INTERACTIVE DEVICE WITH SOUND-BASED ACTION SYNCHRONIZATION

• US 20110034103A1
• Filed: 08/06/2009
• Published: 02/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Peter Sui Lun Fong
• Original Assignee: Peter Sui Lun Fong
• Inventors: FONG, PETER SUI LUN, Zhu, Xi-Song, Fong, Kelvin Yat-Kit
• Granted Patent: US 8,715,031 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 446/297
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6045 for mapping control signals received from the input arrangement into game commands
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6072 of an input signal, e.g. pitch and rhythm extraction, voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6607 for animating game characters, e.g. skeleton kinematics
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8094 Unusual game types, e.g. virtual cooking
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 2200/00 Computerized interactive toys, e.g. dolls
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 3/28 Arrangements of sound-producing means in dolls; Means in dolls for producing sounds

Abstract

An interactive amusement device and a method therefor are disclosed. The device plays a musical soundtrack in a first game iteration corresponding to a learning mode. A sequence of user input actions received during this learning mode is detected, and timestamps for each is stored into memory. In a second game iteration corresponding to a playback mode, the musical soundtrack is replayed. Additionally, an output signal is generated on at least one interval of the user input actions based on the stored timestamps, and is coordinated with the replaying of the musical soundtrack.

Claims

1. An amusement device, comprising:

a piezoelectric transducer;

a loudspeaker; and

a programmable data processor having an input port connected to the piezoelectric transducer and an output port connected to the loudspeaker, the programmable data processor being receptive to input sound signals from the piezoelectric transducer contemporaneously with an audio track being output to the loudspeaker.

2. The amusement device of claim 1, further comprising:

a microphone connected to the input port of the programmable data processor;

wherein the programmable data processor derives user input action types from the received input sound signals.

3. The amusement device of claim 2, wherein the selected one of the audio tracks is associated with a specific user input action type.

4. The amusement device of claim 3, wherein the user input action type is based upon a characteristic selected from a group consisting of:

the length of the sound signal, the frequency of the sound signal, and the amplitude of the sound signal.

5. The amusement device of claim 1, wherein the output port includes a plurality of output channels, each of the audio tracks being output through a given one of the output channels.

6. The amusement device of claim 1, wherein the audio track is associated with a specific input sound signal.

7. The amusement device of claim 1, wherein a plurality of audio tracks are stored in a memory associated with the programmable data processor.

8. A method for interactive amusement comprising:

playing a musical soundtrack in a first game iteration corresponding to a learning mode;

detecting a sequence of user input actions received during the learning mode;

storing into memory timestamps of each of the detected sequence of user input actions, the timestamps being synchronized to the musical soundtrack;

replaying the musical soundtrack in a second game iteration corresponding to a playback mode; and

generating in the playback mode an output audio signal on at least one interval of the received sequence of user input actions based upon the recorded timestamps, the output audio signal being coordinated with the replaying of the musical soundtrack.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the sequence of user input actions is detected from received sound signals.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

deriving user input action types from the received sound signals;

wherein the output audio signal is generated from a one of a plurality of predefined sound signals corresponding to a particular one of the derived user input action types.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the user input action type is based upon a characteristic selected from a group consisting of:

the length of the sound signal, the frequency of the sound signal, and the amplitude of the sound signal.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the user input actions correspond to hand claps.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the output audio signal is generated from predefined sound signals stored in the memory.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

generating an audible instructional command prior to playing the musical soundtrack in the first game iteration.

15. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

activating on at least one interval of the received sequence of user input actions a mechanical actuator coupled to a movable element.

16. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

generating on a display device an animation coordinated with the received sequence of user input actions.

17. The method of claim 8, wherein playing the musical soundtrack includes:

retrieving a digital representation of the musical soundtrack from a memory; and

generating an audio signal of the musical soundtrack from the digital representation.

18. The method of claim 8, wherein the timestamps are derived from timer values generated by a programmable data processor.

