WO2002076558A2

WO2002076558A2 - Liquid electronic games

Info

Publication number: WO2002076558A2
Application number: PCT/US2002/009065
Authority: WO
Inventors: Donald A. Rosenwinkel; William B. Paxton
Original assignee: Big Monsters Toys, Llc
Priority date: 2001-03-23
Filing date: 2002-03-25
Publication date: 2002-10-03
Also published as: WO2002076558A3; WO2002076558B1

Abstract

A game (20) includes a housing (22), a liquid tight compartment (26) carried by the housing (22), a plurality of immiscible liquids (48, 50) contained within the compartment (26), each of the immiscible liquids having at least one measurably different property, an electrically powered indicator (46) carried by the housing (22), the indicator (46,70) having at least two states, a power source (72) for the indicator (46, 70), one or more sensors (34) capable of distinguishing the measurably different property, and a circuit (66, 78) connecting the power source (72), the indicator (46, 70), and the sensors (34) such that upon one of the immiscible liquids (50) coming into proximity with the sensors (34) as opposed to another of the immiscible liquids (48), the state of the respective indicator (46,70) will change. The liquid tight compartment (26) has a transparent portion permitting a player to see into the compartment (26) which includes a playing surface (30) having at least one target (32) with a sensor (34) positioned beneath the target (32).

Description

TITLE OF THE INVENTION

LIQUID ELECTRONIC GAMES BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to games and more particularly to games in which at least a portion of the game is physically manipulated by the player to move something within the game.

2. Background Art

Games, or dexterity puzzles, in which a player manipulates all or part of the game in order to reach a goal are old in the art. Such prior art games include ones in which a player holds and tilts the game to move spherical objects along a path or into

predetermined areas in order to complete a puzzle or picture. It has also been old in the art to use liquid in such games, such as in Pantaleo et al„ U.S. Patent No. 5,256,457 issued October 26, 1993, where it is a medium in which manipulatable pieces are carried. Other prior art games have used a bubble within a liquid as in Capelle, U.S.

Patent No. 3,228,689 issued January 11 , 1966 and Knott, U.S. Patent No. 3,309,088

issued March 14, 1967.

It has also been old in the art to use electrical conductors in games requiring physical manipulation and/or dexterity. A number of such prior art games have used a player movable, metal conductive piece, usually with the object of placing or collecting other game pieces through openings whose peripheries are also conductive. Accordingly, in such games when the player inadvertently touches the side of an opening a sound and/or light alarm is activated. Examples of such prior art games are the Milton Bradley OPERATION" game, as well as those shown in Breslow et al. U.S. Patent No. 4,038,184 issued August 2, 1977 and Rogers, Jr.. U.S. Patent No. 4,272,075 issued June 9, 1981. A balancing game in which electrical lights are energized in a predetermined sequence as long as the game remains balanced is shown in Berlin, U.S. Patent Nos. 3,784,196 issued January 8, 1974 and 3,960,376 issued June 1, 1976. That balancing skill game uses a number of mercury switches, as does the handle control device for electronic games of Hansen. U.S. Patent No. 4,445,011 issued April 24, 1984. Mercury is of course not a desirable element to include in games for children, particularly for younger children.

Yet another game in which a liquid, namely a stream of water, emitted from one player held shield, upon striking a particular portion of an opposing player's hand held shield, provides an electrical path between a screen and a conductive member closing a circuit to provide an audible sound. There remains, however, a need for entertaining and challenging games which can be manipulated by a player to move one or more bubbles or globules towards achieving a predetermined goal, such as hitting certain targets, with the bubbles energizing a light and/or audible indicator.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is concerned with providing a game having a housing, a liquid tight compartment carried by the housing, a plurality of immiscible liquids contained within the compartment, each of the immiscible liquids having at least one property that is measurably different from the property of another of the liquids, an electrically powered indicator carried by the housing, the indicator having at least two states, a power source for the indicator, one or more sensors capable of distinguishing the measurably different property of the immiscible liquids, and a circuit connecting the power source, the indicator, and the sensors such that upon one of the immiscible liquids coming into proximity with one of the one or more sensors, as opposed to another of the immiscible liquids, the state of the indicator will change. The liquid tight compartment has a transparent portion permitting a player to see into the compartment. The compartment includes a playing surface. The playing surface includes at least one target with one of the sensors positioned beneath the at least one target.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of the present invention, reference may be had to the

accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 is an enlarged scale, fragmentary sectional view taken generally along line 2 - 2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is an enlarged scale, top plan view of a component of the present invention;

