GB2234840A

GB2234840A - Automatic baby calmer

Info

Publication number: GB2234840A
Application number: GB8914004A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Frederich Henry Wright
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1989-06-17
Filing date: 1989-06-17
Publication date: 1991-02-13
Also published as: GB8914004D0

Abstract

A baby calmer, comprising a source of sound (8) or (11) adapted to calm a baby. The sound is automatically produced when the baby's crying is detected, and continues for a sufficient time to ensure the baby is lulled to sleep. The sound is then turned off. The crying detector is then muted for a time long enough to ensure that a genuine cry of distress is not ignored by the parents. <IMAGE>

Description

Automatic Baby Calming Aid This invention relates to an automatic baby calming aid, comprising a sound source adapted to calm a baby.

There are on the market tapes simulating intra-uterine sounds for calming babies. There are also electronic simulations and synthesisers capably of producing suitable sounds.

These devices must be switched on manually. Also the sounds are produced only during the time that the tape or synthesiser plays for, entailing manual attention at the end of that time.

The essence of the present invention is to produce a baby calmer which improves on these existing methods. In order to satisfy this object, the present invention is characterised by a sound source adapted to calm a baby, a sound detection circuit which listens for the sounds of a crying baby, and a switching device adapted to turn on the calming sound source.

The sound source may take the form of a tape, record, or sound synthesiser. The sound continues for a variable time, previously selected, then switches off to minimise energy consumption.

Once the sound source is turned on, the invention will disregard any further sounds until it has timed out. This avoids the case where further sounds during the timed period switch off the calming sound.

A useful feature is a means whereby the calming sound volume gradually builds up when the device turns on. This avoids a sudden onset of noise further upsetting or alarming the baby. Furthermore, the calming sound volume may be gradually reduced in volume at the end of the timed period.

This should ensure that a sudden end to the sound does not disturb or wake the baby up.

A second useful feature, in the case of a tape being utilised, is that the sound source takes the form of a recording of a parent's voice.

A further refinement is to disable the sound detector for a period after the calming sound has stopped, the quiescent period. This ensures that the sound source cannot be used as a substitute for a parents attention by attempting to continually calm the baby if it is genuinely distressed, in pain etc.

The device will then again listen for the baby crying before turning the calming sound source on again.

The essence of the present invention therefore is to produce a baby calmer which listens for the sounds of a crying baby. The device then switches on a sound source which is adapted to calm the baby.

The device is desired to be easy to handle, compact, have a variable ontime, and a variable or fixed quiescent period. It should minimise energy consumption enabling battery power to be utilised.

In order to satisfy these criteria, the present invention is characterised by a generator for producing calming sounds; a microphone and amplifier to detect a baby's crying; means by which the sound generator is turned on by the crying sounds; a variable timer to control the time for which the calming sounds are produced; and a variable timer to control the time for which the sound detector is quiescent, or disabled.

A specific embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing in which: Figure 1 shows a block diagram of the invention.

Referring to the block diagram, the invention is powered by battery (1) although it could also be powered from an external mains supply, (not shown).

A microphone (2) detects the crying sounds. These are amplified and filtered by amplifier (3) and filter (4). The filtering is to ensure that only the wanted crying sounds are allowed to pass.

The signal is then detected at (5). Stage (6) delays and stores the signal for a short time. This ensures that transient sounds, eg doors slamming, do not start the calming sound.

Variable timer (7) is started after the delay. This starts the calming sound source (8) which is subsequently used to drive speaker (10) via amplifier (9).

The calming sound may alternatively come from source (11) also started by timer (7).

The calming sound source may be a tape recording of relaxing sounds, "womb sounds", white noise, a melody generator, or other convenient and suitable sound sources.

When timer (7) has ended its preset time, the sound source is turned off.

Timer (12) is now started. This operates a muting circuit (13) preventing the signal from the microphone passing through amplifier (3). This ensures that further crying sounds do not operate the calming sound source for a period set by timer (12). So in the event that the baby continues to cry as a genuine distress call, the parents should attend to it, and it is not continually being calmed by the device described here.

Claims

1 An automatic baby calming aid comprised of a sound detector adapted to listen for a baby's crying sounds; means for filtering and rejecting unwanted sounds; a sound detection circuit; a timer triggered by said filtered crying sounds; a sound source, or sources, producing sounds adapted to calm a baby, the period of which being controlled by said timer; means for making the calming sounds audible; and a timer adapted to disable the sound detector to reduce the probability of a genuine cry of distress being overlooked.

2 An automatic baby calming aid in accordance with claim 1, characterised in that said means for selecting crying sounds comprises a microphone (2), amplifier (3) and filtering (4).

3 An automatic baby calming aid in accordance with either claim 1 or claims2, characterised in that a detection circuit (5), and a delay circuit (6), is provided to reject unwanted transient sounds, capable of falsely operating the following stages.

4 An automatic baby calming aid in accordance with any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that a timer circuit (7) is provided for maintaining the said calming noise levels for a variable time-period, preferably in the range from 2 to 10 minutes.

5 An automatic baby calming aid in accordance with the preceding claim, characterised in that timer (7) will reject any further detected sounds until it has completed its timing cycle.

6 An automatic baby calming aid in accordance with any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that means (8) or (11) is adapted to produce said calming sounds.

7 An automatic baby calming aid in accordance with any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that means is provided for converting said calming sounds into audio noise by means of amplifier (9), and transducer (10).

8 An automatic baby calming aid in accordance with any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that timer (12), is provided, and by means of circuit (13), disables the said sound detector for a fixed or variable period, thereby reducing the probability of a genuine cry of distress being overlooked.

9 An automatic baby calming aid substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawing.