CONTEXT-BASED INTERACTIVE PLUSH TOY

• US 20130072080A1
• Filed: 10/12/2012
• Published: 03/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hallmark Cards Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Hallmark Cards Incorporated
• Inventors: GARBOS, JENNIFER R., BODENDISTEL, TIMOTHY G., FRIEDMANN, PETER B., SMITH, RANDY D., BROWN, WILLIAM L. Jr., GENTRY, MARY E., SWANSON, KEVIN W.
• Granted Patent: US 9,421,475 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 446/26
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 33/26 Magnetic or electric toys electric drives A63H29/22 ; indoor games played with small balls using magnetic power A63F7/0088, A63F7/068
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 33/38 Picture books with additional toy effects, e.g. pop-up or slide displays picture books B42D1/00
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/00 Speech recognition G10L17/00 takes precedence

Abstract

An interactive toy for interacting with a user while a story is being read aloud from a book or played from a movie/video. The toy includes a speech recognition unit that receives and detects certain triggering phrases as they are read aloud or played from a companion literary work. The triggering phrase read aloud from the book or played in the movie/video may have independent significance or may only have significance when combined with other phrases read aloud from the book or played in the movie/video. In one embodiment, the toy is configured to detect only certain types of triggering prompts in certain states, such as, for example, triggering phrases or triggering terms. In this embodiment, and others, the toy is configured to switch between states such that it can at times respond to triggering terms and at other times respond to triggering phrases.

Claims

1. An interactive toy that performs a method for interacting with a user, the method comprising:

activating a phrase-detection state in which said toy is configured to receive a first plurality of audible sounds corresponding to text read aloud from a book;

analyzing the first plurality of audible sounds to detect one or more triggering phrases;

detecting a triggering phrase was read aloud by the user reading the book;

upon detecting the triggering phrase, activating a term-detection state in which said toy is configured to receive a second plurality of audible sounds corresponding to text read aloud from the book;

analyzing the second plurality of audible sounds to detect one or more triggering terms;

detecting a triggering term was read aloud by the user reading the book; and

upon detecting the triggering term, activating a response sequence that supplements a story told in the book.

2. The interactive toy of claim 1, wherein triggering phrases include a plurality of non-triggering terms.

3. The interactive toy of claim 1, wherein triggering phrases include one or more terms that would be triggering terms in the term-detection state, but wherein analyzing the one or more terms that would be triggering terms in the term-detection state does not cause activation of the term detection state.

4. The interactive toy of claim 1, wherein the response to the triggering term is only activated if the triggering term was detected within a predetermined amount of time after activating the term-detection state.

5. The interactive toy of claim 1, the method further comprising:

if the triggering term is not detected within a predetermined amount of time after activating the term-detection state, switching from the term-detection state back to the phrase-detection state.

6. An interactive device that performs a method for interacting with a user, the method comprising:

activating a first state in which the device is programmed to receive a first plurality of audible sounds corresponding to a literary work;

analyzing the first plurality of audible sounds to detect one or more prompts associated with only the first state;

detecting that a first prompt was received, the first prompt being only associated with the first state;

upon detecting that the first prompt was received, activating a second state in which the device is programmed to receive a second plurality of audible sounds corresponding to the literary work;

analyzing the second plurality of audible sounds to detect one or more prompts that are not associated with the first state;

detecting that a second prompt that is not associated with the first state was received; and

upon first detecting the second prompt, activating an interactive response.

7. The interactive toy of claim 6, wherein the interactive response is defined by a combination of the first prompt and the second prompt.

8. The interactive toy of claim 6, wherein the first state is a term-detection state and the second state is a phrase-detection state.

9. The interactive toy of claim 6, wherein the first state and the second state are selected from the group consisting of:

a) a phrase-detection state;

b) a term-detection state;

c) a word-count state;

d) a language-detection state;

e) a gender-detection state; and

f) an age-based state.

10. The interactive toy of claim 6, wherein the toy can only detect phrases in the phrase-only state.

11. The interactive toy of claim 6, wherein the toy can only detect terms in the term-only state.

12. The interactive toy of claim 6, wherein the first state is a phrase-detection state and the second state is a term-detection state.

13. An interactive toy that performs a method for interacting with a user, the method comprising:

activating a first state in which said toy is configured to receive a first plurality of audible sounds corresponding to text read aloud from a book containing a triggering phrase;

analyzing the first plurality of audible sounds to detect the triggering phrase;

detecting that the triggering phrase was read aloud by the user reading the book;

upon detecting that the triggering phrase was read aloud by the user reading the book, activating a second state in which the toy is configured to receive a second plurality of audible sounds corresponding to text read aloud from the book;

analyzing the second plurality of audible sounds to detect a triggering term;

detecting that the triggering term was read aloud by the user reading the book; and

upon detecting that the triggering term was read aloud by the user reading the book, activating a response sequence that supplements a story told in the book, wherein the response to the triggering term is only activated if the toy is in the second state and the triggering term is detected within a predetermined amount of time after detecting the triggering phrase.

14. The interactive toy of claim 13, wherein the combination of the detected triggering term and the detected triggering phrase defines only the interactive response.

15. The interactive toy of claim 13, wherein triggering phrase includes one or more terms that would be a triggering term in the term-detection state.

16. The interactive toy of claim 13, the method further comprising:

if the triggering phrase is not detected within a predetermined amount of time after activating the phrase-detection state, switching from the phase-detection state to the term-detection state.

17. A computer-implemented method performed by a device, the method comprising:

activating a term-detection state in which the device is configured to receive a first plurality of audible sounds containing one or more triggering terms;

analyzing the first plurality of audible sounds to detect only the one or more triggering terms;

detecting that one or more of the triggering terms was received as part of the first plurality of audible sounds;

upon detecting one or more of the triggering terms, activating a phrase-detection state in which said device is configured to receive a second plurality of audible sounds containing one or more triggering phrases;

analyzing the second plurality of audible sounds to detect only the one or more triggering phrases;

detecting one or more of the triggering phrases was received as part of the second plurality of audible sounds; and

upon detecting one or more of the triggering phrases, activating an interactive response defined by a combination of the detected triggering term and the detected triggering phrase.

18. An interactive toy comprising:

a wearable device having electronic components therein for activating an interactive program in response to received audio, the components including a processor, a memory with audio files and programs stored therein, a power supply, a microphone, and a speaker;

wherein the device has a first mode of operation and a second mode of operation, wherein a wearer of the device may change the device between modes of operation, wherein the device receives audio information and analyzes it in both modes, wherein the device analyzes the received audio information for triggering phrases stored in the memory in the first mode, and wherein the device analyzes the received audio information for triggering terms stored in the memory in the second mode.

19. The toy of claim 18, wherein the device plays an audio file of responsive content when a phrase is recognized in the first mode and wherein the device plays an audio file of responsive content when a term is recognized in the second mode.

20. The toy of claim 18, wherein the device plays an audio file responsive to detection of a change between modes of operation by the wearer to acknowledge the desired change in mode and inform the wearer of the new mode in which the device is operating.