CN101321566A

CN101321566A - Interactive acoustic toy

Info

Publication number: CN101321566A
Application number: CNA2005800522000A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 阿尔内·舒尔策
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2005-12-02
Filing date: 2005-12-02
Publication date: 2008-12-10
Anticipated expiration: 2025-12-02
Also published as: EP1962981A1; JP2009517717A; EP1962981A4; WO2007064333A1; CN101321566B

Abstract

A sound-producing toy configured to represent a living being having movable parts to simulate a natural form of animation of a mouth includes a sound-producing unit (20) operable in response to the simulated animation. Animation may be simulated by a hand inserted in the toy, by operation of an actuator incorporated in the toy, or by a remote control device. The apparatus includes a switch (18) that activates a sound-producing unit (20), which produces a sequence of syllables that is capable of being synchronized with the animation of the mouth (15). The onset, coda, and duration of each syllable's nucleus is controlled by the user of the toy with the ability to synchronize visual animation and the vocal performance of a familiar song, poem, or other series of verbal audio events divided into individual syllables, in a totally realistic manner.; In another aspect of the invention, a musical instrumental sequenced performance may be synchronized with the vocal presentation and the synchronized visual animation of the toy.

Description

Interactive acoustic toy

Technical field

[1] the present invention relates generally to produce audio frequency in response to excitation, more specifically relate to for example manually the blockhead's of control action fully synchronously produce discernible voice or serial voice.

Background technology

[2] have mouth or relative motion member and can send the novel product of voice, for example greeting card, toy and puppet etc. are well-known in the art.One of main purpose of these products is to the such impression of user: promptly when mouth or jaw portion move by the user, this product will " be spoken " or " singing " along with the motion reality of mouth or jaw portion, so the control more accurately of the speech events that toy or puppet are produced is provided to the user.

[3] for example, the U.S. Patent No. 4,768,232 that licenses to Milner discloses a kind of hand-held blockhead, and described blockhead is constituted as and plays the part of a kind of being with the moving component that can manually control, thus the action of some forms of imitation blockhead mouth.Described blockhead is provided with sound-producing device.The sensor of light-sensitive cell form is installed in blockhead's mouth,, thereby produces the signal of expression mouth motion by the variation that detects light because manually the blockhead's of control action light that photocell is received changes.Frequency generator is created in the voice signal that has the pseudorandom change frequency in the audiorange, and described frequency generator comprises in response to the voltage controlled oscillator from the voltage of output counter.Voice signal is put on modulator and be used to modulate the signal that produces by photocell, thereby produce the audio signal of the amplitude (volume) of the motion change that has the high component of pseudorandom variation sound of the motion control that is not subjected to hand and can whip.When putting on loudspeaker, will produce such as pseudo-clear imitation sound such as quack sound or barks.The user of puppet can sound, and the volume of this sound matches with manual control part.The sound that sends is not the voice or the singing sound of any type of language that can understand of imitation.

[4] U.S. Patent No. 5,651,716 that licenses to people such as Mowrer discloses a kind of doll of sound modulation, described doll comprise can open and closing position between the resilient jaws portion member that move.Jaw portion member is by using manual rod-type actuator operated.Described toy also comprises the phonation unit with loudspeaker.The toy operation person promotes hand switch, thereby starts phonation unit to send the sound that can hear.When the jaw portion member of doll was closed, near the silencer that is installed in the loudspeaker can be eliminated sound, and when jaw portion member was opened, the feasible all basically sound of described silencer sent from loudspeaker.

[5] U.S. Patent No. 5,447,461 that licenses to Liao discloses a kind of sounding hand puppet, and it comprises the gloves that had on by the performing artist and is fixed on mouth manipulation device in the head of puppet gloves.Be installed in sound generator in the puppet by the operation start of imitation puppet mouth open mouth manipulation device.This operation produces the sound of imitation animal or human's cry.

