INTERACTIVE OFFICE PLAY STATION

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for providing an office play station for a child. The office play station includes a desk, an office controller and one or more peripheral play devices. The peripheral play devices may represent devices commonly found in an office setting. Each of the peripheral play devices may be in communication with the office controller and may include an age setting that adjusts the functionality of the peripheral play device. The office controller may configure the age setting for the peripheral play devices and record activity data that indicates the manner in which the user interacts with the peripheral play devices.

Description

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material, which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present principles are directed to systems and methods for children devices, and more particularly, to providing an interactive office play station that includes educational and entertainment features for children.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In today's society, many parents work from their homes. The home may include an office or work area that includes various types of office equipment. For example, the office may include a computer, printer, scanner, telephone, fax machine or other types of devices commonly found in an office. Any parent who works from home and has young children knows that children enjoy playing in their office. The children get enjoyment from mimicking what their parents are doing and from playing with the various devices (e.g., computer, phone, scanner, fax machine, etc.) in the office.

When a child plays in a home office that is used by a parent, this can be a problem for a variety of different reasons. For example, the child may distract the parent from effectively doing his or her job. In addition, it is unlikely the child knows how to operate the devices in an office and may therefore misconfigure the devices (e.g., by randomly pressing buttons on the devices) or may even damage the devices.

Unfortunately, an office play station has not been developed that allows a child to play with various types of office equipment and occupies the attention of the child with both educational and entertainment features.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the above, an office play station is provided herein that replicates an office experience for a child and which provides both educational and entertainment features for the child. The office play station includes a desk, an office controller and one or more peripheral play devices. The office play station and peripheral play devices may be detachably coupled to the desk through device integrators. The peripheral play devices may include devices commonly found in an office setting, including telephones, fax machines, scanner, printers, and other types of devices. Each of the peripheral play devices may be in communication with the office controller and may include an age setting that adjusts the functionality of the peripheral play device. The office controller may configure the age setting for the peripheral play devices and record activity data that indicates the manner in which the user interacts with the peripheral play devices.

In accordance with certain embodiments of the present principles, a system is disclosed for providing an office play station. The system includes a desk that includes at least one device integrator situated on an upper surface of the desk. The system also includes one or more peripheral play devices and each of the one or more peripheral play devices may include a device setting that specifies an age setting for each respective peripheral play device. An office controller is in communication with the one or more peripheral play devices. The office controller may be configured to be coupled to the at least one device integrator situated on the upper surface of the desk and may include a display device, an input device and instructions for configuring the device setting for the one or more peripheral play devices to specify the age setting.

In accordance with the present principles, another system is disclosed for providing an office play station. The system includes a desk, one or more peripheral play devices, and an office controller. The one or more peripheral play each include a device setting that specifies an age setting. An office controller is in communication with the one or more peripheral play devices and includes a display device, an input device and a memory device that stores instructions for configuring the device setting for the one or more peripheral play devices to specify the age setting, maintaining a profile for a user, and recording activity data.

In accordance with an even further embodiment of the present principles, a system is disclosed for providing an office play station. The system comprises a desk and one or more peripheral play devices which include a configurable age setting. An office controller in communication with the one or more peripheral play devices. The office controller is configured to be coupled to an upper surface of the desk and further configured to specify the age setting for the one or more peripheral play devices.

These and other features and advantages will become apparent from the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments thereof, which is to be read in connection with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The inventive principles are illustrated in the figures of the accompanying drawings which are meant to be exemplary and not limiting, in which like references are intended to refer to like or corresponding parts, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system for providing an office play station in accordance with certain embodiments of the present principles.

FIG. 2 is a more detailed block diagram of a system for providing an office play station in accordance with certain embodiments of the present principles.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of an exemplary office play station in accordance with certain embodiments of the present principles.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a method for providing an office play station in accordance with certain embodiments of the present principles.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

In the following description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

In accordance with the principles discussed herein, an office play station is disclosed for entertaining and educating children. The office play station may generally represent a toy or article that simulates an office experience for a child and which provides educational and entertainment features. In certain embodiments, the office play station comprises a desk which includes an office controller and a plurality of peripheral play devices. The office controller may represent a tablet device, laptop computer, desktop computer or other type of computing device. The peripheral play devices may represent various types of devices that are found in an office environment (e.g., fax machines, scanners, printers, electronic calendars, telephones, etc.). The office controller and the peripheral play devices may be integrated into the desk. The office controller may be in communication with the peripheral play devices (e.g., via wired and/or wireless links) and may be configured to control various aspects of the peripheral play devices. For example, the office controller may control the functionality of the peripheral play devices, an age setting associated with the office play station (e.g., an age setting that adjusts the functionality for the peripheral play devices or increases the difficulty level for applications which are executed by the office controller), or interfaces that are displayed on the peripheral play devices.

The office play station serves a dual role of entertaining and educating children. With respect to entertaining children, a parent can download and display multimedia content such as movies, cartoons, music or other types of multimedia data using the office play station. Children can also play games using the office controller and/or peripheral play devices. With respect to educating children, the office play station can teach children how to operate real world office equipment (e.g., phones, computers, fax machine, printer, scanner, etc.). Learning how to operate these devices at an early age can be very advantageous to children since the children are likely to utilize in the future. Educational software applications may also be executed by the office play station (e.g., by the office controller and/or peripheral play devices).

In certain embodiments, a profile may be created for each child that utilizes the office play station. The profile may store information about a child (e.g., name, image, birthdate, an avatar created by the child, etc.) and may be updated with activity data that indicates how a child has utilized, or interacted with, the office play station. For example, the profile may be updated with activity data that indicates how the child is progressing with respect to the educational aspects of the system. The profile may also be updated to include data that generally indicates how the child is using the office play station (e.g., how often the child is playing games, watching cartoons, interacting with the educational software, etc.). As will be explained in further detail below, profiles may also be created for parents or other users that wish to control the settings of the office play station.

In certain embodiments, the office play station may be in communication with a server over a network (e.g., the Internet). Profiles created for the office play station may be uploaded to the server periodically or in response to receiving a command to upload the profile. A profile for a child which is uploaded to the server may be compared with profiles uploaded by other children to assess the child's progress in relation to other children. A parent or other person may access the data on the server from a personal computing device (e.g., computer, tablet, mobile phone, etc.) or from the office controller that is integrated with the office play station. The server may provide various types of information, statistics and charts to an admin user (e.g., a parent) that is assessing a child's progress or interaction with the office play station.

An admin user can also access the server using a personal computing device in order to remotely modify the settings of the office play station. For example, a parent who is at work can login to the server to change the age setting for the office play station or to restrict the child from watching cartoons and movies. The server may also be utilized to download new applications and/or update existing applications on the office controller or peripheral play devices.

Embodiments described herein may be hardware-based, software-based and preferably comprise a mixture of both hardware and software elements. Thus, while the description herein may describe certain embodiments, features or components as being implemented in software or hardware, it should be recognized that any embodiment, feature or component that is described in the figures or description of the present application may be implemented in hardware and/or software. In certain embodiments, particular aspects are implemented in software, which includes but is not limited to firmware, resident software, microcode, etc.

Embodiments may include a computer program product accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system. A computer-usable or computer readable medium may include any apparatus that stores, communicates, propagates, or transports the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The medium can be magnetic, optical, electronic, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or a propagation medium. The medium may include a computer-readable storage medium such as a semiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disk and an optical disk, etc.

A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing program code may include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus. The memory elements can include local memory employed during actual execution of the program code, bulk storage, and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at least some program code to reduce the number of times code is retrieved from bulk storage during execution. Input/output or I/O devices (including but not limited to keyboards, displays, pointing devices, etc.) may be coupled to the system either directly or through intervening I/O controllers.

Network adapters may also be coupled to the system to enable the data processing system to become coupled to other data processing systems or remote printers or storage devices through intervening private or public networks. Modems, cable modem and Ethernet cards are just a few of the currently available types of network adapters.

Referring now to the drawings in which like numerals represent the same or similar elements and initially to FIG. 1, a system 100 is disclosed for providing an office play station service in accordance with certain embodiments of the present principles. As shown therein, the system 100 comprises a server 120, a personal computing device 110 and an office play station 175 that includes an office controller 150 and one or more peripheral play devices 140. Each of these components may be equipped with one or more computer storage devices (e.g., RAM, ROM, PROM, SRAM, etc.) and one or more processing devices (e.g., a central processing unit) that are capable of executing computer program instructions.

The office play station 175 may communicate with the server 120 and/or personal computing device 110 over a network 160. The network 160 may be any type of network such as one that includes the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network, an intranet, etc. In certain embodiments, the office controller 150 may communicate with the server 120 and/or personal computing device 110 over a network 160. In other embodiments, both the office controller 150 and peripheral play devices 140 may be configured to communicate with the server 120 and/or personal computing device 110 over the network 160. The office controller 150 and peripheral play devices 140 may also be configured to communicate with each other over a different network (not illustrated in FIG. 1) such as local area network (LAN) that utilizes Wi-Fi and/or Ethernet communication technologies. Any of the components or devices illustrated in FIG. 1 may communicate via wired and/or wireless communication links.

The office controller 150 may represent a tablet device, laptop device, desktop computer or other type of computing device. In a preferred embodiment, the office controller 150 may represent a tablet device (e.g., an Apple iPad™). The office controller 150 may be equipped with a display that is capable of rendering an interface and one or more input devices (e.g., keyboard, touch screen, microphone, camera, video camera, scanner, joystick, remote control device, etc.). A user (e.g., a child or parent operating the office controller 150) may manipulate interfaces rendered on the display using the input devices to communicate with the server 120, the peripheral play devices 140 and/or personal computing device 110.

