Thermochromic toy for revealing hidden codes

• US 20070259592A1
• Filed: 05/04/2006
• Published: 11/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Mattel Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Mattel Incorporated
• Inventors: Imai, Jun, Tam, Alec
• Application Number:
  US11/418,683
• Publication Number:
  US 20070259592A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 446/14
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 33/22 Optical, colour, or shadow toys puzzles with optical elements A63F9/0613; kaleidoscopes G02B27/08

Abstract

A product, comprising a toy; and the toy including a thermochromic region on at least a portion of the toy, where the thermochromic region exhibits a visual change in response to temperature; a code, wherein the thermochromic region reveals a human readable code upon the visual change; and a decoder for decoding the code is provided.

Claims

1. A product, comprising:

a toy; and

the toy including a thermochromic region on at least a portion of the toy, where the thermochromic region exhibits a visual change in response to temperature;

a code, wherein the thermochromic region reveals a human readable code upon the visual change; and

a decoder for decoding the code.

2. The product of claim 1 wherein the decoder includes a computer program configured to be operated on a computer, and configured to receive said code, where said program produces a computer output based on the code entered, wherein said output includes content dependent upon the code entered.

3. The product of claim 1 wherein the decoder is included in instructions on the product.

4. The product of claim 1 wherein the decoder is included in instructions on the toy.

5. The product of claim 1 wherein the decoder is a book.

6. The product of claim 1 wherein the decoder is provided on an unrelated consumer product.

7. The product of claim 1 wherein the decoder translates the code to other data.

8. The product of claim 7 wherein the other data includes reward points.

9. The product of claim 1 wherein the decoder includes a computer program configured to be operated on a computer, and configured to receive said code over the internet, where said program produces a computer output based on the code entered, wherein said output includes reward points dependent upon the code entered.

10. The product of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of thermochromic regions on the toy, where each thermochromic region exhibits a visual change in response to temperature, and each thermochromic region reveals a human readable code.

11. The product of claim 10 wherein at least two codes are different.

12. A product, comprising:

a toy; and

the toy including a thermochromic region on at least a portion of the toy, where the thermochromic region exhibits a visual change in response to temperature;

a code, wherein the thermochromic region reveals a human readable code upon the visual change; and

an interactive web based decoder for receiving the code and generating a response dependent upon the received code.

13. The product of claim 12 wherein the response includes reward points.

14. The product of claim 12 wherein the response includes information about a fictional character the toy represents.

15. The product of claim 12 wherein the response includes secret information about the toy.

16. The product of claim 12 wherein the response includes reward points responsive to a number of codes entered and which codes are entered.

17. The product of claim 12 further comprising a plurality of thermochromic regions on the toy, where each thermochromic region exhibits a visual change in response to temperature, and each thermochromic region reveals a human readable code, and at least two codes are different from one another.

18. The product of claim 17 wherein different thermochromic regions of the toy are exposed depending on a toy configuration and/or positioning of the toy.

19. The product of claim 17 wherein at least one thermochromic region is internally facing in a first configuration of the toy, and externally facing in a second configuration of the toy.

20. A set of products, comprising:

a first toy having a first hidden code revealed in a selected temperature range;

a second toy having a second hidden code revealed in a selected temperature range; and

a decoder for decoding the first and second codes.

21. The set of claim 20, wherein the first hidden code is located in a first position on the first toy, and the second hidden code is located in a second position on the second toy, the second position different relative to the first position.