GB2201068A - Speaking toy - Google Patents

Abstract

A toy eg a doll or animal incorporates a receiver adapted to reproduce sound from a transmitter so that the plaything seems to talk. The transmitter derives speech from a microphone or tape player and passes it, via an infrared, radio or ultrasound link, to the receiver inside the toy. A monostable 4 is intended to pass a signal at a substantially constant level to the speaker 7 irrespective of the strength of the received signal, i.e. the distance between receiver and transmitter. <IMAGE>

Description

SOUND REPRODUCING PLAYTHING AND SYSTEM This invention relates to a sound reproducing plaything and a sound reproduction system including such a plaything.

Playthings in the form of dolls or toy animals which emit sounds when manipulated in a certain way are known, but suffer from the disadvantage of a relatively limited sound production range.

Playthings are also known which contain pre-recorded sounds and means to replay the sounds, for example a magnetic tape player arranged to play pre-recorded tape cassettes introduced into the plaything. Such playthings suffer from the disadvantage that they must be of relatively large size in order to be able to contain all of the essential tape playing apparatus and a power supply therefor.

Aplaything which is very popular is a doll which is of such a size that it is not feasible to contain a tape playing apparatus therein, and thus it has so far been found impossible to make this doll more lifelike by enabling such a doll to produce sounds, for example speech with a wide vocabulary and knowledge.

A sound reproducing plaything comprising a body containing a receiving signal circuit including a detector (1) adapted to receive a signal transmitted from a remote transmitter (8) and to convert the signal to an electric signal to activate a loudspeaker (7) to emit an acoustic signal 3aracterised in that a monostable (4) is present between the detector (1) and the loudspeaker (7) and is adapted to pass a signal at a substantially constant level from the diode~(1) to the loudspeaker (7).

With the plaything of this invention the body need contain only the receiver and a power supply theref or, for example a battery, and thus can be of a relatively small size while being able to reproduce any sounds, for example speech, transmitted thereto. The plaything of the invention can therefore be a doll or toy animal of relatively small size, which is much more lifelike than a comparable doll or animal in that it is able to reproduce any speech or sounds transmitted thereto.

The signal transmitted to the receiver can be transmitted in any convenient manner, but is preferably transmitted in a wireless manner whereby no restrictions are placed on the plaything apart from being necessary for it to remain within the range of the transmitter. Thus, the signal can be transmitted using radio frequency or ultrasonic transmission, but is preferably transmitted in the form of a modulated light signal, more preferably in the infrared region.

Also according to this invention there is provided a sound reproduction system comprising a plaything according to the invention and a transmitter operative to transmit the signal to the plaything.

The transmitter can include a magnetic tape player or a microphone from which the signal is derived whereby the plaything can reproduce either sounds pre-recorded on a tape and played by the tape player, a signal being taken from a line output of the player, or sounds as directly entered into the microphone. Thus, with such a system a child can listen to a story apparently being told to it by a plaything, for example a doll, the story either being pre-recorded on a magnetic tape - or being told directly to the transmitter by another person.

This invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the drawings in which: Figure 1 is a block diagram of a receiver for use in a plaything according to Ehe invention; Figure 2 is a block diagram of a transmitter for use with the plaything of Figure 1 to provide-a-sound reproduction system according to the invention; Figure 3 is a circuit diagram of the receiver of Figure 1; Figure 4is a circuit diagram of the transmitter of Figure 2; and Figure 5 is a circuit diagram of another receiver.

The receiver comprises a light responsive diode 1 which in use would be located in or on a plaything to receive a frequency modulated pulse light signal in the infrared region from a remote transmitter. The diode 1 and the transmitter are matched spectrally.

The output signal from the diode 1, which is of the order of microvolts is passed by way of an amplifier 2 where it is boosted to a level of about 0.5 to 1V RXS, to a pulse shaper 3 in the form of a comparator with built-in hysteresis where it is shaped to be suitable for triggering a monostable 4 which has a period of about 6.9 microseconds.

The monostable 4 thus produces a 6.9 ms pulse for each pulse in the received signal and in this way follows the received frequency modulated pulse signal. The pulse signal from the monostable 4 is demodulated in a demodulator 5 which operates to reduce dramatically the level of the carrier (50 KHz) and leave an audio frequency signal which after amplification in an amplifier 6 is used to drive a loudspeaker 7 which thus emits the required acoustic signal.

The use of the monostable 4 is a feature of the invention which ensures that the output of the receiver will be constant irrespective of the strength of the received signal, that is of the distance between the receiver and the transmitter of the received signal. The output will be either present at full volume or not at all since if the received signal fails to reach the threshold used in the comparator/pulse shaper 3, the output will be zero.

