Electronic book with simulated three-dimensional illustrations

• US 20020081560A1
• Filed: 12/21/2000
• Published: 06/27/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: VTech Electronics Limited (VTech Holdings Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: VTech Electronics Limited (VTech Holdings Ltd.)
• Inventors: Ka-wah, Chi Chow, Lam-tak, Frederick Tsang
• Granted Patent: US 6,792,243 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 434/317
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/00 Electrically-operated educational appliances working with questions and answers G09B7/00; simulators G09B9/00; advertising or displaying in general G09F

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a book device corresponding to at least one narrative story, including a spine, at least three pages pivotably connected to the spine, a sound producing apparatus, and a plurality of switch elements which activate the sound producing apparatus to play desired audio segments corresponding to a particular story element. Each of the pages contains illustrative material, such as text and/or pictures, and at least one of the pages is partially transparent, so that illustrative material on subsequent pages is visible to the reader through the transparent portion of the page. In another embodiment, the illustrative material is not affixed to the pages themselves, but takes the form of inserts which may be removed and interchanged, with the book device able to determine which story corresponds to the particular inserts being used and play the desired audio segments corresponding to that story.

Claims

1. An book device for presenting visual and audible indicia corresponding to at least one narrative story, comprising:

a substantially hollow spine structure;

at least three page members pivotably connected to the substantially hollow spine structure;

a sound producing apparatus, operably disposed in the substantially hollow spine structure and configured to annunciate audible indicia corresponding to portions of at least one narrative story, the portions of the story being annunciated being dependent upon the respective positions of the at least three page members relative to the hollow spine structure;

a plurality of switch elements operably interconnecting the at least three page members to the substantially hollow spine structure, and the sound producing means, and operably configured to communicate to the sound producing means the respective positions of the at least three page members relative to the hollow spine structure;

at least three of the at least three page members having visible indicia thereon corresponding to portions of at least one narrative story, at least two of the at least three page members having opposing sides, and having indicia visible on each of the opposing sides;

at least one of the pages being at least partially transparent, so that when the at least one page is disposed in overlying relation to another of the at least two other pages, at least some of the indicia of the underlying page is visible through the at least one partially transparent page,

the indicia on the respective pages being operably arranged so that for each possible respective orientation of the at least three pages relative to each other and the substantially hollow spine member, the indicia visible to an operator bear a corresponding relationship to the particular portion of the at least one narrative story, represented by the audible indicia annunciated by the sound producing apparatus.

2. The book device according to claim 1, wherein the sound producing apparatus comprises:

an electronic microprocessor-controlled apparatus containing data stored in memory corresponding to the audible indicia corresponding, in turn, to the portions of at least one narrative story.

3. The book device according to claim 2, wherein the plurality of switch elements are operably configured to cause a signal to be generated and transmitted to the electronic microprocessor-controlled apparatus, once the book device has been activated, indicative of a change in the respective orientation of the at least three pages, so as to cause the appropriate audible indicia, corresponding to the particular page orientation, to be annunciated.

4. The book device according to claim 1, wherein the visible indicia on the pages are removable from the pages, and interchangeable, as a set, with at least one other set of indicia, and the sound producing apparatus is operably configured to produce audible indicia corresponding to at least two narrative stories.