Jigsaw puzzle

Abstract

A jigsaw puzzle including a puzzle board, a plurality of puzzle pieces for removably placing on the puzzle board in a predetermined configuration, and control circuitry for automatically effecting a mechanical action visually discernible by a puzzle solver on successful assembly of the entire jigsaw puzzle. Exemplary mechanical actions include rotating a clock's hands, a vehicle's wheels, and the like.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention pertains to jigsaw puzzles.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Many kinds of jigsaw puzzles for young children have been developed with the intention of maintaining a child's interest after its completion.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,417,996 to Janiszewski illustrates and describes a jigsaw puzzle with a manual driving means for rotating puzzle pieces after the jigsaw puzzle has been completed.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,748,748 to Bevan et al. illustrates and describes a voice puzzle game for enunciating words, sounds or phrases on correctly placing a puzzle piece in its intended pocket.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,136,480 to Fabricant et al. illustrates and describes a combination puzzle and pull toy requiring a child to select puzzle pieces and place them in the correct order in an upright rectangular frame to form a pull toy depicting an ice cream truck, a passenger car, and the like.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,669 to Iwakichi illustrates and describes a toy aqua plane including a number of reconfigurable parts including a removable tank member in the form of a puzzle toy.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,098,102 to Cooper illustrates and describes a jigsaw puzzle with a manual driving means for moving portions of puzzle pieces in various mechanical manners after the jigsaw puzzle has been completed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Generally speaking, the present invention is for a jigsaw puzzle including a puzzle board, a plurality of puzzle pieces for placing on the puzzle board in a predetermined configuration, and control circuitry for automatically effecting a mechanical action visually discernible by a puzzle solver on successful assembly of the entire jigsaw puzzle. Exemplary mechanical actions include rotating a clock's hands, a vehicle's wheels, and the like. The movable elements effecting the mechanical actions may reside on the puzzle pieces themselves. Assembly of an entire jigsaw puzzle may lead to other puzzle solver discernible actions, for example, illumination of lights, enunciation of sounds, words, and the like.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to understand the invention, and to see how it can be carried out in practice, preferred embodiments will now be described, by way of non-limiting examples only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which similar parts are likewise numbered, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a combined pictorial representation and block diagram of a jigsaw puzzle of a working clock for showing the time of day;

FIG. 2 is a combined pictorial representation and block diagram of a jigsaw puzzle of an animated scene of a steam locomotive; and

FIG. 3 is a pictorial representation of a transmission system of the jigsaw puzzle of FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 shows a jigsaw puzzle 10 of a working clock for showing the time of day. The jigsaw puzzle 10 includes a puzzle board 11 with twelve discrete puzzle pockets 12 each having a bottom wall 13 and a circumferential side wall 14 for snugly receiving twelve puzzle pieces 16 for each hour of the day, and an electrical clock mechanism 17 with an hour hand 18 and a minute hand 19. The jigsaw puzzle 10 is under the control of control circuitry 21 including a battery 22, a manual ON/OFF switch 23, and a micro-switch array 24 of twelve normally open (NO) micro-switches 26 in series for selectively energizing the clock mechanism 17. The micro-switches 26 are deployed on the bottom walls 13 such that correct placement of a puzzle piece 16 in its corresponding puzzle pocket 12 closes its associated micro-switch 26. The control circuitry 21 energizes the clock mechanism 17 to start showing the time on successful assembly of all twelve puzzle pieces 16 in their respective puzzle pockets 12.

FIG. 2 shows a jigsaw puzzle 30 depicting an animated scene of a steam locomotive traveling along a pair of tracks on a sunny day The jigsaw puzzle 30 is under the control of control circuitry 31 including a battery 32, a micro-switch array 33 including nine normally open (NO) micro-switches 34, an electric motor 36 for driving a transmission system 41 (see FIG. 3), six light emitting devices 37 for backlighting non-opaque puzzle pieces, a playback mechanism 38 for playing back a pre-recorded soundtrack, and a one shot timer 39 for automatically switching off the control circuitry 31 a predetermined time after successful assembly of the entire jigsaw puzzle 30.

FIG. 3 shows that removal of a rear cover (not shown) of the jigsaw puzzle 30 reveals a transmission system 41 including four drive wheels 42 having sockets 43 for frictionally receiving spindles 44 extending from the undersides of a front train wheel puzzle piece 46, a rear train wheel puzzle piece 47, an engine driver puzzle piece 48 and a sun puzzle piece 49. The front train wheel puzzle piece 46 has a rotatably mounted spindle 44A for rotating a trailing train wheel for driving a leading train wheel linked thereto on successful assembly of the entire jigsaw puzzle 30. Similarly, the rear train wheel puzzle piece 47 has a rotatably mounted spindle 44B for rotating a trailing train wheel for driving a leading train wheel linked thereto on successful assembly of the entire jigsaw puzzle 30. The engine driver puzzle piece 48 has a rotatably mounted spindle 44C for waving a train driver's hand 51 on successful assembly of the entire jigsaw puzzle 30. The sun puzzle piece 49 has a fixedly mounted spindle 44D for rotating the entire sun puzzle piece 49 on successful assembly of the entire jigsaw puzzle 30.

Thus, on successful assembly of the entire jigsaw puzzle 30, the control circuitry 31 rotates the train wheels on the front train wheel puzzle piece 46, the rear train wheel puzzle piece 47, rotates and backlights the sun puzzle piece 49, waves the train driver's hand 51, backlights three interlocking cloud puzzle pieces 52, and a traffic light puzzle piece 53, and plays back a pre-recorded soundtrack.

While the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, it will be appreciated that many variations, modifications, and other applications of the invention can be made within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A jigsaw puzzle comprising a puzzle board, a plurality of puzzle pieces for removably placing on said puzzle board in a predetermined configuration, and control circuitry for automatically effecting a mechanical action visually discernible by a puzzle solver on successful assembly of the entire jigsaw puzzle.

2. The puzzle according to claim 1 wherein said control circuitry includes an electric motor for rotating an element mounted on a puzzle piece of said plurality of puzzle pieces for effecting a mechanical action visually discernible by a puzzle solver on successful assembly of the entire jigsaw puzzle.

3. The puzzle according to claim 1 wherein said control circuitry includes a one shot timer for automatically switching off said control circuitry a predetermined time after successful assembly of the entire jigsaw puzzle.

4. The puzzle according to claim 1 wherein said control circuitry illuminates at least one light emitting device on successful assembly of the entire jigsaw puzzle.

5. The puzzle according to claim 4 wherein a light emitting device backlights a non-opaque puzzle piece.

6. The puzzle according to claim 1 wherein said control circuitry includes a playback mechanism for playing back a pre-recorded soundtrack on successful assembly of the entire jigsaw puzzle.