The peripheral play devices 140 may represent devices that are utilized in an office setting. For example, a peripheral play device 140 may represent a phone, fax machine, printer, scanner, calculator, or other type of peripheral device. In certain embodiments, the peripheral play devices 140 may be integrated into a desk with the office controller (e.g., as illustrated in FIG. 3), or may be integrated into other structures associated with the an office play station 175 (e.g., integrated into shelves or tables that are included with the office play station 175). I

The office controller 150 may be configured to control various aspects of the peripheral play devices 140. For example, the officer controller 150 can customize the level of functionality of the peripheral play devices 140, specify age settings for the peripheral play devices 140, set an operating mode for the peripheral play devices 140 and (e.g., specify that the peripheral play devices are to operate in “child mode” or “unrestricted mode” as explained in further detail below). The office controller 150 may also be configured to execute educational software that teaches children how to operate the peripheral play devices 140, and which provides other types of educational aspects (e.g., software that teaches specific subjects such as mathematics, spelling, history, etc.) The office controller 150 may further be configured to track and analyze a child's interactions with the peripheral play devices 140 and to generate reporting data that indicates a child's progress or other information relating to the child's interactions with the peripheral devices 140. A more detailed explanation of the functionality provided by the office controller 150 is discussed below with reference to FIG. 2.

The server 120 may generally represent any type of computing device that is capable of communicating with the personal computing device 110 and/or office play station 175 over the network 160. In certain embodiments, the server 120 comprises one or more mainframe computing devices that execute a web server for communicating with the office play station 175 and/or personal computing device 110 over the Internet.

The server 120 and the office play station 175 may communicate to perform various types of functions. For example, the office play station 175 may transmit data to the server 120 that relates to the child's interactions with the office play station 175. The data relating to the child's interactions may be compared with data provided by other children (e.g., provided by other office play stations located at different households or other remote locations) at the server 120 to assess the child's progress in relation to other children. The server 120 may display various types of information, statistics and charts to a parent or other user (e.g., relating to assessing a child's progress or interaction with the office play station 175) via the office controller 150.

The server 120 may also store applications (e.g., educational or gaming applications) and/or multimedia items (e.g., videos, songs, books, images, etc.) that can be searched via an interface on the office controller 150 and downloaded to the office controller 150 and/or peripheral play devices 140. In some cases, a child or admin user may be required to purchase the applications and multimedia content that is downloaded to the office controller 150 or peripheral play devices.

The server 120 may further include functions for updating software on the office controller 150 and peripheral play devices 140, and for performing maintenance operations on the office controller and peripheral play devices (e.g., installing software patches or fixes). In certain embodiments, a user may specify that the updates and/or maintenance operations are to be performed automatically when available.

An admin user (e.g., a parent or adult) may access the server 120 from a personal computing device 110. The personal computing device may represent a desktop computer, laptop computer, tablet device, cell phone, smart phone, personal digital assistant or any other type of computing device. In certain embodiments, an admin user accessing the server 120 from a personal computing device 120 may specify a username and password (or provide other types of login credentials) in order to access an account associated with the office play station 175.

By accessing the server 120 from a personal computing device 110, an admin user is able to configure various aspects of the office play station 175 from a remote location (e.g., a parent can configure the office play station 175 from work or from a hotel when travelling on a business trip). When the user accesses the server 120, the server 120 may provide the user with various interfaces for configuring the interactive play station 175. Any configuration preferences specified by the user may be transmitted to an office play station 175 that is connected to the network 160. Generally speaking, any feature or functionality of the office play station 175 may be customized remotely using the personal computing device 175. For example, the admin user can adjust the settings and functionality of the peripheral play devices, adjust age settings, identify multimedia items that can be viewed by a child interacting with the office play station 175, or customize the office play station 175 in other ways. In certain embodiments, rather than communicating with a server 120 to control the functionality of the office play station 175, the personal computing device 110 may communicate directly with the office play station 175. For example, the personal computing device 110 may communicate directly with the office controller 150 and/or peripheral play devices 140 over a local area network.

The personal computing device 150 can also access the reporting data and statistical data relating to a child's interactions with the office play station 175 from the server 120. Interfaces may also be provided that permit a user to specify applications and/or multimedia content that should be pushed to the office play station 175 and/or installed on the office play station 175.

It should be noted that the system in FIG. 1 is merely meant to demonstrate an embodiment of an operating environment that can be utilized in conjunction with the principles taught herein, and should not be construed as limiting in any manner whatsoever. The particular configuration in FIG. 1 can be altered in numerous ways without departing from the principles herein. For example, although FIG. 1 depicts a single server 120 connected to a single office play station 175, any number of servers 120 and office play stations 175 may be utilized with the system and the system may be configured in a variety of different ways. Likewise, while the exemplary embodiment disclosed in FIG. 1 discloses an office play station 175 that includes five peripheral play devices 140, any number of peripheral play devices 140 may be utilized. In addition, it should be recognized that the functionality provided by the server 120 may be performed locally by the office controller 150 or by other components of the office play station 175.

Moving on to FIG. 2, a detailed view of a system 200 for providing an office play station 175 is disclosed in accordance with certain embodiment of the present principles. As shown therein, the system 200 includes a server 120, an office controller 150 and a peripheral device 140, each of which may include one or more non-transitory storage devices (e.g., RAM, ROM, PROM, SRAM, etc.) and one or more processors (e.g., central processing units). The server 120, office controller 150 and peripheral device 140 each include a plurality of software components (e.g., profile manager 251, device controller 255, remote office controller 221, device settings 241, etc.). Each of these components may be stored on a storage device which is in communication with one or more processors. The processor(s) may be configured to execute the instructions associated with software components.

It should be noted that although the components of the system 200 in FIG. 2 may be described throughout this disclosure as software modules, such is not necessary. Rather, any component shown in FIG. 2 may be implemented as software, hardware or a combination of software and hardware. Furthermore, while the components may be illustrated as separate and distinct components, it should be recognized that the components can be combined in any manner (e.g., all of the components may be executed as a part of a single program or as separately executing processes or threads) and that the functions performed by these components may overlap in some instances.

A profile manager 251 provided by the office controller 150 may be configured to create, update, modify and delete profiles that are created for use with the office play station 175. Profiles may be created for child users and admin users (e.g., parents or adult users). The profiles may be stored on the office controller 150, the server 120, or at both locations. An admin user (e.g., such as a child or admin user) may logon to a user account on the server 120 or office controller 150 (e.g., using a username and password). By logging onto the user account, the server 120 or office controller 150 may provide interfaces which utilize data from the admin profile and child profiles associated with the admin profile. The interfaces may also permit the admin user to configure settings for the office play station 175 for child users.

A child profile may include any information that relates to the child or that relates to the child's interaction with the office play station 175. For example, the profile may include personal information for a child that indicates a child's name, login credentials, images, age, sex, interests, hobbies or other types of data related to the child. The profile manager may 251 provide interfaces that permit a user to specify and edit such information. In addition, as explained in further detail below, the activity tracker 254 may monitor, track and analyze the manner in which a child interacts with the office play station 175. This activity data may be used to update a child's profile. For example, as a child interacts with the office play station 175, the profile may be updated to include data that indicates a child's interaction with the educational and entertainment features of the office play station 175. Any data included in a child profile may be utilized to customize a child's interaction or experience with the office play station 175.

With respect to recording educational data in a profile for a child, the profile may indicate a child's progress with respect to learning how to operate the peripheral play devices 140. For example, the profile may indicate the number of times a child successfully utilized the peripheral play devices to send a fax, place a phone call, check voicemail, scan a document, compute a value using a calculator, print a document or to perform other functions related to utilizing the peripheral play devices 140. The profile may also indicate that a child requires further practice operating particular peripheral play devices 140 (e.g., in response to detecting the child was unable to perform certain functions on the peripheral play devices 140). As explained in further detail below, the education system 252 may also include software that may be utilized to teach a child additional types of educational skills (e.g., typing skills, analytical skills, reading skills, etc.) and subject matter (e.g., mathematics, spelling, languages, history, social studies, geography, etc.) using the office play station 175. Thus, a child profile may also include information that indicates the child's progress with respect to using these educational software applications or other types of related data.

The child profile may further include information that relates to entertainment features provided by the office play station 175. For example, a child may be permitted to view or interact with multimedia content (e.g., videos, audio recordings, songs, etc.) and various types of games. Thus, the data in the profile may store data that indicates the multimedia items and games that the child has interacted with, along with other types of related information (e.g., scores for the games that the child played, the amount of time that the child spent interacting with the multimedia content or games, etc.).

As mentioned above, an admin profile may also be set up for a parent, adult or other user via the profile manager 251. An admin profile may be associated with one or more child profiles to permit the admin user to have access to the information or data in the child profiles. An admin account associated with an admin profile may be utilized to control various aspects of the office play station 175 and to monitor a child's interaction with the office play station 175. In certain embodiments, the data stored in a parent profile may be utilized by the office controller 150 to configure the office play station 175 for a child user, including configuring the functionality of the office play station 175 and configuring permissions to applications and multimedia content provided by the office play station 175.

Like the child profile, an admin profile may also include personal information for a user associated with the profile (e.g., name, login credentials, email address, home address, pictures, etc.). The admin profile may also include data that indicates settings that have been specified by the user to control the functionality of the office play station 175 for one or more children. For example, the admin profile may include data that specifies age settings for a child (e.g., which specifies particular types of software or peripheral play devices 140 that may be utilized by a child or which specifies particular difficulty settings for the software or peripheral play devices 140). The admin profile may also include data that specifies educational applications and entertainment content (e.g., multimedia content and games) that should be made available to children interacting with the office play station 175. Any information stored in the admin profile (or a child profile) may be retrieved by the office controller 150 and utilized to customize the settings of the office play station 175. Thus, the information in the admin profile may permit a parent to control the manner in which children interact with the office play station, and may further permit the parent (or other user) to adjust settings as a child progresses or grows older.