[6] U.S. Patent No. 6,394,874 that licenses to people such as Kubo discloses a kind of sounding finger puppet that can one-handed performance.Described puppet is included in the phonation unit that passes through to promote pushbutton enable of puppet inside.Described puppet does not comprise the jaw portion member of motion.

[7] U.S. Patent No. 5,471,192 that licenses to Dash discloses a kind of animal doll that comprises sensor and phonation circuit, for example cat.As user during, can control the output wave of waveform by the user by " showing tender care for " doll stimulus sensor.The sound that obtains is " Lu Lu " sound or the grunt of the vibration that can hear.The feature of continuous oscillation waveform does not change; Have only the amplitude of sound to change.Dash does not have open or proposes to send the language that can understand with the movable part of doll.

[8] above-mentioned all devices combine with sound by the action form with doll, some reality scenes are added in the recreation of doing with doll again, and the experience of pleasant just is provided for the user.

[9] yet, these one type of prior art syringe do not provide any type of simultaneous voice sequence content for the action of toy or other novelty article.In real world, when the user handled the mouth of product or jaw portion member, mouth can open very short time or long period, and perhaps between between the two, this depends on user's excitement or the type of the recreation played.Therefore, for real simulation physical action and speech sound synchronously, the phonation unit of product should respond the action event of different length, thereby sound begins to send when the unlatching of the mouth of doll or jaw portion element, and during the opening of mouth or jaw portion element, continue, when mouth or jaw portion element are closed, finish naturally then, and the ending of natural syllable and sound when closing as speaker or chanteur's mouth natural voice or sing and decay.

[10] thereby, the novel product that needs a kind of sounding for a long time, it can really combine synchronous voice and action, described novel product can provide a kind of product in fact in the impression of " speaking " or " singing ", this is because each syllable of voice just begins to send when in a single day product moves, and, and the most important thing is and to finish naturally as long as action just continues continuously always.

[11] no matter the above-mentioned patent of neither one is to have described the open and claimed content of the present invention as can be seen separately or with their combinations.

Summary of the invention

[12] therefore, the purpose of this invention is to provide a kind of novel product or doll with movable member, when making the motion of described movable member, described novel product or doll can send language or song, send thereby imitation sound is moving link from product.

[13] another object of the present invention provides a kind of novel product or doll with movable member, and along with the described movable member of product is unlocked, keeps opening and closing, described novel product or doll fully synchronously send language or song.

[14] another object of the present invention provides a kind of novel product or doll with head, and described head has movable member, thereby by making described movable member activity, just can start the speech syllable of pre-recording.

[15] another object of the present invention provides a kind of novel product or doll, when the mouth unlatching of described product, when keeping opening and closing, described novel product or doll have between each syllable section and action controlled sound synchronously, and even thereby, just can start visually correct sound performance by controlling the speed of the sound performance of each syllable section fully.

[16] another object of the present invention provides a kind of novel product or doll with mouth and phonation unit, and described phonation unit uses continuable synthetic again circulation vowel, and the duration of all syllables is manually controlled by the performing artist in described vowel.

[17] another object of the present invention provides a kind of occasionally novel product of object for appreciation with mouth and phonation unit, in described phonation unit, mouth by manually opened and closed product, can start and control the speech events sequence, thereby be that each and each syllable produces action sequence, described syllable is by sending in speech in the digital voice file of pre-recording or the song.

[18] can realize these and other objects by the present invention, wherein, broadly say, the present invention provides sound-producing device a kind of and that the toy puppet form uses together for the user, described puppet have can echomotism manual components, thereby the synchronous controlled sound performance of action with the manual control of puppet is provided.The present invention includes switch, described switch is constituted as and produces signal when the particular hand dynamic component moves, and starts the phonation unit that is installed in the toy.Phonation unit produces audio event, and when being applied to loudspeaker, described audio event is sent can be by the motion control of hand and the sound that cooperates with the action of puppet.

