GB2264880A

GB2264880A - A childs toy.

Info

Publication number: GB2264880A
Application number: GB9304654A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Harold Ernest Hawkins
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1992-03-11
Filing date: 1993-03-08
Publication date: 1993-09-15
Also published as: GB9304654D0; GB9205242D0

Abstract

A child's toy (10) comprises a housing (11) carrying an array of commutable elements (12), such as rocker switches, press buttons and the like, and a similar array of indicator members (13), such as lights or buzzers, at least some of which can be operated by respective commutable elements. The commutable elements and associated indicators elements which they operate may be in the same or different positions in the two arrays and provide pleasure and educational benefit for a young child who commutes the elements and learns what happens. The indicator members, upon operation of the commutable elements, switch between two states of indication, either directly or gradually. The indicator members may be connected to the commutable elements by electrical circuitry which includes a computer operable to vary the connections between elements and members. <IMAGE>

Description

A CHILD'S TOY The present invention relates to a child's toy.

Very young children can gain amusement and learn from simple toys and the object of the present invention is to provide such a toy which is intended primarily for children in the age group from two to twelve year, but which can be modified and extended to make it suitable for older children.

Accordingly, the invention provides a child's toy comprising a plurality of commutable elements and a plurality of indicator members, each indicator member being operable by a commutable element to change its state of indication.

In its simplest form, the toy comprises a set of commutable elements, such as switches, and a corresponding set of indicator members, such as light bulbs, dials or audible indicators such as bells or buzzers which give different sounds, which may be provided on a common housing and interconnected so that a child can operate the switches to switch respective indicators on and off. Although very simple, a young child will gain pleasure and benefit simply from handling the switches and realising that, by operating them, he can sometimes cause something else to happen, i.e. the lights to go on and off or dials to move. Gradually, he will learn which switch operates which indicator and may then derive pleasure from selecting different light patterns.

The commutable elements may be of any desired form, such as push buttons, pressure switches, levers or rotary knobs, or one or more joysticks, and may be incorporated in an electrical circuit or a mechanical, hydraulic or other circuit to commute the indicator members, either directly or by remote control. Of course, there may also be some dummy switches which have no interconnection to any of the indicators and no functions. Such dummy or blind switches may be randomly distributed within the array. There may also be dummy indicators not connected to any of the switches.

The indicator members may be visual indicators, in which case they may be of light-emitting type commutable directly between two states in which they either emit light or do not emit light, or they may change gradually between states of minimum and maximum brightness.

Alternatively, they may change colour or shape due, for example, to a temperature change caused by the switching on and off of a heating element or the movement of a cover member between positions in which it covers and discloses differently coloured or shaped elements. A flap may be raised and lowered to different angles relative to a support surface or a rotary member may be caused to rotate or to stop. Any such movement may be caused by a direct mechanical linkage between the commutable element and the indicator member or may be effected hydraulically or pneumatically or, for example, by the movement of a magnet in a solenoid.

In alternative embodiments of the invention, the indicator member may be audible or may affect another of the senses. Movable flaps, as mentioned above, or buttons which can be raised above a surface or lowered to be flush with or beneath a supporting surface may, for example, be suitable for a toy for blind children. An indicator member which makes a noise may be operable independently or may be operated simultaneously with a visual or touch-sensitive indicator: indeed, various combinations of indicator changes may be effected simultaneously by operation of a given commutable member, if desired.

In most embodiments of the toy of the present invention, it is envisaged that the commutable elements and the indicator members will be housed in a common housing together with any power source and interconnecting means that may be required. The commutable elements and indicator members may, however, be remote from each other; there is no necessity even for either group of elements or members to be arranged in fixed relative locations although this would be the usual arrangement.

In the simpler embodiments of the invention, there is provided an array of indicator members and an array, preferably but not necessarily a corresponding array, of the same or a different number of commutable elements.

Each commutable element may be arranged to operate a respective indicator member, not necessarily in the same position in a corresponding array, or some elements may operate a plurality of indicator members. Mention has already been made of elements or indictor members which have no interconnections.

The commutable elements and indicator members may be interconnected in an essentially fixed manner; for example, a housing may present the switches and indicator members on the outside and have a battery and electrical connections of mechanical interconnections sealed within it. Alternatively, the arrangement may be changeable; for example, electrical connections may be formed by wires with end terminals which can be releasably connected to suitable connectors of the indicator members and/or switches. As a further alternative the toy may incorporate a computer which can be programmed to interconnect the commutable elements and indicator members in a selectively changing pattern or in a randomly changing pattern.