When a user logs in and accesses an admin profile, the user may also be permitted to monitor a child's interaction with the office play station 175. For example, an admin profile may be associated with one or more child profiles that have been setup for use with a particular office play station 175. By logging into the admin profile, the user can access the data stored in the associated child profiles and assess the child's interaction with the office play station (e.g., determine whether certain education goals are being met, determine whether a child is able to use particular peripheral play devices, determine multimedia content that the child is interested in, etc.). As mentioned above, the user may adjust the settings stored in the parent profile to modify settings for a child or children that interact with the office play station 175.

As mentioned briefly above, the activity tracker 254 may be configured to monitor, record and analyze a child's interactions with the office play station 175, and this information may be utilized to update a child profile (or an admin profile). The activity tracker 254 can track any type of interaction with either the office controller 150 or the peripheral play devices 140. This may include tracking user inputs received at the office controller 150 and peripheral play devices 140, and tracking a child's use and progress with respect to utilizing software applications (e.g., software applications which provide games or entertainment features and software applications that are used to teach a child educational skills). This may further include tracking whether a child has successfully completed tasks associated with the peripheral play devices 140 (e.g., tracking whether a child successfully operated a peripheral play device 140 to send a fax, e-mail or place a telephone call).

Any of the data which is tracked by the activity tracker 254 may be recorded. The activity data may be stored on the server 120, the office controller 150 or one or more of the peripheral play devices 140. In certain embodiments, the data may be utilized to update a child or admin profile.

The education system 252 may provide education features for the office play station 175. In certain embodiments, the education features provided by the education system 252 may promote the following objectives to assist with early childhood development:

1) Gross motor skills: Using large groups of muscles to sit, stand, walk, run, etc., keeping balance, and changing positions.
2) Fine motor skills: Using hands to be able to eat, draw, dress, play, write, and do many other things.
3) Language skills: Speaking, using body language and gestures, communicating, and understanding what others say.
4) Cognitive skills: Thinking skills, including learning, understanding, problem-solving, reasoning, and remembering skills.
5) Social skills: Interacting with others, having relationships with family, friends, and teachers, cooperating, and responding to the feelings of others.

In certain embodiments, the education system 252 may teach children how to operate the peripheral play devices 140. For example, education system 252 may include software that is configured to display interfaces on the office controller 150 that walk a child through the process of performing particular tasks on the peripheral play devices 140 (e.g., scanning a document, sending a fax, making a phone call, checking voicemail, etc.). The education system 252 may also provide other types of educational software that a child may utilize by interacting with the office controller 150 or the peripheral play devices 140. The education software may represent software that assists a child with learning particular subjects, such as mathematics, languages, history, science or any other subjects, or particular types of skills, such as computing skills, typing skills, analytical skills, etc. Like other features of the office play station 175, the education system 252 and related software can be customized based on a child's age (e.g., the difficulty level of the software can be adjusted).

The entertainment system 253 may provide various types of entertainment features for a child that utilizes the office play station 175. For example, the entertainment system 253 may output or display various types of multimedia content (e.g., cartoons, movies, songs, images, etc.) to children on the office controller 150 or peripheral play devices 140. The entertainment system 253 may also provide various types of entertainment software, such as gaming applications, creative applications (e.g., that permit a child to create a drawing or song), or other types of entertainment software. The entertainment system 253 may provide other entertainment features as well.

The device controller 255 may provide functionality that permits the office controller 150 to communicate with and control the peripheral play devices 140. For example, the device controller 255 may customize the functionality of a peripheral play device 140 by adjusting device settings 241 that are stored on the peripheral play devices 140. In certain embodiments, the office controller 175 may customize the device settings and functionality of the peripheral play devices 140 based on the settings specified in an admin profile.

In certain embodiments, the device controller 150 can specify whether a peripheral play device 140 should be operated in a “child mode” or “unrestricted mode”. In child mode, the functionality of the peripheral play device 140 may be limited or restricted. For example, a parent or other user may specify that a child can interact with the peripheral play devices to a limited extent, but cannot send real faxes or make real phone calls. Thus, when a child makes a phone call using a peripheral play device 140, pre-recorded audio messages may be output to the child via the phone or the child may interact with an interactive application that speaks to the child and which includes speech recognition features to interpret and respond to the child's input speech. A plurality of different child modes may exist that provide for different levels and types of functionalities. On the other hand, in unrestricted mode, a peripheral play device 140 may be fully functional. Thus, a child may be permitted to send actual faxes or make actual phone calls (e.g., by transmitting data over the network 160).

