Gotcha ball toy

• US 5,445,375 A
• Filed: 02/24/1994
• Issued: 08/29/1995
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/1992
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: John R. Sweeny
• Original Assignee: John R. Sweeny
• Inventors: Sweeny, John R.
• Primary Examiner(s): HARRISON, JESSICA
• Application Number:
  US08/201,334
• Time in Patent Office: 551 Days
• Field of Search: 273/460, 273/58 R, 273/58 E, 273/58 G, 273/213, 273/432, 273/458, 273/138 R, 446/397, 446/409, 446/297, 446/404
• US Class Current: 473/570
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2071/0625 Emitting sound, noise or music
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/62 Time or time measurement used for time reference, time stamp, master time or clock signal
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 43/00 Balls with special arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2009/2402 Input by manual operation
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2009/2476 Speech or voice synthesisers, e.g. using a speech chip
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2009/2494 Battery, e.g. dry cell
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2250/1063 Timers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2250/1073 Time-out devices sandglasses A63F2250/1068; A63F2250/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 7/0058 electric A63F7/027, A63F7/3065 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 9/0468 Electronic dice; electronic dice simulators

Abstract

The invention is to a ball toy and game method utilizing the ball device. The ball toy includes two hemispherical parts that may be separated to enclose an electronic timing device and a digitized voice module. The electronic timing device is actuated by pressing a button switch to initiate a randomly programmed timer. The randomly programmed timer will, at the end of the randomly programmed time interval actuated a voice module that will enunciate the word "gotcha", or any other programmed word.

Claims

1. A ball toy device, comprising:

a hollow spherical housing;

an electronic module inside said housing for producing an audio signal selected from a randomly selected number and the word "gotcha";

a randomly self-selective time interval timer for activating said audio signal independent of any external input;

a switch for initiating the randomly self-selective time interval; and

a circuit in said electronic module for turning off power to said electronic module after the audio signal has been activated.

2. The ball toy according to claim 1, wherein said electronic module includes a digital voice module for generating at least one word for said audio signal.

3. The ball toy according to claim 1, wherein said audio signal is a digitally produce word.

4. The ball toy according to claim 1, wherein said hollow spherical housing has an outer shell, and said switch is mounted flush with the outer shell.

5. The ball toy according to claim 4, including a flexible membrane over said switch.

6. The ball toy according to claim 1, including an array of holes in said spherical housing, and a speaker mounted inside said housing adjacent said array of holes for emitting said audio signal.

7. The ball toy according to claim 1, wherein said spherical housing includes two hemispherical parts, the two parts held together by a twist-lock mechanism.

8. A ball toy device, comprising:

a hollow spherical housing;

an electronic module inside said housing for producing a digitally produced spoken word;

a randomly self-selective time interval timer for activating said spoken word independent of any external input, said spoken word includes randomly selected numbers;

a switch for initiating the randomly self-selective time interval; and

a circuit in said electronic module for turning off power to said electronic module after the audio signal has been activated.

9. The ball toy according to claim 8, wherein said spoken word is the word "gotcha".

10. The ball toy according to claim 8, wherein said hollow spherical housing has an outer shell, and said switch is mounted flush with the outer shell.

11. The ball toy according to claim 10, including a flexible membrane over said switch.

12. The ball toy according to claim 8, including an array of holes in said spherical housing, and a speaker mounted inside said housing adjacent said array of holes for emitting said audio signal.

13. The ball toy according to claim 8, wherein said spherical housing includes two hemispherical parts, the two parts held together by a twist-lock mechanism.

14. A ball toy device, comprising:

a hollow spherical housing;

an electronic module inside said housing for producing digitally the spoken word selected from the word "gotcha" and a randomly selected number;

a randomly self-selective time interval timer for activating said spoken word independent of any external input; and

a switch for initiating the randomly self-selective time interval; and

a circuit in said electronic module for turning off power to said electronic module after the audio signal has been activated.

15. A method of playing a game with a ball toy including a voice module, a randomly self-selective time interval timer, and an activation switch, including the steps of:

initiating the randomly self-selective time interval timer by pressing the switch;

tossing the ball toy between persons until the randomly self-selective time interval ends, independent of any external input, resulting in an audible signal selected from the word "gotcha" and a randomly selected number produced by said voice module;

imposing a task upon the person possessing the ball toy dependent upon the randomly selected number.