Toy doll for image capture and display

• US 8,662,954 B2
• Filed: 05/31/2012
• Issued: 03/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mattel Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Mattel Incorporated
• Inventors: Goff, Christopher L., Curreri, Tracy L., King, Paul T., Chan, Wai K., Chan, Chi W., Skifstrom, Eric E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Brewster, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): RADA, ALEX P
• Application Number:
  US13/485,861
• Publication Number:
  US 20120315820A1
• Time in Patent Office: 642 Days
• Field of Search: 446/175, 446/268, 446/484, 446/297, 369/429
• US Class Current: 446/175
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 3/00 Dolls puppets or marionettes for shows or theatres A63J19/006
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 3/28 Arrangements of sound-producing means in dolls; Means in dolls for producing sounds

Abstract

A toy doll is provided having a torso defined by a front surface and a back surface. The doll may additionally include legs extending from a lower portion of the torso, an image sensor located on the back surface of the torso, and an image display located on the front surface of the torso. The doll may additionally include a control panel integrated into the pelvic region of the torso, operatively interconnected with the image sensor and the image display, so that that the image sensor and the image display are controllable by using the control panel. The doll may further include fabric clothing covering the image display, permitting a user to create the appearance of personalized graphic clothing for the doll.

Claims

1. A toy doll comprising:

a torso, defined by a front torso surface and a back torso surface, and including a pelvic region;

a camera lens integrated into the back torso surface;

an image sensor supported inside the torso and optically connected to the camera lens;

an image display integrated into the front torso surface and operatively connected to the image sensor;

a control panel integrated into the pelvic region of the torso, operatively interconnected with the image sensor and the image display, such that the image sensor and the image display are controllable by using the control panel.

2. The toy doll of claim 1, further including a processor operatively connected to the image sensor and the image display.

3. The toy doll of claim 2, further including fabric clothing covering the image display.

4. The toy doll of claim 2, further including an electrical connector integrated into the torso and operatively connected to the processor.

5. The toy doll of claim 2, further including a power source operatively connected to the processor.

6. The toy doll of claim 1, further including

legs extending from a lower portion of the torso;

and a processor operatively connected to the image sensor and the image display, the processor configured to capture an image sensed by the image sensor and display the sensed image on the image display.

7. The toy doll of claim 6, further including an image memory operatively connected to the processor.

8. The toy doll of claim 7, wherein the control panel includes at least one manual input.

9. The toy doll of claim 8, where the control panel includes a manual input for capturing an image sensed by the image sensor, saving the captured image to the image memory, and displaying the captured image on the image display.

10. The toy doll of claim 8, where the control panel includes a manual input for selecting an image saved in the image memory, and displaying the selected image on the image display.

11. The toy doll of claim 8, where the control panel includes a manual input for modifying an image displayed on the image display by superimposing images selected from the image memory.

12. The toy doll of claim 8, where the control panel is configured to resemble a belt worn by the toy doll.

13. The toy doll of claim 6, further comprising a shirt worn by the toy doll, where the shirt does not substantially interfere with a display of an image by the image display.

14. The toy doll of claim 6, further including an electrical connector integrated into the torso and operatively connected to the processor.

15. The toy doll of claim 6, further including a power source housed in at least one of the legs and operatively connected to the processor.

16. The toy doll of claim 14, further comprising a stand configured to display the toy doll in an upright position, and to support a data cable that is coupled to the electrical connector of the toy doll.

17. A method of playing with a toy doll, where the toy doll includes a torso and legs, an image sensor disposed on a back surface of the torso, an image display disposed on a front surface of the torso;

and a control input disposed on a lower front portion of the torso;

the method comprising;

grasping the legs while leaving the image sensor and the image display exposed;

activating a manual power control, so that images created by the image sensor are displayed on the image display;

positioning the toy doll to orient the image sensor toward a desired image subject;

framing the desired image subject within the image display; and

activating a manual capture control, so that the framed image is captured as an electronic image data file.

18. The method of playing with a toy doll of claim 17, further comprising outputting the electronic image data file to an associated computer.

19. The method of playing with a toy doll of claim 18, wherein outputting the electronic image data file to an associated computer includes coupling the toy doll to the computer using a data cable.

20. The method of playing with a toy doll of claim 18, wherein outputting the electronic electronic image data file to an associated computer makes the electronic image data file available for editing using the associated computer.

21. The method of playing with a toy doll of claim 18, further comprising uploading the electronic image data file to a website.