In certain embodiments, the device controller 255 can configure the functionality of the peripheral play devices 140 to limit or restrict the types of applications which may be executed on the peripheral play devices 140. The device controller 255 may further configure the peripheral play devices 140 for a particular age setting. The particular types of functions which may be performed by the peripheral play devices 140 may be customized based on the age setting specified for a device. As an example, if the age setting for a telephone peripheral device 140 was set to ages 2-4, a child interacting with the phone may not be permitted to make actual phone calls, but may be permitted to play with the phone (e.g., by pressing buttons) and listen to pre-recorded digital messages. However, if the age setting for the telephone peripheral device 140 was set to ages 7-9, a child interacting with the device may be permitted to make actual phone calls (e.g., using a VoIP service provided by the server 120), check voicemail messages and perform additional types of functions. Similar types of age setting controls may also be placed on other peripheral play devices 140 to adjust the functionality of the peripheral play devices 140.

Any of the data associated with the peripheral play devices 140 may be stored on the peripheral play devices 140 themselves, the office controller 150 and/or server 120. For example, if the child utilizes a peripheral play device 140 such as a scanner to scan an image, the image created by the scanner may be stored on the scanner, office controller 150 and/or the server 120. Likewise, if a child utilizes a peripheral play device 140 such as a phone to access voicemail, data associated with voicemails may be stored on the phone, office controller 150 and/or server 120.

As mentioned above, the office play station 175 may communicate with a server 120 over the network 160 for various reasons. In certain embodiments, the profiles (e.g., child profiles or admin profile) created for an office play station 175 may be uploaded to the server 120. The profiles may be uploaded periodically (e.g., once a day or once a week) or may be uploaded in response to a user command (e.g., in response to a user selecting a function or button the office play station 175 for uploading the profiles).

The profiles may be uploaded to the server 120 for a variety of reasons. For example, uploading a child profile to the server 120 permits the child profile to be downloaded and utilized by any office play station 175 that is connected to the network 160. In addition, uploading the profiles to the server 120 permits a parent or other user to remotely access various types of information related to the profiles and to remotely configure settings of an office play station 175 using a personal computing computer 110.

For example, a user may access a website provided by the server 120 using a personal computing device 110. The user may login to an account on the website using the information (e.g., username and password) in an admin profile stored on the server 120. Once logged in, the user is logged in to the admin account, the user may analyze data in child profiles associated with the admin account, compare data in the child profiles to other child profiles stored on the server and remotely configure settings for an office play station 175. Further details regarding these functions are provided below.

The profile analyzer 223 may be configured to perform functions that involve displaying or analyzing data in a child profile. As explained above, an admin profile may be associated with one or more child profiles that permit a user associated with an admin profile to access the child profiles. Thus, the profile analyzer 223 may display any data that is included in a child profile associated with the admin profile, or otherwise related to an associated child profile, to an admin user. For example, the profile analyzer 223 may analyze the data in a child profile to display or report any activity data that was recorded by the activity tracker 254. This may include displaying data related to a child's use of educational features (e.g., provided via the education system 252) or entertainment features (e.g., provided via entertainment system 253). This may also include displaying data related to a child's use of the peripheral play devices 140. The profile analyzer 223 may display the data associated with a child profile as raw statistical data, charts, graphs, or in any other manner.

The profile analyzer 223 may also be configured to compare data in a child profile with other child profiles stored on the server 120 (e.g., other profiles provided by office play stations located at different households or other remote locations) to assess the child's progress in comparison to other children. For example, the data in a child profile may indicate a child's progress with respect to utilizing the software associated with the education system 252 (e.g., the data may indicate a reading level for a child or may indicate the extent to which a child is able to successfully operate the peripheral play devices 140). This data may be compared with other child profiles stored on the server 120 in order to determine the child's progress relative other children who are the same age, thus assisting an admin user with identifying weaknesses and strengths of the child. In the case that a child is weak in certain areas (e.g., mathematics), an admin user can specify that the education system 252 should assist the child with developing certain skills and may adjust difficult settings for the child. As explained below, the admin user may also download additional educational software or content from the digital distribution platform 222 on the server 120 to assist the child with overcoming identified weaknesses.

The digital distribution platform 222 permits users (e.g., child users and admin users) to download, purchase and install various types of digital content on the office play station 175. The digital distribution platform 222 may permit a user to download multimedia content (e.g., videos, cartoons, music, movies, TV shows, images, etc.), educational software and entertainment software (e.g., gaming applications). For example, the office controller 150 may display interfaces that permit a user to search the content provided on the digital distribution platform 222 and to download the content to the office play station 175. In addition, users may logon to an account on the server 120 using a personal computing device 110 and select content that is to be pushed to the office play station 175.

