Toy with persistance of view components

• US 9,186,595 B1
• Filed: 08/15/2011
• Issued: 11/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/13/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mattel Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Mattel Incorporated
• Inventors: Cannon, Bruce James
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Gene
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hylinski, Alyssa
• Application Number:
  US13/209,537
• Time in Patent Office: 1,555 Days
• Field of Search: 446/26, 446/28, 446/236, 446/242, 446/485
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 33/22 Optical, colour, or shadow toys puzzles with optical elements A63F9/0613; kaleidoscopes G02B27/08
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2310/08 Details of timing specific for flat panels, other than clock recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/005 forming an image using a quickly moving array of imaging elements, causing the human eye to perceive an image which has a larger resolution than the array, e.g. an image on a cylinder formed by a rotating line of LEDs parallel to the axis of rotation
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/04 using circuits for interfacing with colour displays

Abstract

An amusement device includes a rotating assembly display rotatably mounted about a center point configured to create a plurality of images via a persistence of vision effect. The rotating assembly includes a sensor disposed on the rotating assembly at a location closer to an end of the rotating assembly than to the center point. The amusement device also includes a device for rotating the rotating assembly and a control circuit including a first microcontroller in operable communication with the sensor. The microcontroller controls a speed at which the device for rotating the rotating assembly rotates the rotating assembly based on communications with the sensor.

Claims

1. An amusement device, comprising:

a rotating assembly display rotatably mounted about a center point configured to create a plurality of images on a display space via a persistence of vision effect caused by light emitted by light sources on the rotating assembly, the images being greyscale and having at least three different states including a BRIGHT state, an OFF state and a DIM state;

a device for rotating the rotating assembly;

a control circuit including a first microcontroller for providing display information to the rotating assembly for creating the images, the display information being based on pixels in a source image wherein each pixel in the source image is displayed according to a plurality of positions of each of the light sources within each pixel of the source image as the rotating display is rotated and wherein at least one of the plurality of positions is a pixel boundary of each pixel and each light source is illuminated or off as they are moved within the plurality of positions and wherein the illumination of each light source depends on the location of each light source as it moves within the plurality of positions of each pixel.

2. The amusement device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of positions includes seven positions and the DIM state is formed by causing a light source to emit light when it is in two of the seven positions and to not emit light when it is in other positions.

3. The amusement device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of positions includes seven positions and the DIM state is formed by causing a light source to emit light when it is in second and sixth positions of the seven positions and to not emit light when it is in other positions.

4. The amusement device of claim 3, wherein the BRIGHT state is formed by causing the light source to emit light when it is in five of the seven positions.

5. The amusement device of claim 3, wherein the BRIGHT state is formed by causing the light source to emit light when it is in second through sixth positions of the seven positions.

6. The amusement device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of positions includes seven positions and the greyscale image also includes a MEDIUM state that is formed by causing the light source to emit light when it is four of the seven positions.

7. The amusement device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of positions includes seven positions and the greyscale image also includes a MEDIUM state that us formed by causing the light source to emit light when it is in second, third, fifth and sixth positions of the seven positions.

8. The amusement device as in claim 1, further comprising a speaker for playing a plurality of sounds, each of the plurality of sound effects corresponding to at least one of the plurality of images.

9. The amusement device of claim 8, wherein the first microcontroller synchronizes the sounds to the plurality of images based on a rate of rotation of the rotating assembly.

10. The amusement device of claim 9, further comprising:

a gating mechanism disposed on a base of the amusement device.

11. The amusement device of claim 10, wherein the rotating assembly further includes:

a sensor having a first portion and a second portion, the first portion arranged on a first side of the gating mechanism and the second portion arranged on a second side of the gating mechanism.

12. The amusement device of claim 11, wherein the gating mechanism is a ring that includes a plurality of teeth and wherein the sensor produces a pulse train as the rotation assembly rotates that is based on times when the sensor passes the teeth.

13. The amusement device of claim 9, wherein the first microcontroller varies power provided to the device for rotating the rotating assembly based on the rate of rotation of the rotating assembly.

14. The amusement device of claim 8, wherein the first microcontroller synchronizes the sounds to the plurality of images based on a time interval.

15. The amusement device of claim 1, wherein the rotating assembly is rotatably mounted about the center point and the rotating assembly includes a plurality of light sources disposed on both side of the center point.

16. The amusement device of claim 1, wherein the rotating assembly is rotatably mounted about the center point and the rotating assembly further comprises a sensor disposed on the rotating assembly at a location closer to an end of the rotating assembly than to the center point and includes a second microcontroller coupled to the sensor that receives communications from the first microcontroller through the sensor.

17. The amusement device of claim 16, wherein the rotating assembly includes a plurality of light sources and the first microcontroller and the second microcontroller control operation of the plurality of light sources based on the received communications.

18. The amusement device of claim 1, wherein the rotating assembly is disposed within a belt.

19. The amusement device of claim 18, wherein the belt is a championship belt.

20. The amusement device of claim 1, wherein the rotating assembly includes a plurality of light sources and further comprising:

a lens array disposed on the rotating assembly that creates a rectilinear light pattern from light emitted by the light sources.

21. The amusement device of claim 20, further comprising:

a mask element disposed over the lens array.

22. The amusement device of claim 21, wherein the mask element includes a slot that has an expanding width along its length.

23. The amusement device of claim 1, wherein the rotating assembly includes a plurality of light sources and further comprising:

a mask element disposed on the rotating assembly over at least one of the light sources.

24. The amusement device of claim 23, wherein the mask element includes a slot that has an expanding width along its length.

25. The amusement device as in claim 1, further comprising:

a buckle portion; and

fasteners for securing the buckle portion to a user;

wherein the buckle portion includes;

the rotating assembly display and wherein the rotating assembly display is rotatably mounted about a center point;

the device for rotating the rotating assembly; and

the control circuit including the first microcontroller in operable communication with a sensor disposed on the rotating assembly, the first microcontroller controlling a speed at which the device for rotating the rotating assembly rotates the rotating assembly based on communications with the sensor.

26. The amusement device of claim 25, wherein the sensor is located at a location closer to an end of the rotating assembly than to the center point.

27. The amusement device of claim 25, wherein the buckle portion is formed to resemble a title belt.

28. The amusement device of claim 25, wherein the rotating assembly includes a plurality of light sources disposed on both sides of the center point.

29. The amusement device of claim 25, wherein the rotating assembly includes a second microcontroller coupled to the sensor that receives communications from the first microcontroller through the sensor.

30. The amusement device of claim 29, wherein the rotating assembly includes a plurality of light sources and the first microcontroller and the second microcontroller control operation of the plurality of light sources based on the received communications.

31. The amusement device of claim 1, further comprising a mask element for varying the amount of light transmitted by each of the plurality of light sources, wherein the mask element has a plurality of openings each being aligned with one of the light sources and each having a length and a width, wherein the length of each opening is the same and the width of each opening increases as the distance between the opening and the center point increases.