Wireless multi-string tuner for stringed instruments and associated method of use

Abstract

A stringed instrument tuner that senses the vibration of all the strings of the instrument independently and simultaneously via ultraviolet reflective light sensors that are immune to interference from ambient alternating-current lighting. The pitches of the strings are then measured continuously in real-time and transmitted wirelessly to a receiver that simultaneously graphically displays how far out-of-tune all of the strings are so that the musician can instantly see which strings need tuning and tune them quickly. The receiver may be a smartphone, smartwatch, smart glasses, computer, self-tuning system, or a dedicated wearable receiver-display unit.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A tuning assembly for tuning a stringed musical instrument comprising a plurality of strings configured to vibrate, the tuning assembly comprising:
 a housing configured to be mounted to a body of the stringed musical instrument, the housing including a cavity and a plurality of slots;   a printed circuit board stored in the cavity, the printed circuit board including a controller, a plurality of light emitters, and a plurality of light sensors;   wherein respective ones of the plurality of light emitters and light sensors are arranged as a plurality of emitter-sensor pairs comprising one light emitter and one light sensor per pair, and each emitter-sensor pair is positioned to protrude into a corresponding slot from amongst the plurality of slots of the housing, respectively, with each slot of the plurality of slots being positioned in a location underneath a respective string of the plurality of strings of the stringed musical instrument, the plurality of strings being configured to individually vibrate; and   wherein each light emitter of the emitter-sensor pairs is configured to emit light of a certain frequency in a direction of a surface of a corresponding vibrating string of the stringed musical instrument, a portion of the emitted light from each light emitter is reflected from the surface of the corresponding vibrating string in a direction toward the corresponding light sensor, each light sensor is configured to sense the corresponding reflected light and generate a respective output representative of the corresponding reflected light for each vibrating string, and the controller receives and processes the outputs to independently and simultaneously determine a tuning property of each vibrating string, and, based on the tuning properties, generates dynamic tuning information for each vibrating string.   
     
     
         2 . The tuning assembly according to  claim 1 , further comprises an electronic display in electrical connection with the printed circuit board for providing a dynamic graphical representation of the dynamic tuning information for each vibrating string. 
     
     
         3 . The tuning assembly according to  claim 2 , wherein the electronic display is capable of displaying the dynamic graphical representation to a user of the stringed musical instrument, such that the dynamic graphical representation is usable by the user to assist the user in tuning the stringed musical instrument. 
     
     
         4 . The tuning assembly according to  claim 3 , wherein the dynamic graphical representation includes a visualization that dynamically indicates a tuning status of each string of the stringed musical instrument. 
     
     
         5 . The tuning assembly according to  claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of light emitters is an ultraviolet light-emitting diode, and each of the plurality of light sensors is an ultraviolet light photodiode or an ultraviolet light phototransistor. 
     
     
         6 . The tuning assembly according to  claim 1 , wherein the tuning property comprises pitch data of the plurality of vibrating strings. 
     
     
         7 . A method of tuning a stringed musical instrument comprising a plurality of strings configured to vibrate, the stringed musical instrument further including a housing mounted to a body of the stringed musical instrument, the housing including a cavity and a plurality of slots, and a printed circuit board stored in the cavity, the printed circuit board including a controller, a plurality of light emitters, and a plurality of light sensors, wherein respective ones of the plurality of light emitters and light sensors are arranged as a plurality of emitter-sensor pairs comprising one light emitter and one light sensor per pair, and each emitter-sensor pair is positioned to protrude into a corresponding slot from amongst the plurality of slots of the housing, respectively, with each slot of the plurality of slots being positioned in a location underneath a respective string of the plurality of strings of the stringed musical instrument, the plurality of strings being configured to individually vibrate, the method comprising:
 emitting, via each light emitter of the emitter-sensor pairs, light of a certain frequency in a direction of a surface of a corresponding vibrating string of the stringed musical instrument, a portion of the emitted light from each light emitter being reflected from the surface of the corresponding vibrating string in a direction toward the corresponding light sensor;   sensing, via each light sensor, the corresponding reflected light;   generating, via each light sensor, a respective output representative of the corresponding reflected light for each vibrating string; receiving, via the controller, the outputs;   processing the outputs, via the controller, to independently and simultaneously determine a tuning property of each vibrating string; and   based on the tuning properties, generating dynamic tuning information for each vibrating string.   
     