[19] in a preferred embodiment of the invention, in the mouth of doll, switch is installed.The phonation unit of described switch activated speech chip form stores the audio event of a lot of word forms on described speech chip, described word is made of syllable.Then, syllable constitutes by being called joint subsonics joint unit first and the rhythm body usually.The rhythm body can also be further defined as has the single phoneme that is called the head vowel of a final and the ending of a final, and they are the minimum units in the phonetic analysis.When starting these syllable sections successively, they send discernible word, phrase, poem or song by the loudspeaker that is installed in the doll.Therefore, each syllable is made up of three different syllable sections: 1) The initial segment is called " joint is first ", starts when the mouth of doll is opened described " joint is first "; 2) the continuable synthetic again circulation head vowel of a final, promptly the central segment of syllable just continues as long as mouth is opening described " head vowel of a final "; 3) and ending segment, can be the ending of a final, perhaps be the finishing naturally of the head vowel of a final of front under many circumstances, described ending segment starts when mouth is closed and ending up naturally of syllable rhythm body is provided.

[20] source voltage control circuit produces the operating voltage that is used to realize electronic circuit of the present invention.Described control circuit is configured in response to the signal by the switch generation.

[21] major advantage of the present invention can be realized by toy for children or other entertainment device of the movable member with the sound action of imitation.By the present invention, the performing artist can send the discernible speech events of the synchronized movement of real and toy or device.

[22] another advantage of the present invention is, no matter the time that motion spent of mouth parts, discernible speech events is all synchronous with the motion of playing the mouth moving component that occasionally installs, promptly, no matter the motion of mouth parts is finished rapidly or lentamente, need not regulate any parts of toy, the motion of mouth parts and the sound performance realization true synchronization of sending from doll.

[23] from conjunction with the accompanying drawings to being clear that other purpose of the present invention and advantage more the following explanation of preferred embodiment, Shuo Ming mode is described principle of the present invention by way of example.

[24]

Description of drawings

[25] by the reference accompanying drawing the preferred embodiments of the present invention are carried out following more detailed description, will be better understood aforementioned and other purpose, aspect and advantage of the present invention.In the accompanying drawings:

[26] Fig. 1 has represented that the present invention is applied to the reduced graph of the exemplary embodiment of puppet;

[27] Fig. 2 is that the form that the present invention produces is the schematic diagram of the speech events of word " cat ";

[28] Fig. 3 is the block diagram of phonation unit of the present invention;

[29] Fig. 4 is the schematic diagram that the present invention produces the speech events sequence; And

[30] Fig. 5 is that the form that the present invention produces is the schematic diagram of the speech events of word " book ".

The specific embodiment

[31] below of the present invention, in the explanation,,, wherein represented the description principle of the invention and how to have gone to realize exemplary embodiment of the present invention by diagram with reference to the accompanying drawing that constitutes a part of the present invention.Should be appreciated that other embodiments of the invention can be used to realize the present invention, and under the situation that does not deviate from scope of the present invention, can carry out the change of 26S Proteasome Structure and Function it.

[32] sound-producing device of the present invention is illustrated as the doll among Fig. 1, and described doll is expressed as Reference numeral 10 generally.Toy 10 comprises head 12, and it can adopt the form of being, for example is animal, imaginary image or people.In alternate embodiments of the present invention, head 12 can embed in the gloves (not shown), and described gloves can be worn on hand and use with the controlled hand puppet of any mouth.Head 12 comprises the mouth 15 with opposed resilient jaws portion member 14 and 16, and jaw portion member 14 and 16 can perhaps by hand being inserted head 12 inside, perhaps be carried out by means of the manual actuators that are installed in the head 12 by people's operation of the doll of playing.Jaw portion member 14 and 16 is biased (biased), thereby keeps adjacent one another are when their inertias usually.