19. The method of claim 8, wherein the timestamps are derived from instruction cycle count values generated by a programmable data processor.

20. An animated figure amusement device with at least one movable feature and a replayable soundtrack, the amusement device comprising:

a first acoustic transducer receptive to a sequence of sound signals in a first soundtrack playback iteration, the sequence corresponding to a pattern of user input actions associated with the soundtrack;

a mechanical actuator having an actuation element coupled to the movable feature of the animated figure; and

a programmable data processor having a first input connected to the acoustic transducer and a first output connected to the mechanical actuator, the mechanical actuator being activated by the programmable data processor in synchronization with the received sequence of sound signals in a second soundtrack playback iteration.

21. The amusement device of claim 20, wherein the received sound signals are replayed in synchronization with the received sequence of sound signals in the second soundtrack playback iteration.

22. The amusement device of claim 20, wherein other sound signals are replayed in synchronization with the received sequence of sound signals in the second soundtrack playback iteration.

23. The amusement device of claim 20, wherein:

the user input actions are hand claps; and

the sound signals are representative of the hand claps.

24. The amusement device of claim 20, further comprising:

a second acoustic transducer connected to the programmable data processor, the soundtrack being played back on the second acoustic transducer.

25. The amusement device of claim 20, wherein the first acoustic transducer is a piezoelectric microphone.

26. The amusement device of claim 20, further comprising:

a light emitting diode (LED) array display device including a plurality of individually addressable LED elements, an animation sequence being generated by the programmable data processor to the display device in synchronization with the received sequence of sound signals.

27. The amusement device of claim 26, wherein the display device is mounted to an exterior of the animated figure.

28. The amusement device of claim 20, wherein the mechanical actuator is an electromagnetic motor electrically driven by the programmable data processor.

29. The amusement device of claim 28, further comprising:

a driver circuit having an input connected to the programmable data processor and an output connected to the mechanical actuator, activation signals from the programmable data processor being amplified by the driver circuit.

30. The amusement device of claim 20, further comprising:

a first memory module cooperating with the programmable data processor, the soundtrack being stored in and retrieved from the first memory module.

31. The amusement device of claim 20, further comprising:

a second memory module cooperating with the programmable data processor, the sequence of sound signals recorded by the first acoustic transducer being stored in the second memory module.

32. The amusement device of claim 20, wherein the sequence of sound signals is defined by timer values generated by the programmable data processor.

33. The amusement device of claim 20, wherein the sequence of sound signals is defined by instruction cycle count values generated by the programmable data processor.

34. An amusement device with a replayable soundtrack, the amusement device comprising:

a first acoustic transducer receptive to a first sequence of sound signals in a first soundtrack playback iteration, the sequence corresponding to a pattern of user input actions associated with the soundtrack;

a second acoustic transducer; and

a programmable data processor having a first input connected to the first acoustic transducer and a first output connected to the second acoustic transducer, a second sequence of sound signals being output by the programmable data processor in the second soundtrack playback iteration;

wherein the second sequence of sound signals are synchronous with the first sequence of sound signals.

35. The amusement device of claim 34, wherein the sound signals in the second sequence are identical to the sound signals in the first sequence.

36. The amusement device of claim 34, wherein the sound signals in the second sequence are different from the sound signals in the first sequence.

37. The amusement device of claim 34, further comprising:

a graphical display in communication with the programmable data processor, an animation sequence being generated by the programmable data processor to the graphical display in synchronization with the first sequence of sound signals.

38. The amusement device of claim 37, wherein the graphical display is selected from a group consisting of:

an Light Emitting Diode (LED) device, a LED array device, and a liquid crystal display (LCD) device.

39. The amusement device of claim 37, further comprising:

a local wireless transceiver module connected to the programmable data processor and in communication with a remote wireless transceiver module over a wireless data link, the graphical display being in communication with the programmable data processor over the wireless data link.

40. The amusement device of claim 34, wherein:

the user input actions are hand claps; and

the sound signals are representative of the hand claps.