Therapy buddy

• US 6,890,239 B2
• Filed: 07/17/2003
• Issued: 05/10/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: My Therapy Buddy, Inc.
• Original Assignee: My Therapy Buddy, Inc.
• Inventors: Kopelle, Richard A.
• Primary Examiner(s): MILLER, BENA B
• Application Number:
  US10/621,900
• Publication Number:
  US 20040077280A1
• Time in Patent Office: 663 Days
• Field of Search: 446 26- 28, 446183-185, 446/297, 446/302, 446/327, 446/320, 446/369, 446/385, 446/397, 434236-238, 434/393
• US Class Current: 446/320
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 3/28 Arrangements of sound-producing means in dolls; Means in dolls for producing sounds

Abstract

A transitional object in the form of a plush creature having arms and legs with a soothing voice that provides comforting words can be activated by squeezing a sensor located in either foot and prompting soothing phrases including “everything is going to be all right” to reduce the level of stress and anxiety in a person.

Claims

1. A transitional companion in the form of a talking buddy for providing reassurance to a person and for self-healing, the companion comprising:

a body assembly, with a corpulent torso and an outer covering of soft material and an interior body cavity;

a head portion having a face with closed eyes

two elongated flexible arms of a length to fit around the torso of a person and configured to be attachable to a substrate,

two truncated leg portions provided with activation pads;

an electronic circuit including a sound module housed in the body cavity and connected to a power source; and

a plurality of switching means covered by said outer covering, and associated with the leg portions of the assembly and connected to the electronic circuit so as to provide a switch signal response to a user'"'"'s touching of the respective leg portion activation pads; and

wherein the sound module includes a voice synthesizing means for electrical synthesizing a plurality of soothing, reassuring, comforting, and universal words in response to the switch signal provided;

the voice synthesizing means including speaker means for audibilizing said electronically synthesized words.

2. The transitional companion of claim 1, further comprising sequencing means coupled between said plurality of switch means and said voice synthesizing means, said sequencing means for providing a sequence of control signals to said synthesizing means responsive to said switching means to cause said synthesizing means to synthesize a sequence of words responsive to said switching means providing the switch signal.

3. The transitional companion of claim 1, wherein the outer cover is made from plush material.

4. The transitional companion of claim 1, wherein the head portion has facial features wherein the facial features include closed eyelids and a smiling mouth.

5. The transitional companion of claim 1, wherein the body assembly includes a torso having a rotund shape.

6. The transitional companion of claim 1, wherein the chip in a sound module is programmed to render the phrases:

“

Everything is going to be all right”

, “

Hear my voice, everything is going to be all right”

, “

Feel the words, everything is going to be all right”

, “

Believe it, Everything is going to be all right”

sequentially upon activating the pads.

7. A method of reducing stress in a person by means of a therapy buddy according to claim 1 comprising the steps of:

providing the therapy buddy to the person in stress;

folding the arms of the therapy body around the person;

activating the switching means switches by the activation pads at the legs of the therapy buddy to thereby trigger a mechanism to render its recorded soothing phrases; and

listening to the soothing phrases until the stress in the person is reduced.

8. The transitional companion of claim 1, wherein the chip in a sound module is programmed to render a sequence of suitable stress reducing phrases upon activation of the switching means.