Toy vehicle with on-board electronics
First Claim
1. A toy vehicle comprising:
- a housing configured to resemble a reduced-scale vehicle;
at least one freely rotatable wheel supporting the housing and configured to rotate when the vehicle moves along an external surface;
a display disposed on an exterior surface of the housing for displaying a velocity value;
a rotary encoder configured to count rotations of the freely rotatable wheel and output encoder data representative of the rotation count; and
a microprocessor configured to calculate toy vehicle velocity from the encoder data and to send a velocity value to the display.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A toy vehicle that measures and displays performance characteristics is presented. The toy vehicle may be configured to measure performance of the toy, such as speed or acceleration, and display a value for the performance characteristic. A display for showing the performance values may be mounted on the body of the toy vehicle. Movement of the toy vehicle may be measured using an accelerometer. The toy vehicle may determine the number of wheel rotations in a set period of time using a rotary encoder. The value of the performance characteristic may be output to a microprocessor onboard the toy vehicle. The microprocessor may use the value in calculations and the result of the calculations, such as a scaled speed value, may be shown on the display screen.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A toy vehicle comprising:
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a housing configured to resemble a reduced-scale vehicle; at least one freely rotatable wheel supporting the housing and configured to rotate when the vehicle moves along an external surface; a display disposed on an exterior surface of the housing for displaying a velocity value; a rotary encoder configured to count rotations of the freely rotatable wheel and output encoder data representative of the rotation count; and a microprocessor configured to calculate toy vehicle velocity from the encoder data and to send a velocity value to the display. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A toy vehicle comprising:
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a housing configured to resemble a reduced-scale vehicle; a display disposed on an exterior surface of the housing for displaying a speed; an accelerometer for measuring vehicle motion; and a microprocessor configured to; calculate toy vehicle velocity from measured vehicle motion; and send a velocity value to the display. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A speedometer to be used in a reduced-scale toy vehicle having a body supported on at least one freely rotatable wheel that rotates when the vehicle is moved along a support surface, the speedometer comprising:
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an optical rotary encoder, including an encoder pattern, configured to count rotation of the freely rotatable wheel; control inputs; a display on the toy vehicle; a power source; and a microprocessor, operably connected to the control inputs, the encoder, the display and the power source, the microprocessor configured to determine and display a value based on counted wheel rotation. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method of measuring velocity of a reduced-scale toy vehicle, comprising:
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accelerating a reduced-scale toy vehicle; measuring toy motion from onboard the toy vehicle; calculating toy vehicle velocity from the measurements; converting the calculated velocity to a scaled vehicle velocity by multiplying the calculated velocity by a factor corresponding to the reduced scale of the toy vehicle; and displaying the scaled vehicle velocity on the toy vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification