System and method for communicating with and controlling toy accessories
First Claim
1. In combination,a plurality of accessories, an auxiliary accessory different from the accessories, a pad operative to provide an address for selecting an individual one of the accessories and to provide commands to the individual one of the accessories for controlling the operation of the individual one of the accessories in accordance with the commands, a central station connected to the pad, first means in the central station for receiving the address and the commands from the pad, a smart port for transmitting the commands from the central station to the auxiliary accessory, second means responsive in the auxiliary accessory to the address and commands from the central station for modifying the address and commands, third means responsive in the central station to a signal from the auxiliary accessory for determining whether the auxiliary accessory is a smart accessory or a dumb accessory, fourth means in the central station for transmitting the modified address and commands from the auxiliary accessory in a first relationship to the accessories in the plurality to provide a first pattern of binary indications when the central station determines that the auxiliary accessory is a smart accessory, the third means processing the address and commands in a second relationship different from the first relationship to provide a second pattern of binary indications when the central station determines that the auxiliary accessory is a dumb accessory, fifth means in the individual one of the accessories for operating the individual one of the accessories in accordance with the first pattern of the binary indications.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for controlling toy vehicles has a plurality of pads coupled to a central station. Switches in the pads may be closed to select toy vehicles and the operation of motors for moving the vehicles forwardly, rearwardly, to the left and to the right and moving upwardly and downwardly a receptacle or bin for holding transportable elements (e.g. marbles). The pads may be set in a mode to allow sharing of a vehicle by more than one pad. The pads are connected by wires to the central station, and may be interrogated selectively, sequentially or simultaneously by the central station. The central station forms packets of signals representative of the switch closures of the interrogated pads, and transmits the packets over a modulated carrier frequency to receivers in the vehicles. Each of the packets includes a binary signal addressing the vehicle selected by the pad whose switch closures are represented by the packet of data. The central station prioritizes the transmission of the packets to improve vehicle control. An accessory, or a second central station, may be coupled to a smart port of the first central station. When the pads are interrogated by the central station, the signals from the pads are routed to the accessory or second central station. If the accessory is a smart accessory, the signals are processed by the smart accessory and then sent back to the first central station for transmission to the vehicles. The accessory may draw its operating power from a line connected to the smart port. The pads include a flashback feature that automatically selects a previously selected vehicle. The motors of the vehicles may be energized using pulse width modulation to control the speed of the motor. Signals received by the vehicle are asserted to the motors in the first part of a duty cycle. The vehicles monitor all packets, and decode packets addressed to the vehicle to execute the commands represented by signals contained within the packet. When a packet is determined to be invalid, the vehicle ignores the packet.
102 Citations
63 Claims
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1. In combination,
a plurality of accessories, an auxiliary accessory different from the accessories, a pad operative to provide an address for selecting an individual one of the accessories and to provide commands to the individual one of the accessories for controlling the operation of the individual one of the accessories in accordance with the commands, a central station connected to the pad, first means in the central station for receiving the address and the commands from the pad, a smart port for transmitting the commands from the central station to the auxiliary accessory, second means responsive in the auxiliary accessory to the address and commands from the central station for modifying the address and commands, third means responsive in the central station to a signal from the auxiliary accessory for determining whether the auxiliary accessory is a smart accessory or a dumb accessory, fourth means in the central station for transmitting the modified address and commands from the auxiliary accessory in a first relationship to the accessories in the plurality to provide a first pattern of binary indications when the central station determines that the auxiliary accessory is a smart accessory, the third means processing the address and commands in a second relationship different from the first relationship to provide a second pattern of binary indications when the central station determines that the auxiliary accessory is a dumb accessory, fifth means in the individual one of the accessories for operating the individual one of the accessories in accordance with the first pattern of the binary indications.
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8. In combination for use in a system including a plurality of accessories each responsive, in a first relationship, to an individual address and to a plurality of commands for providing operations of the accessory in accordance with such commands,
a plurality of pads each operative to provide an address for selecting an individual one of the accessories and each operative to provide a plurality of commands for operating such individual one of the accessories in accordance with such commands, a central station connected to the pads, a smart port connected to the central station, an auxiliary accessory constructed to be connected to the central station through the smart port, first means in the central station for passing the commands from the pads through the smart port to the auxiliary accessory, and second means responsive in the auxiliary accessory to the commands from the central station for passing modified commands through the smart port to the central station.