[33] toy 10 also comprises phonation unit 20 as shown in Figure 3.Phonation unit 20 comprises speech chip 22, and memory 24 and processing unit 26 are installed on speech chip 22, and the form of memory 24 for example is storage chip, ROM box (cartridge) or RAM flash card.Memory 24 contains a plurality of speech events of having stored, and in a preferred embodiment of the invention, described speech events is made of the speech syllable of arranging successively, to send discernible song, poem or phrase.

[34] form of each audio event is the word with one or more syllables.Syllable is defined as sound unit, and it constitutes by central peak of sonority (being generally vowel) with around the consonant of central peak of sonority.

[35] syllable can also be further divided into the subsonics joint unit that is called joint head and rhythm body, and joint head is first (initial) section (being generally consonant) of syllable, the core of rhythm bodily form syllabication.The rhythm body can also be defined as being made of the head vowel of a final (syllable second section, be generally vowel) and the ending of a final (being generally consonant), and the head vowel of a final is the central segment of syllable, and the ending of a final is the 3rd and an ending segment of syllable.Thereby most of syllables can be defined as having three syllable sections, that is, and and The initial segment (joint is first), central segment (head vowel of a final) and ending segment (ending of a final).When syllable during with vowel ending, the 3rd section ending naturally that becomes the head vowel of a final.

[36] when starting these three syllable sections or a plurality of syllable section successively, they send discernible word, phrase, poem or song by loudspeaker 28.When the performing artist begins jaw portion member 14 by making mouth 15 and 16 motions and when manually making toy 10 movable, switch 18 sends signals to phonation unit 20, thereby starts the speech events that is stored in the sound chip 22.

[37] in an embodiment as shown in Figure 5 of the present invention, when jaw portion member 14 and 16 away from each other during the opening of motion mimics mouth 15, speech events begins, and in this example, speech events is monosyllabic " book ".Can hear the joint first 52 and the sufficiently long head vowel of a final 54 of pre-recording of syllable " book ".When speech events with jaw portion member 14 and 16 when each other motion finishes, the head vowel of a final 54 jumps (modified tone) to the initial head 60 of cross-fading that is positioned at the ending of a final 56 beginnings, and between the head vowel of a final 54 and the ending of a final 56, carry out level and smooth audio frequency cross-fading, this provides the natural sound decay of syllable sound, and its mode is similar to the sound that voice sends under equivalent environment.Cross-fading circulation 58 has two and limits the position, that is, and and initial head 60 and end head 62.

[38] Fig. 2 illustrates the present invention and how to produce speech events, and speech events is monosyllabic " cat " in this example.When jaw portion member 14 and 16 is started by the user, and the opening when moving away from each other of imitation mouth 15, switch 18 starts the first syllable section, and promptly sound is the joint head 38 of " caaa ".Keep the open while at mouth 15, the second syllable section, be that the head vowel of a final 42 of rhythm body 40 is followed smoothly after joint first 38, the head vowel of a final 42 finishes circulation and vibration between the head 48 at initial head 46 of circulation and circulation, as long as mouth 15 keeps opening and just makes vowel sound " ... aaaaaa... ".When the user make jaw portion member 14 and 16 the imitation mouths 15 closure towards each other near the time, the circulation that switch 18 stops the head vowel of a final 42 finishes head 48, make the triphone section, be that sound is that the ending of a final 44 of " t " is followed smoothly and finished syllable in complete and natural mode.

[39] continue to open and when closed jaw portion member 14 and 16, can hear syllable sequence, and " say " word of being familiar with of song, poem or phrase form by toy 10 as the user.The speech events sequence that is used for phrase " Mary had a little lamb " has been described among example below and Fig. 4.In this example, modified tone between the syllable section is with oblique line "/" expression, so the form of the complete sequence of audio event is " xxx/yyyyyy/zzz ", that is:

