GB2245094A

GB2245094A - Talking parrot toy

Info

Publication number: GB2245094A
Application number: GB9109324A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Rodney Lamb; Leonard Scott Pritchard
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1990-05-25
Filing date: 1991-04-30
Publication date: 1991-12-18
Also published as: GB9011819D0; GB9109324D0

Abstract

A toy which produces recorded speech or sound for the entertainment of the animal, in the hope of ensuring a mental well-being of the animal, and encouraging mimicry in suitable animals. The embodiment incorporates audio triggering (which can be by the animal), and a metal mirror, and is designed to mount on a bird cage.

Description

TALKING PARROT TOY This is an electronic toy for a parrot or similar pet that plays recorded speech to the animal.

Existing bird toys tend to be passive, eg bells.

Bored animals may damage themselves or their surroundings, eg parrots may pluck their own feathers.

The device described can include the facility to record and to play back the owner's voice and phrases, and/ or the facility to play back pre-recorded phrases. There are a number of possible methods of activation, audio triggering has been chosen for the embodiment attached but some possible triggering mechanisms are as follows :1 > By an audio signal eg a parrot's screech.

2 > By a time delay.

3 > By mechanical displacement ie tilt or vibration.

4 > By manual triggering.

5 > By pressure.

6 > At random.

7 > By continuous operation.

8 > By proximity detection. eg sonic, thermal, or by light beam interruption.

The embodiment described consists of a solid state circuit, a loudspeaker, a microphone and batteries all housed in a stainless steel, mirror finished box for hanging close to the parrot eg on the cage. Other embodiments could include, perches, feed/ water dishes, model birds etc., in addition to or instead of the mirror, or housings mounted beneath or away from the cage, or as an integral part of the cage or stand.

Other recording means could be substituted, also other means of power supply and sound emission, and the requirement for a microphone is dependent on the triggering mechanism and on the device's ability to record.

DESCRIPTION OF THE CIRCUITRY The current implementation is solid state using digitised speech on RAM and PROM.

The circuit is designed around the UM5100 voice recording and playback I.C. which has 2 modes; a) it can sample an analogue input and produce a digital representation of this for storage in RAM (record mode).

b) it can accept a digital input from ROM or RAM and produce an analogue output (play mode).

Referring to the circuit diagram, fig 1, the voice to be recorded is picked up by an electret microphone and amplified and filtered by I.C. 2/2. This output is fed to one arm of a comparitor, I.C.2/1 the other input of which comes from the differential amplifier I.C.2/3 which is supplied with the outputs of the Us5100. In this way the output from the comparitor is dependent on the difference between the approximation to the input signal produced by the UM5100 and the input signal itself. This is a necessary requirement for the method of sampling used by this I.C.

The sampling frequency is set by resistor 2, variable resistor 1 and capacitor 2 ; the UM5100 produces all the necessary control signals for direct connection to the static RAM I.C. 5. These control signals consist of address, data, write enable and output enable.

The record sequence is started by bringing pin 34 of the UM5100 to ground by switch 3.

Transistor 1 and transistor 2 provide a method of turning off sections of the circuit when it is not in use to save on power consumption.

The ground connection to I.C.1, I.C.2, I.C.3 and I.C.6 are all connected to the collector of transistor 2 which is at +VI when the circuit is not in record or playback mode. When either of these functions is selected this point is connected to ground and the whole circuit is activated (the UM5100 is reset by resistor 1 and capacitor 1). At the end of the recorder playback cycle address 14 goes high, turning off transistor 1 and transistor 2 thus putting the circuit back in its quiescent state.

To enter playback mode pin 17 of the UM5100 is connected to ground by either switch 4 or the output of I.C. 4 via transistor 3. This I.C.

also gets input from the microphone and is activated by frequencies at a set range user selectable by resistor 36.

In playback mode the UM5100 reads data from RAM or PROM and produces an analogue output from I.C. 2/3 as before, but this is then filtered by I.C. 2/4 before being fed to the audio amplifier I.C. 3. The data is available from RAM or PROM so that pre-recorded phrases can be played as well as the user's own voice.

S.W. 1/2 selects the mode of operation In position (a) the circuit can only be activated by the buttons SW 3 and SW4, ie triggering by a whistle is disabled.

In position (b) the unit can be triggerd by the buttons or by a whistle but only plays the recording stored in RAM.

In position (c) the unit again can be triggerd by both methods as in (b) but a random selection of messages from RAM or ROM is played. This is achieved by I.C. 7 which is a counter, three of whose outputs select a different message, four from ROM and one from RAM by switching between chip enables and selecting between the top two address lines of the ROM.

The record function can be entered whatever the switch position and the play button always selects the user message.

The power supply is 4 x 1.5 volt batteries or 4 nicad cells; diode 5 and diode 6 provide protection against accidental polarity reversal.

Claims

1. Recorded audio signals for the purpose of the entertainment of a pet.

2. Triggering of the device as claimed in claim 1 by means of reception of an externally produced audio signal, eg the pet's call.

3. Triggering of the device as claimed in claim 1 by means of vibration detection.

4. Triggering of the device as claimed in claim 1 by means of physical displacement of part or the whole of the device.

5. Triggering of the device as claimed in claim 1 by means of proximity detection.

6. Triggering of the device as claimed in claim 1 by manual means.

7. Triggering of the device as claimed in claim 1 by means of a time delay.

8. Triggering of the device as claimed in claim 1 by random means.

9. Housing of the device as claimed in claims 1 to 8 in a housing that includes at least one mirrored or partially mirrored surface.

10. Housing of the device as claimed in claims 1 to 8 in a housing that is part of, or provides fixings to the animal's enclosure or stand.

11. Housing of the device as claimed in claims 1 to 8 in a housing that incorporates the animal's feeding or water dispensers.

12. Housing of the device as claimed in claims 1 to 8 in a housing remote from the animal but so placed as to promote interaction.

13. Housing of the device as claimed in claims 1 to 8 in a housing that would incorporate a perch for the animal.

14. Housing of the device as claimed in claims 1 to 8 in a housing that constitutes a toy for the said animal.

15. The circuit described in the embodiment or any substantial subset or superset of that circuit.

16. Variation based on the circuit described in the embodiment.

17. An animal toy substantially as discribed herein.