Fig. 4 is a bottom plan view of the component; Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken generally along line 5 - 5 of Fig. 3; Fig. 6 is a sectional view taken generally along line 6 - 6 of Fig. 3; Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of the sensors, circuitry and electronic components; Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of the sensors, circuitry and electronic components of an

alternate embodiment; and Fig. 9 is a fragmentary sectional view of another alternate embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now to the drawings in which like parts are designated with like reference numerals throughout the several views, there is shown in Fig. 1 a game 20 that is conveniently sized to be held in the hand of, and manipulated by, a player to position the game in various angular orientations. Game 20 includes a housing 22 having a base 24. As illustrated in Fig. 1 , housing 22 is generally in the shape of a short cylinder. However, as will be apparent from the following description, the overall shape of game 20 and housing 22, may be any one of a vast variety of solid shapes, including but not limited to polygons and spheres. Disposed atop base 24 is a liquid-tight compartment 26 having an upper transparent cover portion 28, the outer surface of which is slightly convex.

Also forming part of compartment 26, is a generally flat or planar playing surface 30, which is spaced from and, in the orientation of game 20 shown in Fig. 1, below cover 28. In the embodiment shown in Fig. 1 , there are thirteen targets 32, generally randomly arranged about playing surface 30. Disposed beneath each target 32 is a sensor 34. However, as a modification, a sensor 34 might only be disposed under one or more selected, but less than all, targets 32.

As is best illustrated in Figs. 2, 5 and 6, each of sensors 34 includes a plug 38 of non-electrically conductive material, that is fitted in liquid tight relationship into a respective opening 40 in playing surface 30. Appropriate adhesives or sealants (not shown), or ultrasonic welding or the like, may be used to insure a liquid tight seal. A pair of spaced apart, electrically conductive pins 42 extend through plug 38 into compartment 26. Each plug 38 has a generally concave surface 44, the lowermost part of which is below playing surface 30, through which both pins 42 extend. Conveniently, plugs 38 are translucent or transparent, and an indicator light 46 is positioned within housing 22 below each plug 38 or pair of spaced apart pins 42. As a modification for mass production, individual plugs 38 may be omitted by insert molding desired sets of pins 42 in a one piece, translucent or transparent playing surface of a non-electrically conductive material. In such an integrally molded modification, generally concave surfaces 44 may still be provided for sets of pins 42 in the playing surface itself. As yet a further modification, lights 46 may simply be of a single color, or may be of two colors, such as red and green, or possibly of more colors.

Liquid tight compartment 26 is filled with at least two immiscible liquids, such as a mineral oil 48 and water 50, that have a measurably different property. In this embodiment, one of the liquids, water 50, is readily conductive of low voltage electricity, such as that generated by a pair of AA batteries. The other liquid 48 is substantially non-conductive of electricity. There is a greater volume of oil 48 than of water 50 so that the water tends to form a bubble or globule 52. Oil 48 may be clear, or generally transparent, while water 50 may be colored to more readily visually distinguish the immiscible water globule 52 from the oil. As a result of water 50 being heavier than oil 48, water bubble or globule 52 will tend to slide along generally flat playing surface 30. However, when globule 52 momentarily comes to rest in one of concave surfaces 44 and contacts both of pins 42, it will complete a circuit, such as illustrated in Fig. 7, to energize indicator light 46 or an audible signal. Indeed, as yet even a further alternative, a small motor (not shown) may be energized and in turn produce a

mechanical action or indication (not shown). Depending on game play, the circuit could be designed so that a globule 52 contacting pins 42 would close a normally open switch, or open a normally closed switch. Moreover, in the foregoing example, a greater volume of oil is used; however, if a greater volume of water was used, then the oil would become the bubble or globule. In such an alternative, the mineral oil bubble would tend to float atop the heavier water. Such an alternative might, for example, be used in a vertically elongated game that the player manipulates to move the bubble through various baffles to reach a target at the top of the game. For such an alternative, the transparent portion permitting the player to view the game would be along the side of the game, such as the wall of a tall cylinder.

