. The method according to claim 16 , wherein in a case when the opening/closing member opens the part of the casing, the first plate is located on a lower surface side of the opening/closing member or facing a key side.

18. The method according to claim 17 , wherein the second plate is formed to have higher rigidity than the first plate.

19. The method according to claim 18 , wherein the second plate is formed to have higher rigidity than the first plate by a plate-shaped reinforcing material being bonded to an inner surface of the second plate.

20. The method according to claim 19 , wherein the reinforcing material is formed to have a thinner thickness in a region in which the vibrating bodies face the second plate than in the other region, or the reinforcing material is not bonded to the second plate in the region in which the vibrating bodies and the second plate face each other.

Assignees

• Roland Corp

Inventors

• Matsuba Masaaki
• Murai Takahiro

Classifications

• G10K9/20

  Sounding members · CPC title

• G10H1/32

  Constructional details · CPC title

• G10H1/047

  by acousto-mechanical means, e.g. rotating speakers or sound deflectors · CPC title

• G10C3/06 Primary

  Resonating means, e.g. soundboards or resonant strings; Fastenings thereof · CPC title

• G10C3/04

  Frames; Bridges; Bars · CPC title