     
         8 . The method according to  claim 7 , further comprising an electronic display in electrical connection to the printed circuit board, and the method further comprises providing a dynamic graphical representation of the dynamic tuning information. 
     
     
         9 . The method according to  claim 8 , further comprising displaying via the electronic display, the dynamic graphical representation to the user of the musical stringed instrument, such that the dynamic graphical representation is usable by the user to assist the user in tuning the stringed musical instrument. 
     
     
         10 . The method according to  claim 8 , wherein the dynamic graphical representation includes a visualization that dynamically indicates a tuning status of each string of the stringed musical instrument. 
     
     
         11 . The method according to  claim 7 , wherein each of the plurality of light emitters is an ultraviolet light-emitting diode, and each of the plurality of light sensors is an ultraviolet light photodiode or an ultraviolet light phototransistor. 
     
     
         12 . The method according to  claim 7 , wherein the tuning property comprises pitch data of the plurality of vibrating strings. 
     
     
         13 . A computer program product for a tuning device for tuning a stringed musical instrument comprising a plurality of strings configured to vibrate, the stringed musical instrument further including a housing mounted to a body of the stringed musical instrument, the housing including a cavity and a plurality of slots, and a printed circuit board stored in the cavity, the printed circuit board including a controller, a plurality of light emitters, and a plurality of light sensors, wherein respective ones of the plurality of light emitters and light sensors are arranged as a plurality of emitter-sensor pairs comprising one light emitter and one light sensor per pair, and each emitter-sensor pair is positioned to protrude into a corresponding slot from amongst the plurality of slots of the housing, respectively, with each slot of the plurality of slots being positioned in a location underneath a respective string of the plurality of strings of the stringed musical instrument, the plurality of strings being configured to individually vibrate, the computer program product comprising:
 a plurality of instructions resident on a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, wherein the instructions are executable by a processor to cause the processor to control:   emitting, via each light emitter of the emitter-sensor pairs, light of a certain frequency in a direction of a surface of a corresponding vibrating string of the stringed musical instrument, a portion of the emitted light from each light emitter being reflected from the surface of the corresponding vibrating string in a direction toward the corresponding light sensor;   sensing, via each light sensor, the corresponding reflected light;   generating, via each light sensor, a respective output representative of the corresponding reflected light for each vibrating string; receiving, via the controller, the outputs;   processing the outputs, via the controller, to independently and simultaneously determine a tuning property of each vibrating string; and   based on the tuning properties, generating dynamic tuning information for each vibrating string.   
     
     
         14 . The computer program product according to  claim 13 , further comprises an electronic display in electrical connection with the printed circuit board for providing a dynamic graphical representation of the dynamic tuning information for each vibrating string. 
     
     
         15 . The computer program product according to  claim 14 , wherein the instructions are executable by the processor to further cause the processor to control: displaying, via the electronic display, the dynamic graphical representation to a user of the stringed musical instrument, such that the dynamic graphical representation is usable by the user to assist the user in tuning the stringed musical instrument. 
     
     
         16 . The computer program product according to  claim 14 , wherein the dynamic graphical representation includes a visualization that dynamically indicates a tuning status of each string of the stringed musical instrument. 
     
     
         17 . The computer program product according to  claim 13 , wherein each of the plurality of light emitters is an ultraviolet light-emitting diode, and each of the plurality of light sensors is an ultraviolet light photodiode or an ultraviolet light phototransistor. 
     
     
         18 . The computer program product according to  claim 13 , wherein the tuning property comprises pitch data of the plurality of vibrating strings.