Wireless interactive doll-houses and playsets therefor
First Claim
1. A wireless interactive doll-house comprising:
- a first scaled room resembling a room of a home;
a first wireless receiver mounted in the first scaled room to receive wireless transmissions from one or more wireless toy characters;
a processor coupled to the first wireless receiver, the processor to analyze the wireless transmissions to determine which of the one or more wireless toy characters are located within the first scaled room; and
a loudspeaker coupled to the processor to receive a signal associated with at least one of the one or more wireless toy characters, the loudspeaker to transduce the signal into an audible signal.
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Accused Products
Abstract
This invention allows for an electronic doll-house to be constructed at a reasonable cost that provides the ability to identify the location of a number of figures that a child may manipulate in a play space. By use of IR communications and the characteristics of such a communications link, a doll-house is provided that combines the ability to be built at a relatively low cost with the advantages of not requiring physical contacts, special purpose RFID chips and transceiving arrangements, or other expensive sensing methods. In brief, the invention makes use of an IR transmitter that sends a unique ID code upon user activation which allows for power savings, the elimination of contact points or RF components, the localization of the signal to a room in a doll-house, and by use of reflecting paths, allows relative independence of orientation. These capabilities are that of a low cost system that allows a system controller to locate an object within a doll-house and consequently allow for an improved location and/or player object specific game play.
89 Citations
44 Claims
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1. A wireless interactive doll-house comprising:
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a first scaled room resembling a room of a home;
a first wireless receiver mounted in the first scaled room to receive wireless transmissions from one or more wireless toy characters;
a processor coupled to the first wireless receiver, the processor to analyze the wireless transmissions to determine which of the one or more wireless toy characters are located within the first scaled room; and
a loudspeaker coupled to the processor to receive a signal associated with at least one of the one or more wireless toy characters, the loudspeaker to transduce the signal into an audible signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A wireless interactive playset, the playset comprising:
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one or more wireless toy characters including a wireless transmitter to wirelessly transmit a character identifier in response to a trigger, a microcontroller coupled to the wireless transmitter, the microcontroller to generate the character identifier in response to the trigger, and a battery coupled to the microcontroller and the wireless transmitter, the battery to provide power to the microcontroller and the wireless transmitter;
and a toy structure to receive the character identifier from each respective one or more wireless toy characters located within the toy structure, the toy structure including one or more wireless receivers to receive wireless signals from the one or more wireless toy characters located within the toy structure and to form received character identifiers, a processor coupled to the one or more wireless receivers, the processor to execute a program in response to receiving a received character identifier and to generate electrical signals responsive thereto, a loudspeaker coupled to the processor to receive the electrical signals, the loudspeaker to transduce the electrical signals from the processor into audio sound, and a power supply to couple to the processor and the one or more wireless receivers to provide power thereto. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. An infrared toy character to interface with an infrared toy structure, the infrared toy character comprising:
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an infrared transmitter to wirelessly transmit a character identifier in response to a trigger, the infrared transmitter to wirelessly transmit the character identifier using infrared signals;
a microcontroller coupled to the infrared transmitter, the microcontroller to generate the character identifier in response to the trigger;
a battery coupled to the microcontroller and the infrared transmitter, the battery to provide power to the microcontroller and the infrared transmitter; and
a housing to physically hold the infrared transmitter, the microcontroller, and the battery together as a unit. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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35. A method for a wireless toy playset, the method comprising:
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scanning in parallel one or more rooms of a wireless interactive toy structure for one or more wireless transmissions from one or more wireless toy characters;
detecting one or more wireless transmissions associated with at least one of the one or more rooms of the wireless interactive toy structure;
validating at least one of the one or more wireless transmissions in the at least one of the one or more rooms of the wireless interactive toy structure as a valid wireless transmission associated with the at least one of the one or more rooms of the wireless interactive toy structure from at least one of the one or more wireless toy characters;
obtaining a character identifier from the valid wireless transmission associated with the at least one of the one or more rooms of the wireless interactive toy structure from the at least one of the one or more wireless toy characters; and
generating an programmed response in response to the character identifier and the at least one room of the one or more rooms of the wireless interactive toy structure associated with the valid wireless transmission. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
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Specification