Radio-controlled toy blimp with infrared beam weapons for staging a gun battle

• US 20020106966A1
• Filed: 02/08/2001
• Published: 08/08/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Exonix Corporation
• Original Assignee: Exonix Corporation
• Inventors: Barreras, Fancisco Jose Sr., Jimenez, Oscar, Echarri, Roberto, Echarri, Guillermo
• Granted Patent: US 6,609,945 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 446/454
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 27/00 Toy aircraft; Other flying toys toys with parachutes A63H33/20
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 27/004 Means for launching objects from aircraft, e.g. pilot, missiles

Abstract

The remote-controlled air, land or water borne toy vehicle comprises: a body; a printed circuit board mounted in or to the body; a receiver connected to the printed circuit board for receiving commands; hardware on the printed circuit board including control circuitry for manipulating the toy vehicle in response to commands received by the receiver; and a motor drive mechanism mounted on or to the toy vehicle for moving or propelling the toy vehicle in response to control signals from the control circuitry. Preferably at least one of several infrared emitting simulated weapons are mounted on the toy vehicle and are selected from the group including a machine gun, a cannon and a missile.

Claims

1. A remote-controlled air, land or water borne toy vehicle comprising:

a remote control transmitter console used by a pilot of the toy vehicle to;

(a) control the speed, direction, or altitude of the toy vehicle, (b) select among several weapons each simulated by a unique infrared code, each weapon imparting a different level of damage to an opponent'"'"'s vehicle and (c) shoot a selected weapon;

an infrared light transmitting means for shooting a series of infrared light pulses at the opponent'"'"'s vehicle;

encoding means for modulating said infrared light pulses to (a) specify the type of weapon fired comprising one of a machine gun, cannon or explosive missile and (b) identifying the toy vehicle firing said infrared pulses;

an infrared light detecting and amplifying means for sensing said infrared light pulses fired by an opponent'"'"'s weapon;

decoding means for (a) identifying the type of weapon fired by the opponent'"'"'s toy vehicle and (b) identifying the toy vehicle doing the shooting;

score keeping means for up-dating and storing the number of successful hits made by the opponent'"'"'s toy vehicle.

2. A toy vehicle according to claim 1 in which said vehicle also comprises:

comparison means for comparing an up-dated score against a preset threshold value;

responsive means upon reaching said preset threshold value for affecting the navigation ability of said toy vehicle in order to simulate a vehicle out of control.

3. A toy vehicle according to claim 1 in which said vehicle also comprises:

blocking means for temporarily suspending the detection of specific weapons in order to simulate a shield against such weapons.

4. A toy vehicle according to claim 1 in which said vehicle also comprises:

beam reducing means for decreasing the diameter of the transmitted infrared beam in order to increase the level of difficulty required to successfully hit a target.

5. A toy vehicle according to claim 1 in which said vehicle also comprises:

lamp activating means for indicating when a hit by the opponent'"'"'s infrared weapon has been detected.

6. A toy vehicle according to claim 1 in which said vehicle also comprises:

lamp activating means for indicating when a low fuel condition has been detected.

7. A toy vehicle according to claim 1, including a wall target for shooting practice purposes, said wall target comprising:

infrared light detecting and amplifying means for sensing said infrared light pulses fired by one of the toy vehicles;

decoding means for (a) identifying the type of weapon fired by said toy vehicle and (b) identifying the toy vehicle doing the shooting;

score keeping means for up-dating and storing the number of successful hits made by each toy vehicle, said score keeping means being capable of handling the scores for more than one player; and

,

audible tone generating means for announcing each successful hit, said tone generating means being capable of producing more than one unique tone to identify more than one player;

8. A toy vehicle according to claim 1 in which said vehicle is a lighter-than-air toy blimp, including a docking station and a landing platform for landing upon it said toy blimp for refueling and rearming purposes, said docking station comprising;

timing means for counting the seconds or minutes that said toy blimp remains parked at said landing platform;

responsive means responsive to said timing means for activating partial rearming if said toy blimp remains parked for a first preset time;

responsive means responsive to said timing means for activating full rearming if said toy blimp remains parked for a second preset time longer than said first;

responsive means responsive to said timing means for activating partial refueling if said toy blimp remains parked for a first preset time; and

,

responsive means responsive to said timing means for activating full refueling if said toy blimp remains parked for a second preset time longer than the first.