It is also possible to provide for interconnection of two or more such toys such that commutable elements of one may energise or operate one or more indictor members of the or each other toy. It may be especially appropriate for the interconnection of two such toys to allow energisation or operation of indicator members of one toy by the commutable elements of the other toy but not by the elements of that toy itself.

One embodiment of the invention will now be more particularly described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing which is a diagrammatic, part cut-away perspective view of a child's toy according to the invention.

With reference to the drawing, a child's toy is shown comprising a generally rectangular opaque box 10 having an upper face 11 which can be considered as divided into two halves, lla and llb. On one half lia there is provided a set of eight rocker switches 12a - 12h arranged in an orderly array of two rows each with four switches. The other half llb of the face 11 has a similar array of eight rectangular translucent panels 14a - 14h. Housed within the box 10, one beneath each panel 14, is a respective light bulb 13, only two of which are shown. Partitions 17 surround the bulbs 13 so that light from each bulb 13, in use, is visible only through the translucent panel 14 immediately above it.

The box 10 also houses a battery 15 and electrical connectors 16 connecting the battery 15 to each of the bulbs 13 via a respective switch 12. Each switch 12 is commutable in known manner between two positions in one of which it connects its respective bulb 13 to the battery 15 so that that bulb is switched on and in the other of which it disconnects the battery 15 from the respective bulb 13 so that that bulb is switched off.

The electrical connectors 16 between the switches 12 and the respective bulbs 13 may be arranged in any desired manner: each switch 12a, 12b, 12c etc in the switch array may, for example, be connected in an orderly manner to the respective bulb 13a, 13b, 13c etc. in the corresponding position in the bulb array but the toy is more interesting if each switch 12a, 12b etc. is connected to a bulb 13 in a different position in the bulb array. Thus, by way of example, the switch 12e is shown connected to operate the bulb 13f.

In use of the toy, a child will operate the switches 12 to switch on respective bulbs 13 the light from which will be visible through the respective translucent panels 14. A child will gain amusement in the very early days simply from operating the switches and seeing lights flash on and off. Gradually the child will learn to associate the different switches with respective lights and will then derive pleasure from creating different patterns of lights on the toy.

Naturally, the toy is shown in its simplest form in the drawing. The box itself may, for example, have a more complex shape with the switches perhaps provided on a horizontal console with the lights visible on an upstanding screen. The number and arrangement of the lights and switches is almost infinitely variable as are the interconnections between them. Bulbs, particularly LEDs, may be provided on the face 11 of the box. The switches 12 may be of any type, such as push buttons instead of rocker switches and, instead of simple on/off switches, dimmer switches may be provided to vary the brightness of the light given by the bulbs 13.

Claims

1. A child's toy comprising a plurality of commutable elements and a plurality of indicator members, at least some of the indicator members being operable, each by commutation of a respective associated commutable element, to change their states of indication.

2. A child's toy as claimed in Claim 1, in which the commutable elements comprise push buttons, pressure switches, rocker switches, levers, rotary knobs and/or joysticks.

3. A child's toy as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2, in which the indicator members comprise visual indicators, audible indicators and/or indicators, which are perceptible to touch.

4. A child's toy as claimed in Claim 1, Claim 2 or Claim 3, in which at least some of the indicator members are operable to switch directly between two states of indication.

5. A child's toy as claimed in Claim 1, Claim 2 or Claim 3, in which at least some of the indicator members are operable to alter their states of indication in a gradual manner.

6. A child's toy as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, in which each indicator member which can change its state of indication by commutation of its respective associated commutable element is operable by that commutable element through a mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic or electrical linkage.

7. A child's toy as claimed in Claim 6, in which the indicator members are connected to their associated commutable elements by a direct mechanical, hydraulic pneumatic or electrical linkages.

8. A child's toy as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, in which the commutable elements and the indicator members are provided on a common housing which also houses connecting linkages between the indicator members and the respective associated commutable elements.

9. A child's toy as claimed in Claim 8, in which the commutable elements are arranged in a regular array on the housing and the indicator members are arranged in a similar regular array but at least some of the indicator members and the associated commutable elements which operate them are not in corresponding positions in the two arrays.

10. A child's toy as claimed in Claim 6, in which the indicator members are not connected directly to their associated commutable elements but are operable through a remote-control system.

11. A child's toy as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, including at least one indicator member which is not operable to change its state of indication by commutation of a commutable element and/or at least one commutable element which is not associated with an indicator member to change its state of indication.

12. A child's toy as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, in which the associations between the indicator members and the respective commutable elements may be varied.

13. A child's toy as claimed in Claim 12, in which the indicator members are connected to the commutable members by electrical circuitry which includes a computer operable to vary the connections between the indicator members and the commutable elements.

14. A child's toy substantially as herein described with reference to, and as shown in, the accompanying drawings.