Conveniently, somewhere upon playing surface 30, at least one projection is provided to facilitate splitting the bubble or globule of liquid into two or more bubbles or globules. In the embodiment illustrated in Fig. 1, this is done with the generally U- shaped trough 56, which has a arch-like opening 58 at the bottom of the bight portion 60 of the "U". Thus, if more than one bubble or globule 52 is needed, the game is manipulated by the player to the top of U-shaped trough 56 and out through the arched opening. Generally, as the single bubble or globule 52 passes through arched opening 58, it will split into at least two bubbles or globules.

Carried within housing 22 is a printed circuit board 66 with a micro processing chip, read-only memory (RAM), random access memory (RAM), and input-output ports; a speech synthesizer may also be included. Also carried in housing 22 is an audio speaker component 70 that is activated through circuit board 66. Batteries 72, such as a pair of AA batteries, which provide power for the printed circuit board, the speaker, and the indicators, such as lights 46, are also conveniently carried in housing 22 beneath playing surface 30. There is also a master on/off switch 74, the actuator tab 76 of which projects outwardly from housing 22, as is illustrated in Fig. 1.

Circuitry, schematically indicated as 78 in Fig. 7 connects each of sensors 34 (only one of which has been shown for ease of illustration) to printed circuit board 66 for input. In addition, circuitry, schematically indicated as 80 in Fig. 7 connects each of indicator lights 46 (again only one of which has been shown for ease of illustration) to printed circuit board 66. As is schematically illustrated in Fig. 7, master on/off switch 74 is connected to printed circuit board 66 but is not interposed between battery power source 72 and circuit board 66 so as not to erase anything, such as previous "high scores", that may be in RAM. Circuit board 66 also contains programs with directions for a number of different games. The directions may be audibly issued by circuit board 66 through speaker 70. Various types of games may be played in accordance with the directions programmed using conventional programming techniques, some of which directions may be randomly generated.

Indeed, a variety of preprogrammed games may be played with the embodiment illustrated in Fig. 1. For example, circuit board 66 may light up one of the thirteen sensors 34 and allocate a predetermined time for the player to position bubble 52 on that target sensor in contact with pins 42 which would extinguish the light. Upon successful completion of that goal by the player, the circuit board would then illuminate two lights beneath the sensors of two targets requiring the player to either sequentially, or simultaneously, position water bubble 52 across pins 42 of the illuminated sensors 34 to close the circuits, again within a predetermined allocated amount of time. Should the player be required to simultaneously position water bubble 52 on each of two different sensors 34, the player would have to cause bubble 52 to split into at least two bubbles. To facilitate such splitting of bubble 52, the player could use U-shaped trough 56. Upon successful completion of that goal by the player, the next round could require the player to either sequentially, or simultaneously, bring water bubble 52 into contact with three different sensors 34. A variation of the game play could turn on light 46 of any sensor 34 not initially lit by the circuit board, upon water bubble 52 contacting pins 42. As a still further variation, rather than merely using on/off lights, each sensor could be provided with a two color, for example, red and green, light, which would -change colors as water bubble 52 contacts pins 42 of sensor 34.

As an alternative, rather than utilizing immiscible liquids whose measurable different property is electrical conductivity and sensors that react to the different conductivity of the immiscible liquids, light sensitive sensors, such as photodiodes, that would react to different light levels detected through an opaque immiscible liquid, as compared to a transparent liquid, or vice versa, could be used. Fig. 8 illustrates a schematic for such an alternative embodiment, which is similar to the schematic of Fig. 7, except that pins 42 have been replaced by photodiode 84.