[opening one's mouth] Meh/eheheh/rrr[shuts up]-[opening one's mouth] Ree/eeeee/Eh[shuts up]-[opening one's mouth] Ha/ahahah/D[shuts up]-[opening one's mouth] Ah/ahahah/H[shuts up]-[opening one's mouth] Le/eee/H[shuts up]-[opening one's mouth] Tah/ahahah/L[shuts up]-[opening one's mouth] La/ahahah/M[shuts up]

[40] by a lot of different audio event sequences of storage in memory 24, the user can enjoy various experience by making toy 10 activities.The program selector switch 32 that is installed on the head 12 can allow the user select him or she to want the speech events sequence of listening.In one aspect of the invention, can be with different tones and/or the second or the 3rd and part, several different sequences of storage same song, thereby make user's semitone terrace or change the pitch (sample playback rate) of each independent syllable sample harmonically, rather than in memory 24 a plurality of DAB versions of record same song.Thereby the user can use program selector switch 32 to select the tone of singing songs, and can select to be used for the second or the 3rd and the optional sequence of part of same song.Selectively, chromatic scale pitch change-over switch 50 can add to and selects these options in the phonation unit 20.

[41] one of advantage of the present invention is, toy can have multiple sound.Described sound can be animal, imaginary image or people's sound, the women or the male sex's sound, and young man or the elderly's sound, and can have an accent or further feature.

[42] toy 10 also has good versatility, promptly can in memory 24, store specific to certain national speech events, be the Japanese audio incident when for example the present invention uses in Japan, perhaps when a lot of Latin American countries use, be the spanish audio incident.

[43] in another embodiment of the present invention, phonation unit 20 comprises the speech chip that has a plurality of polyphony, thereby it is synchronous to make the sequence of musical instrument play use and each audio event of (that is the guitar chord of, playing, lasting piano chord or lasting organ chord).Each chord can continue in a plurality of syllables, changes up to next chord.Instrument playing can produce from General MIDI PCM or FM voice bank (sound-bank)/DAB engine (digital-audio-engine).

[44] if one or more user has toy 10 on one or both hands, these toys can be used for singing together with chorus or many and part, thereby provide another kind of recreation experience for the user.

[45] memory 24 can be manufactured into encapsulation and remove from toy 10, and replaces with new memory, and described new memory comprises to be different from and is stored in the audio event of pre-recording that is removed on the unit.Like this, the user can have new audio event all the time and be not easy toy is become bored.

[46] type that produces the speech events of pre-recording that speech plays successively almost is unrestricted.The performance of pre-recording that it is contemplated that such as people's sound effective value, education song, children's folk rhymes, red-letter day song, popular song, animal sounds, spoken word, pray, poem or robot speak etc.

[47] in another embodiment of the present invention, the speech events that can be constituted as and be installed in the phonation unit on this greeting card such as novel products such as greeting cards is synchronous.Greeting card forepiece and back part can be worked in an identical manner with the movable jaw portion member of toy.When a people begins to open card, switch activated sounding, this has just begun speech events, and speech events can be worked as card and be continued when opening to play, and finishes smoothly in the mode that decays naturally together the time when the members close of card.

[48] for realize, diagram and illustrative purposes, exemplary embodiment of the present invention has been made foregoing description.But purpose be not exhaustive or limit the invention in the precise forms discussed above.Yet, also have other structure of the acoustic toy be not described specifically herein.Therefore, the present invention should not regarded as and be only limited to specific embodiment described herein; On the contrary, should be appreciated that the present invention is directed to acoustic toy has very wide application.Those skilled in the art can be based on herein descriptions and are obtained those other structures.Therefore, scope of the present invention is defined by the following claims.

Claims

1. sound-producing device, it comprises:

Toy with head, described head comprise a pair of opposed jaw portion member that can move between the second place of the primary importance of closure and unlatching;

Be arranged in the phonation unit of described toy, described phonation unit comprises the loudspeaker that is used for output audio, also comprises the single or multiple syllable speech events of pre-recording of any language or phonetic feature; And

Switch, it is used for starting selectively described phonation unit, thereby start at least one described syllable speech events, under the discontiguous each other situation of described jaw portion's member, the beginning of described syllable speech audio event and the motion of described jaw portion's member between the described primary importance and the second place fully truly and synchronous naturally

Wherein, when described jaw portion member returned described primary importance, each described syllable speech events was stopped by described switch in the mode of nature, and it is irrelevant that this and described jaw portion member return the length of described used time of primary importance.

