Interactive book and toy
Interactive book and toy assemblies are described. One embodiment relates to an interactive book and toy device including a book having a plurality of pages with text and pictures thereon. A controller is mounted on the book. The device also includes a toy having a speaker positioned therein. The device also includes a connection mechanism adapted to electrically couple the book to the toy. The connection mechanism is also adapted to physically secure the book to the toy. The controller is adapted to transmit a signal to the speaker in the toy, through the connection mechanism, in response to activation of a switch in the book. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
A variety of combination book and toy devices that produce audible sounds in response to user interaction are known in the art. Such devices typically include electronic component such as controllers, speakers and power supplies. Some types of devices include a toy having switches thereon that correspond to pages of an accompanying book. When a switch on the toy is pressed, the text of a corresponding page of the book is played through a speaker. Other devices include a pointer containing electrical components therein, that may be used to control the sound generation. The placement and actuation of the various components may lead to disadvantages relating to size, appearance, manufacturing and convenience of use of the book and toy device.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSEmbodiments are described by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, wherein:
In the following description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof and which illustrate several embodiments. It is understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural and operational changes may be made without departing from the scope of the descriptions provided.
The toy 12 may in certain embodiments be a plush animal such as the rabbit illustrated in
The book 20 of the embodiment illustrated in
The embodiment illustrated in
As illustrated in
By making the connector sides on the front cover 22 of the book female and the connector sides on the back cover 24 male, the proper orientation of the book on the toy (not upside down) is easily obtained. In alternative embodiments, the connector sides could be reversed, or the same types of connector sides could be used on both covers of the book. Different numbers of connectors and/or different connector types may also be used in other embodiments. Embodiments may also include an on/off switch 31, if desired, which may be positioned on the toy 12 (for example, on a surface of the toy 12 adjacent to the power supply 30 or speaker 32) or on the book 20, if desired.
In certain embodiments, the front cover 22 and back cover 24 of the book 20 each contains pressure sensitive switches that are actuated by applying pressure to the various hot spots on the pages. A variety of switches may be used. For example, the switches may be formed of a suitable conductive ink matrix set, each set comprising electrically conductive ink printed on two membranes of flexible material, such as plastic sheet. Corresponding conductive areas of the conductive ink membrane pair are held in close proximity to each other with an insulation membrane interspersed between the conductive ink membranes, the insulation membrane providing means for maintaining a non-conductive gap between the conductive ink membrane pair while reading and turning pages, and allowing the conductive ink membrane pair to contact each other when finger pressure is applied to a hot spot on a page of the book. For example, as illustrated in
The hot spots 50a-50h and 60a-60f illustrated in
For example, in certain alternative embodiments, a separate magnetic switch sensor system may be used for sensing certain aspects such as the page being accessed by the user. For example, by embedding magnets at different locations on different pages, magnetic sensors positioned in the front cover and back cover may sense as each page is turned and send a signal to the controller, which may in turn then send the appropriate signal to the speaker when hot spots such as text or artwork hotspots on the page are pressed. For example, the switch 39 illustrated in
Each device 114a, 114b, . . . 114n may comprise any type of Input/Output (I/O) device, such as the input sensors from the hot spot switches (such as switch 26), music and speech synthesizer circuits, etc. In other embodiments, the devices 114a, 114b, . . . 114n may comprise a hard disk drive, or a chipset, for example which may be integrated on the computer 102 motherboard or on an expansion card inserted in an expansion slot on the computer 102 motherboard. A BIOS 106 may be implemented in firmware in a non-volatile memory device on the computer 102 motherboard, such as a Flash memory, Read Only Memory (ROM), Programmable ROM (PROM), etc. The BIOS 106 code indicates the sequence of the boot operations. The operating system 110 may comprise a suitable operating system, such as a Microsoft® Windows® operating system, Linux™, Apple® Macintosh®, etc. (Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation, Apple and Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., and Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds). It is appreciated that the controller 25 may comprise any computing device known in the art, and any suitable CPU or processor 104 or operating system may be used.
The described operations of the computer may be implemented as a method, apparatus or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques to produce software, firmware, hardware, or any combination thereof. The term “article of manufacture” as used herein refers to code or logic implemented in a tangible medium, where such tangible medium may comprise hardware logic (e.g., an integrated circuit chip, Programmable Gate Array (PGA), Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), etc.) or a computer readable medium, such as magnetic storage medium (e.g., hard disk drives, floppy disks, tape, etc.), optical storage (CD-ROMs, optical disks, etc.), volatile and non-volatile memory devices (e.g., EEPROMs, ROMs, PROMs, RAMs, DRAMs, SRAMs, firmware, programmable logic, etc.). Code in the computer readable medium may be accessed and executed by a processor. The tangible medium in which the code or logic is encoded may also comprise transmission signals propagating through space or a transmission media, such as an optical fiber, copper wire, etc. The transmission signal in which the code or logic is encoded may further comprise a wireless signal. Additionally, the “article of manufacture” may comprise a combination of hardware and software components in which the code is embodied, processed, and executed. Of course, those skilled in the art will recognize that many modifications may be made to this configuration without departing from the scope of the present description, and that the article of manufacture may comprise any suitable information bearing medium.
The foregoing description of various embodiments has been presented for the purposes of illustration. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit to the precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings.
Claims
1. A device comprising:
- a book including a plurality of pages having text and pictures thereon;
- a controller mounted on the book;
- a toy including a speaker positioned therein;
- a connection mechanism adapted to electrically couple the book to the toy, the connection mechanism also adapted to physically secure the book to the toy; and
- wherein the controller is adapted to transmit a signal to the speaker in the toy, through the connection mechanism, in response to activation of at least one switch in the book.
2. A device according to claim 1:
- wherein the switch is adapted to be activated by the application of a sufficient pressure to a location on a page that includes at least one of the text and pictures;
- wherein the controller includes memory;
- wherein in response to activation of the switch, the controller accesses information from the memory, the information related to the at least one of the text and pictures at the location on the page; and
- wherein the signal directs the speaker to play at least one of speech and music related to the information.
3. A device according to claim 1, further comprising a power supply positioned in the toy.
4. A device according to claim 1, wherein the book further includes a front cover and a back cover, the device further comprising a plurality of pressure switches positioned in the front cover and in the back cover
5. A device according to claim 1, wherein the connection mechanism comprises a plurality of snap connectors, each snap connector including a male shaped portion and a female shaped portion.
6. A device according to claim 5, wherein the connection mechanism includes two snap connectors coupling the toy and front cover, and two snap connectors coupling the toy and back cover.
7. A device according to claim 6, wherein one of the front cover and the back cover includes two male portions of the snap connectors, and the other of the front cover and the back cover includes two female portions of the snap connectors.
8. A device according to claim 4, wherein the toy comprises an animal shape having arms and legs, and wherein the connection mechanism is attached to the arms.
9. A device according to claim 1, wherein the connection mechanism is adapted to permit repeated connection and disconnection of the book and toy.
10. A device comprising:
- a book including front and back covers and a plurality of pages including text and pictures relating to a story;
- a plurality of switches in each of the front and back covers, wherein the switches are activated by the application of a sufficient pressure to various locations on the pages;
- a controller mounted on the book;
- a toy in the form of an animal;
- a speaker positioned within the toy;
- a power supply positioned within the toy;
- a connection mechanism adapted to electrically couple the book to the toy, the connection also adapted to physically secure the book to the toy; and
- wherein the controller is adapted to transmit a signal to the speaker in the toy, through the connection, in response to activation of one or more of the switches.
11. A device according to claim 10:
- wherein the controller includes memory;
- wherein in response to activation of one of the switches, the controller accesses information in the memory, the information related to the at least one of the text and pictures at the location on the page wherein sufficient pressure was applied; and
- wherein the signal directs the speaker to play at least one of speech and music related to the information.
12. A device according to claim 10, wherein the connection mechanism comprises a plurality of snap connectors, each snap connector including a male shaped portion and a female shaped portion.
13. A device according to claim 12, wherein the connection mechanism includes two snap connectors coupling the toy and front cover, and two snap connectors coupling the toy and back cover.
14. A device according to claim 13, wherein one of the front cover and the back cover includes two male portions of the snap connectors, and the other of the front cover and the back cover includes two female portions of the snap connectors.
15. A device according to claim 13, further comprising a plurality of additional switches, the additional switches being magnetically activated switches, wherein the additional switches are adapted to transmit a signal to the controller when the pages are turned.
16. A method comprising:
- physically securing a book to a toy through a connection mechanism comprising a first portion connected to the toy and a second portion connected to the book;
- applying power to a controller on the book, the power being transmitted through a first portion of the connection mechanism;
- applying pressure to a position on a page in the book and transmitting an input signal to the controller on the book in response to the pressure applied to the position on the page in the book; and
- generating an output signal in the controller on the book in response to the input signal, and delivering the output signal through a second portion of the connection mechanism to a speaker positioned in the toy.
17. A method according to claim 16:
- wherein the page in the book includes at least one of text and pictures relating to a story;
- wherein the controller includes memory;
- wherein the generating an output signal in the controller comprises accessing information related to the story from the memory, the information related to the at least one of text and pictures at the position on the page where the pressure was applied; and
- wherein the output signal directs the speaker to play at least one of speech and music related to the information.
18. A method according to claim 16, further comprising using a plurality of snap connectors as the connection mechanism and coupling a first portion of each of the snap connectors to the toy and a second portion of each of the snap connectors to the book.
19. A method according to claim 16, further comprising removing the book from the toy and positioning another book on the toy.
20. A method according to claim 16, further comprising sensing a page turn in the book using a magnetic sensor positioned in the book.
Type: Application
Filed: Oct 20, 2005
Publication Date: Apr 26, 2007
Inventors: Abbey Blaszczyk (Los Angeles, CA), John Sosoka (Eagle, ID)
Application Number: 11/255,449
International Classification: A63H 33/38 (20060101);