Figure 3 shows a detailed circuit diagram of the receiver of Figure 1 with the various parts of the circuit identified by reference numerals used in Figure 1.

Referring now to Figure 2, this shows a transmitter for use in trasmitting a signal to the receiver of Figures 1 and 3, the transmitter comprising a microphone 8 and/or a line input 9 for connection to the headphone output of a magnetic tape player. The output signal from the microphone 8 is passed by way of an amplifier 10 which serves to boost the signal to the level found at input 9 (0.5 to 2V RMS).

The signal from either the microphone 8 or the input 9 is supplied to an oscillator 11 which is a free-running square-wave oscillator with a fundamental frequency of about 50 KHz and a mark-space ratio of 10 to 1, the signal from the microphone 8 or input 9 serving to modulate the signal from the oscillator il.to achieve a peak frequency modulation of around 4 or - 10% of the 50 KHz fundamental carrier frequency. The mark space ratio selected ensures that the power consumption is low.

The output of the oscillator 11 is used to drive one or more light emitting diodes 12 operating in the infrared region, which thus transmit a modulated light signal for reception by the receiver of Figures 1 and 3.

Due to the mark-space ratio used the power consumption of the transmitter is low (approx mean current = lOmA) giving a long power supply (battery) life.

Figure 4 shows a detailed circuit diagram of the transmitter of Figure 2 with the various parts of the circuit identified by reference numerals used in Figure 2.

Figure 5 is a detailed circuit diagram which may be used as described, but has the advantage of containing two chips only.

The receiver described above can be contained in a doll of relatively small size, say 3 to 12 inches tall, i.e. 7cm to 30cm and the transmitter described above, which can have a range of about one metre, then used to transmit signals derived from speech input to the microphone or from a tape player, to the receiver where the signals will be reproduced through the loudspeaker to give the impression that the doll is speaking.

The light responsive diode can be a phototransistor or other device sensitive in the infra red region. The loudspeaker may be replaced by an earphone.

In another embodiment, two dolls can be made to seem to hold a conversation, For this, use may be made of a two channel or four channel cassette player. Teach doll is placed to receive a signal (or preferably a signal per channel) from its transmitter so that it appears to be speaking. It is preferred to use prerecorded tapes, carrying suitable dialogue.

Although the embodiments use an infra red transmission system, use may be made instead of visible light, ultrasonic and radio frequency signals.

Claims (16)

1. A sound reproducing plaything comprising a body containing a receiving signal circuit including a detector (1) adapted to receive a signal transmitted from a remote transmitter (8) and to convert the signal to an electric signal to activate a loudspeaker (7) to emit an acoustic signal characterised in that a monostable (4) is present between the detector (1) and the loudspeaker (7) and is adapted to pass a signal at a substantially constant level from the diode (1) to the loudspeaker (7).

2. A plaything as claimed in Claim 1, in which the receiver is operative to receive and convert a modulated light signal.

3. A plaything as claimed in Claim 2, in which the light signal is in the infrared region.

4. A plaything as claimed in Claim 1, in which the monostable produces a pulse for each pulse in the received signal to follow a received frequency modulated signal.

5. A plaything as claimed in any preceding Claim, in which the signal is supplied to an oscillator in the form of a square wave oscillator having a mark space ratio of about 10:1, whereby the power consumption is low.

6. A plaything as claimed in Claim 1, in which the receiver is operative to receive a modulated ultrasonic signal, or a radio frequency signal.

7. A plaything as claimed in any preceding Claim, in the form of a doll, toy animal or the like.

8. A sound reproduction system comprising a plaything as claimed in any preceding claim and a transmitter operative to transmit the signal to the plaything.

9. A system as claimed in Claim 8, in which the transmitter includes a magnetic tape player from which the signal is derived.

10. A system as claimed in Claim 9, in which the transmitter includes a microphone from which the signal is derived.

11. A system as claimed in any one of Claims 8 to 10 as dependent upon Claim 2 or Claim 3, in which the receiver includes a light responsive diode or other light sensitive detector which receives the signal, and the transmitter includes a light emitting diode which transmits the signal.

12. A system as claimed in Claim 11, in which the light emitting diode in the transmitter is driven by means of an oscillator the output signal from which is modulated by the sound to be reproduced as the acoustic signal by the receiver.

13. A system as claimed in any one of Claims 8 to 12, in which the receiver includes a loudspeaker which emits the acoustic signal.

14. A system as claimed in Claim 13 as dependent upon Claim 11, in which the signal received by the light responsive diode in the receiver is used to drive the loudspeaker by way of a demodulator.

15. A sound reproducing plaything as claimed in Claim 1, substantially as described with reference to any of the drawings.

16. A sound reproduction system substantially as described with reference to the drawings.