Fig. 9 illustrates yet another embodiment in which a liquid tight compartment 86 is divided into two sections 88 and 90 by a wall 92 having opposed sides 94 and 96 and at least one aperture 98 extending through the wall from one opposed side to the other opposed side. This permits the movement of one of the immiscible liquids 100 from one section to the other section upon being left in contact with one opposed side of the wall, with at least a portion of that immiscible liquid in contact with aperture 98. Each section 88 and 90 has a transparent portion 102 and 104, respectively, permitting a player to see into each section of compartment 86.

Particularly with larger portions of one of the immiscible liquids than would normally be used in a game environment such as that shown and described above, resulting in larger bubbles or globules, their movement could also be used to trigger various sound and light indicators in a manipulative preschool toy.

While particular embodiments of the invention have been shown and described, with some suggested alternatives, further variations and modifications will occur to those skilled in the art. It is intended in the appended claims to cover all such variations and modifications that come within the true spirit and scope of the present invention.

What is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

Claims

1. A game comprising:

- a housing;

- a liquid tight compartment carried by the housing;

- a plurality of immiscible liquids contained within the compartment;

- each of the immiscible liquids having at least one property that is measurably different from the property of another of the immiscible liquids;

- an electrically powered indicator carried by the housing;

- the indicator having at least two states;

- a power source for the indicator;

- one or more sensors capable of distinguishing the measurably different property of the immiscible liquids; and

- a circuit connecting the power source, the indicator, and the one or more sensors such that upon one of the immiscible liquids coming into proximity with one of the one or more sensors, as opposed to another of the immiscible liquids, the state of the indicator will change.

2. The game of claim 1 in which the liquid tight compartment has a transparent

portion permitting a player to see into the compartment.

3. The game of claim 1 in which the compartment includes a playing surface.

4. The game of claim 3 in which the playing surface includes at least one target and one of the sensors is positioned beneath the at least one target.

5. The game of claim 3 in which the playing surface includes a number of targets and one of the sensors is positioned beneath some, but not all of the targets.

6. The game of claim 3 in which the playing surface includes a number of targets and one of the sensors is positioned beneath each of the targets.

7. the game of claim 1 in which the one or more sensors react to the measurably different property of the electrical conductivity of the immiscible liquids.

8. The game of claim 1 in which the one or more sensors react to the measurably different property of the light transparency of the immiscible liquids.

9. The game of claim 1 in which there is a greater volume of one of the immiscible

liquids than of another of the immiscible liquids so that the another of the immiscible liquids of lesser volume tends to form a globule.

10. The game of claim 9 in which the playing surface includes a projection facilitating splitting of a globule of the another of the immiscible liquids into more than one globules.

11. The game of claim 1 in which:

- each of the one or more sensors includes a plug of non-electrically conductive material;

- there is an opening in the playing surface;

- the plug is fitted in liquid tight relationship into the opening;

- a pair of spaced apart electrically conductive pins extend into the compartment.

12. The game of claim 11 in which the plug includes a generally concave surface through which pair of spaced apart pins extend.

13. The game of claim 12 in which the plug is translucent or transparent and a light is positioned below the plug.

14. The game of claim 11 in which the plug is translucent or transparent and a light is positioned below the plug.

15. The game of claim 14 in which the light is of at least two colors.

16. The game of claim 1 in which:

- the playing surface is molded of non-electrically conductive material;

- a pair of spaced apart electrically conductive pins extend into the liquid tight

compartment through the playing surface.

17. The game of claim 16 in which:

- the playing surface is molded with a generally concave portion; and

- the pair of spaced apart pins extend into the liquid tight compartment through

the concave portion of the playing surface.

18. The game of claim 16 in which:

- the playing surface is molded of a translucent or transparent material; and

- a light is positioned below the playing surface proximate where the pair of spaced apart pins extend into the liquid tight compartment.

19. The game of claim 1 in which the compartment is divided into two sections by a

wall having opposed sides and at least one aperture extending through the wall from one opposed side to the other opposed side to permit the movement of one of the immiscible liquids from one section to the other section upon being left in contact with one opposed side of the wall, with at least a portion of that immiscible liquid in contact with the aperture. The game of claim 19 in which each section of the compartment has a transparent portion permitting a player to see into each section of the compartment.