As explained above, an admin user or other user may also logon to an account on the server 120 using a personal computing device 110 in order to remotely configure the settings of the office play station 175. Specifically, once logged in, the remote office controller 221 may display various interfaces to the admin user that permit the user to configure the settings for a child that utilizes the office play station 175. The settings specified by the user may be stored in child profiles or admin profiles. This information may be retrieved by the office controller 150 to configure the office play station 175.

The remote office controller 221 may permit an admin user to customize any type of setting for the office play station 175. For example, the remote office controller 221 may permit an admin user to configure an age setting for a child and may customize the device settings 241 of the peripheral play devices (e.g., which may control the level of functionality provided by the peripheral play devices 140). The remote office controller 221 may also permit an admin user to enable or disable certain entertainment features and educational features on the office play station 175.

It should be noted that the exemplary system 200 illustrated FIG. 2 may be varied in numerous ways. For example, in some embodiments, various components provided by the server 120 (e.g., profile analyzer 223) may alternatively be provided by the office controller 150. Likewise, components provided by the office controller 150 (e.g., the profile manager) may be alternatively be provided by the server 120. Other types of variations are also contemplated and are encompassed by the principles described herein.

Moving on, FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary office play station 175 in accordance with certain embodiments of the present principles. As shown therein, the office play station 175 includes a desk 350, an office controller 150 (e.g., which is represented by a tablet in this embodiment), a plurality of peripheral play devices (140A, 140B and 140C), and a keyboard 320. The desk may be made of any type of material such as plastic, wood, metal or other type of material.

In this embodiment, the desk 350 includes a plurality of device integrators 310 that permit the peripheral play devices 140 and office controller 150 to be connected to the desk 350, and which may permit the peripheral play devices 140 to communicate with the office controller 150. For example, in the case of the office controller 150, the device integrator 310 may represent a male connector associated with an iPod™ docking station which attaches to the female connector on the bottom portion of an iPad™ (e.g., the female connector that permits a charger to be coupled to the iPad™ or which permits the iPad™ to be coupled to a desktop computer). Similar types of device integrators 310 may be utilized for the peripheral play devices 140 as well. The device integrators may also represent Ethernet wires and/or Ethernet jacks for connecting the office controller 150 or peripheral play devices 140. In certain embodiments, the desk 350 may also include circuitry and/or wiring that permits connected peripheral play devices 140 to communicate with each other and to communicate with the office controller 150. As explained above, the peripheral play devices and office controller 150 may communicate in other ways as well which do not require device integrators 310 (e.g., the devices may communicate wirelessly or may be coupled directly to each other).

In this exemplary embodiment, the desk 350 includes peripheral play devices including a telephone 140A, a printer/fax machine 140C and an electronic calendar 140C (e.g., which permits a user to input or view appointments and which displays historical information about events that happened on a particular dates).

It should be recognized that the interactive play station 175 illustrated in FIG. 3 is merely provided as an example and is not meant to be limiting in any manner whatsoever. Numerous other types of peripheral play devices 140 (e.g., scanners, telephones, etc.) and input devices (e.g., microphones, video cameras, joysticks, mouse, remote controls, etc.) may also be included. In certain embodiments, the office play station 175 may include also include shelving, seats and other types of related office structures. In addition, although it is not shown, the office play station 175 may further include a calculator, stapler (preferably, a staple-less stapler for safety reasons), drawing boards, calendars, chalkboards, or other similar types of items.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a method 400 for providing an office play station in accordance with certain embodiments of the present principles. The method 400 begins by setting up an office play station 175 and connecting one or more peripheral play devices 140 to an office controller 150 (step 410). As explained above, the office play station 175 may include an office controller 150 (e.g., tablet device, laptop computer or desktop computer) that communicates with one or more peripheral play devices 140 (e.g., printers, scanners, electronic calendars, fax machines, telephones or other types of devices that may be found in an office environment). The office controller 150 may be connected to the peripheral play devices 140 using any type of known communication protocol. In certain embodiments, the office controller 150 may communicate via a wireless connection (e.g., using an IEEE 802.11 or Wi-Fi connection) or wired connection (e.g., wired LAN or Ethernet network).

A profile may be created for at least one child (step 420). For example, a profile may be created by a parent, child or other user. The profile may be created or established using the office controller 150 or by using a personal computing device 110 that is in communication with the office controller 150 or server 120 that is coupled to the office play station 175. As explained above, the child profile may include various types of information. For example, the profile may store information about a child (e.g., name, image, birthdate, an avatar created by the child, etc.) and may include activity data that indicates how a child has utilized, or interacted with, the office play station 175.

An appropriate age setting may be determined for the at least one child (step 430). In certain embodiments, a parent or other admin user may be permitted to set the age setting for a child based on the age of the child. For example, different age settings may be provided for children who are 2-5 years old, 6-8 years old, 9-12 years old, etc. An admin user select an appropriate age settings for a child user and the determined age setting may be stored in a child profile or admin profile.

Activity data is recorded for the at least one child (step 440). As explained above, as a child interacts with the office controller 150 and peripheral play devices 140, various types of activity data may be recorded. For example, a child profile may be updated to include information that indicates the child's progress with respect to using educational features, entertainment features (e.g., games played or multimedia items viewed by the child) or other types of related data. In addition, the recorded activity data may indicate a child's interaction with the peripheral play devices 140.

The age setting and activity data associated with the child profile may be utilized to customize interactive features of the office play station 175 (step 450). For example, the age setting and activity data may be utilized to customize educational software that executes on an office controller 150, entertainment features provided by the office play station 154, device settings 241 on peripheral play devices 140 (e.g., which control the functionality, difficulty level or age setting for the devices), or other features of the play station 175.

Feedback is provided based on the recorded activity data (step 460). The feedback may be provided to an admin user via the office controller 150. Alternatively, the admin user may view the feedback associated with the activity data from a personal computing device 110 that is in communication with the server 120 or in communication with office play station 175. The feedback may be provided in various ways (e.g., provided as statistical information charts, graphs, etc.). The admin user can analyze the feedback in order to assess a child's progress and to adjust the settings of the office play station (e.g., adjust age settings, device settings 241, difficulty level, availability of particular features, etc.).

While there have shown and described and pointed out various novel features of the invention as applied to particular embodiments thereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the systems and methods described and illustrated, may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. Amongst other things, the steps shown in the methods may be carried out in a different orders in many cases where such may be appropriate. Those skilled in the art will recognize, based on the above disclosure and an understanding therefrom of the teachings of the invention, that the particular hardware and devices that are part of the medical system described herein, and the general functionality provided by and incorporated therein, may vary in different embodiments of the invention. Accordingly, the particular system components shown in the figures are for illustrative purposes to facilitate a full and complete understanding and appreciation of the various aspects and functionality of particular embodiments of the invention as realized in system and method embodiments thereof. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention can be practiced in other than the described embodiments, which are presented for purposes of illustration and not limitation, and the present invention is limited only by the claims which follow.

Claims

1. A system for providing an office play station, comprising:

a desk including at least one device integrator situated on a upper surface of the desk;

one or more peripheral play devices including at least one of a telephone, printer, scanner or fax machine, wherein each of the one or more peripheral play devices include a device setting that specifies an age setting; and

an office controller in communication with the one or more peripheral play devices, wherein the office controller is configured to be coupled to the at least one device integrator situated on the upper surface of the desk and includes a display device, an input device and instructions for configuring the device setting for the one or more peripheral play devices to specify the age setting.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the office controller is a tablet device and the input device comprises a touch screen display.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a server that is in communication with the office controller over a network, wherein the server is accessible from a personal computing device over the network and the server is configured to remotely modify the settings of the office play station.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein a user may download multimedia content and software from the server using the office controller.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the office controller includes educational software that may be utilized by a user.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the age setting adjusts the functionality for the one or more peripheral play devices.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the office controller includes functions for tracking and recording activity data that indicates the manner in which a user interacts with the one or more peripheral play devices and the office controller.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the office controller permits a user to establish a profile and the activity data is recorded in the profile as the user interacts with the office play station.

9. A system for providing an office play station, comprising:

a desk;

one or more peripheral play devices, wherein each of the one or more peripheral play devices include a device setting that specifies an age setting; and

an office controller in communication with the one or more peripheral play devices, wherein the office controller includes a display device, an input device and a memory device that stores instructions for:

configuring the device setting for the one or more peripheral play devices to specify the age setting;

maintaining a profile for a user; and

recording activity data.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the office controller is a tablet device and the input device comprises a touch screen display.

11. The system of claim 9, further comprising a server that is in communication with the office controller over a network, wherein the server is accessible from a personal computing device over the network and the server is configured to remotely modify the settings of the office play station.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein a user may download multimedia content and software from the server using the office controller.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the office controller includes educational software that may be utilized by a user.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the age setting adjusts the functionality for the one or more peripheral play devices.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein activity data indicates the manner in which a user interacts with the one or more peripheral play devices and the office controller.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the activity data is recorded in the profile as the user interacts with the office play station and the profile is periodically transmitted to a server over a network.

17. A system for providing an office play station, comprising:

a desk;

one or more peripheral play devices each of which includes a configurable age setting; and

an office controller in communication with the one or more peripheral play devices, wherein the office controller is configured to be coupled to the an upper surface of the desk and configured to specify the age setting for the one or more peripheral play devices.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the office controller is a tablet device that includes a touch screen display and the one or more peripheral play devices include at least one of a telephone, printer, scanner or fax machine.

19. The system of claim 1, further comprising a server that is in communication with the office controller over a network, wherein the server is accessible from a personal computing device over the network and the server is configured to remotely modify the settings of the office play station.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the office controller includes functions for tracking and recording activity data that indicates the manner in which a user interacts with the one or more peripheral play devices and the office controller.