9. A toy vehicle according to claim 8 also comprising:

an infrared light detecting and amplifying means for sensing said infrared light pulses fired by opponent'"'"'s weapon;

decoding means for identifying the type of weapon fired the opponent'"'"'s toy vehicle;

score keeping means for up-dating and storing the number of successful hits made by the opponent'"'"'s blimp;

comparison means for comparing said up-dated score against a preset threshold value;

responsive means responsive to said score reaching said preset threshold value for disabling said docking station to prevent refueling and/or reaming.

10. A remote-controlled air, land or water borne toy vehicle comprising:

a body;

a printed circuit board mounted in or to said body;

a receiver connected to said printed circuit board for receiving commands;

hardware on said printed circuit board including control means for manipulating said toy vehicle in response to commands received by said receiver; and

,

motor drive means mounted on or to said toy vehicle for moving or propelling said toy vehicle in response to control signals from said control means.

11. The toy vehicle of claim 10 combined with a remote control transmitter console for use by a pilot of the toy vehicle to control the speed, direction, or altitude of the toy vehicle.

12. The remote control transmitter console of claim 11 including a timer circuit for simulating operation time and fuel consumption and a lamp for indicating a “

low fuel”

situation,

13. The toy vehicle of claim 10 further comprising at least one infrared emitting simulated weapon mounted on said toy vehicle.

14. The toy vehicle of claim 10 comprising at least one of several infrared emitting simulated weapons mounted on said toy vehicle and selected from the group including a machine gun, a cannon and a missile.

15. The toy vehicle of claim 14 wherein said simulated weapons are each simulated by a unique infrared codes and each simulated weapon imparting a different level of damage to an opponent'"'"'s toy vehicle.

16. The toy vehicle of claim 10 comprising an infrared light transmitting means for shooting a series of infrared light pulses at an opponent'"'"'s toy vehicle.

17. The toy vehicle of claim 16 including encoding means for modulating said infrared light pulses (a) to specify the type of weapon fired selected from one of a machine gun, cannon or explosive missile and (b) identifying the toy vehicle firing said infrared pulses.

18. The toy vehicle of claim 17 including an infrared light detecting and amplifying means for sensing said infrared light pulses fired by an opponent'"'"'s weapon;

and decoding means for (a) identifying the type of weapon fired by the opponent'"'"'s toy vehicle and (b) identifying the toy vehicle doing the shooting.

19. The toy vehicle of claim 18 comprising a simulated defensive shield which disables said light detecting and amplifying means.

20. The toy vehicle of claim 17 combined with a remote control transmitter console for use by a pilot of the toy vehicle to direct command signals to the toy vehicle:

(a) to select among several weapons each simulated by a unique infrared code, and (b) shoot a selected weapon at an opponents toy vehicle.

21. The toy vehicle of claim 20 including an infrared light detecting and amplifying means for sensing said infrared light pulses fired by an opponent'"'"'s weapon;

and decoding means for (a) identifying the type of weapon fired by the opponent'"'"'s toy vehicle and (b) identifying the toy vehicle doing the shooting.

22. The toy vehicle of claim 21 including score keeping means for up-dating and storing the number of successful hits made by the opponent'"'"'s toy vehicle.

23. The toy vehicle of claim 22 including a transmitter for transmitting signals representing data stored in said score keeping means to said remote control transmitter console;

polling means in said transmitter console for polling said score keeping means; and

, display means for displaying the hits on the opponents toy vehicle.

24. The toy vehicle of claim of claim 13 including means for adjusting a beam angle of an infrared transmitter simulating a weapon for varying the level of difficulty required for hitting a target.

25. The toy vehicle of claim 17 combined with a practice target having means for producing different audible tones to identify respective hits made by different toy vehicles and having two displays to show the score for each attacking toy vehicle.

27. The toy vehicle of claim 24 wherein said remote control transmitter console has a lamp to indicated a “

shot”

down condition.

28. The toy vehicle of claim 10 combined with a docking station for simulated refueling of said toy vehicle.

29. The toy vehicle of claim 14 combined with a docking station for simulated rearming of the simulated weapons.

30. The toy vehicle of claim 10 wherein said motor drive means are mounted on said printed circuit board which provides a structural support for the motor drive means mounted on the printed circuit board.

31. The toy vehicle of claim 10 being a blimp and said motor drive means include flight propellers.

26. The toy vehicle of 18 including means responsive to said light detecting and amplifying means for simulating a “

shot down”

maneuver upon sensing a specific number of infrared hits.