2. sound-producing device according to claim 1, wherein each described syllable speech events also comprises:

First section, when described jaw portion member begins to move between the described primary importance and the described second place, described first section by described switch activated, the described first period duration is controlled by the user;

Second section, it is after described first section, as long as described jaw portion member is in the described second place, described second section just continues; And

The 3rd section, its after described second section, when described jaw portion member returns described primary importance, described the 3rd section by described switch activated, described the 3rd section provides natural sound attenuating for described syllable speech events.

3. sound-producing device according to claim 1 also comprises the manual actuator that makes described jaw portion component movement.

4. sound-producing device according to claim 1, wherein said toy also comprises body.

5. sound-producing device according to claim 1, wherein said jaw portion member is biased in described primary importance usually.

6. sound-producing device according to claim 1 also comprises the program selector switch.

7. sound-producing device according to claim 1, wherein said phonation unit also comprise a plurality of audio frequency programming events of pre-recording, and the form of the described audio frequency programming events of pre-recording is speech or the capable sequence of speech melody that is divided into single manual control syllable.

8. sound-producing device according to claim 7, wherein the capable sequence of each described speech melody also comprises the performance with the synchronous musical accompaniment of the capable sequence of described speech melody.

9. sound-producing device according to claim 1 also comprises chromatic scale pitch change-over switch.

10. sound-producing device, it comprises:

The hand covering, it is constituted as and is worn over the interior people of hand puppet on hand;

Phonation unit, it is arranged in described hand covering, and described phonation unit comprises the loudspeaker that is used for output audio, also comprises the syllable speech events of pre-recording; And

Switch, it is used for starting selectively described phonation unit, thereby the motion in response to hand begins at least one described syllable speech events, do not need the contact between thumb and other finger, the motion initial sum motion that the thumb of described syllable speech events and hand and other are pointed between the second place of the primary importance of closure and unlatching continues synchronously

Wherein, when described thumb and finger returned described primary importance, each described syllable speech events was stopped by described switch, and it is irrelevant that this and described jaw portion member return the length of described used time of primary importance.

11. sound-producing device according to claim 10, wherein each described syllable speech events also comprises:

The 3rd section, its after described second section, when described jaw portion member returns described primary importance, described the 3rd section by described switch activated, described the 3rd section sound attenuating that nature is provided for described syllable speech events.

12. sound-producing device according to claim 10 also comprises the program selector switch.

13. sound-producing device according to claim 10, wherein said phonation unit also comprise a plurality of audio program incidents of pre-recording of speech or the capable sequence form of speech melody.

14. sound-producing device according to claim 13, wherein the capable sequence of each described speech melody also comprises the performance with the synchronous musical accompaniment of the capable sequence of described speech melody.

15. sound-producing device according to claim 10 also comprises chromatic scale pitch change-over switch.

16. sound-producing device according to claim 2, wherein said first section is that joint is first, and described second section is the head vowel of a final, and described the 3rd section is the ending of a final.

17. sound-producing device according to claim 3, wherein the form of each speech events is the word with one or more syllables.

18. sound-producing device according to claim 4, wherein each described syllable comprises:

Central authorities' peak of sonority; And

A plurality of consonants around described central peak of sonority.

19. sound-producing device according to claim 1, the repeating motion of wherein said jaw portion member produce the synchronous discernible word of repeating motion with described jaw portion member.

20. sound-producing device according to claim 1, the repeating motion of wherein said jaw portion member produce the synchronous discernible phrase of repeating motion with described jaw portion member.