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12. In combination,
a central station, an accessory constituting either a smart accessory or a dumb accessory, means in the central station for providing a sequence of signals including first signals providing for a determination of whether the accessory is a smart accessory or a dumb accessory and including second signals providing an address and third signals providing commands, means in the accessory for responding to the first signals when the accessory is a smart accessory and for ignoring the first signals when the accessory is a dumb accessory, means in the accessory for extracting the second and third signals when the accessory is a dumb accessory, means in the accessory for providing the accessory with a particular address when the accessory is a dumb accessory, means in the accessory for activating the accessory when the second signals in the sequence provide the particular address and when the accessory is a dumb accessory, and means in the accessory for operating the accessory in accordance with the extracted third signals when the accessory has been activated and the accessory is a dumb accessory.
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20. In combination,
a central station, an accessory constituting either a smart accessory or a dumb accessory, means for providing a particular communication between the central station and the accessory when the accessory is a smart accessory and for failing to provide the particular communication between the central station and the accessory when the accessory is a dumb accessory, means responsive in the central station to the particular communication from the accessory for considering the accessory to be a smart accessory, and means responsive in the central station to the failure of the accessory to provide the particular communication with the accessory for considering the accessory to be a dumb accessory.
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27. In combination,
a central station, an accessory constituting either a smart accessory or a dumb accessory, means for providing command signals at the central station and for transmitting such command signals to the accessory, means for modifying at the accessory the command signals from the central station when the accessory is a smart accessory, and means for simultaneously providing a synchronized transfer of the command signals from the central station to the accessory, and of the modified command signals from the accessory to the central station, when the central station is a smart accessory, and means responsive at the accessory, when the accessory is a dumb accessory, to the command signals from the central station for operating the accessory in accordance with the commands.
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35. In combination,
a plurality of first accessories each having an individual address, a plurality of pads each constructed to provide signals including an individual address and commands for operating one of the first accessories identified by such individual address, an additional accessory constituting either a smart accessory or a dumb accessory, a central station operatively coupled to the pads to send to the first accessories the signals provided by the pads when the additional accessory is a dumb accessory and to send to the additional accessory signals provided by the pads when the additional accessory is a smart accessory, means at the central station for reacting with the additional accessory to determine whether the additional accessory is a smart accessory or a dumb accessory, means responsive at the additional accessory to the signals from the central station, when the additional accessory is a smart accessory, for modifying the signals and for transmitting the modified signals to the central station, means at the central station for transmitting the signals to the first accessories when the additional accessory is a dumb accessory, and means responsive at the first accessories to the signals transmitted from the central station for operating the first accessories in accordance with the packets of signals addressed to the first accessories when the additional accessory is a dumb accessory.
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39. In combination,
a plurality of operative members, a plurality of pads, each individual one of the pads including first and second pluralities of switches each having first and second operative relationships, the first switches having the second operative relationship in a pattern providing an address to select an individual one of the operative members and the second switches having the second operative relationship in a pattern providing for a controlled operation of the individual one of the operative members, a central station having first and second states of operation, the central station being responsive in the first state of operation of the central station to the individual pattern of the first switches in the second state of operation of the first switches for producing a plurality of signals representing the address of an individual one of the vehicles and being responsive in the first state of operation to the individual pattern of the second switches in the second state of operation of the second switches for producing a second plurality of signals providing a first controlled operation of the individual one of the operative members, the central station being responsive in the second state of operation of the central station to the individual pattern of the second switches in the second state of operation of the second switches for producing a third plurality of signals for providing a second controlled operation of the individual one of the operative members different from the first controlled operation of the individual one of the operative members.
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42. In combination for use in a system including a plurality of accessories, each individual one of the accessories being responsive in a first relationship to an individual address and to commands for providing operations of the individual one of the accessories in accordance with such commands, the system including, in a second relationship, an auxiliary accessory for receiving commands,
a plurality of pads each operative to provide an address for selecting an individual one of the accessories and to provide commands to such individual one of the for operating such individual one of the accessories in accordance with such commands and each operative to provide an additional command indicating whether or not the individual one of the accessories or the auxiliary accessory is to be operated, a central station connected to the pads, first means in the central station for interrogating the pads to determine the address and the commands and the additional command provided by such pads, second means in the central station for receiving the address and the commands and the additional command from each of the pads, third means responsive in the central station to the additional command from the pads for determining from the additional command whether or not the commands from the pads are intended for the accessories or for the auxiliary accessory, fourth means in the central station for directing the commands from the pads to the additional accessory when the central station determines from the additional command that the commands are intended by the pads for the additional accessory, and fifth means in the central station for processing the address and commands from the pads in a first relationship to provide a first pattern of binary indications when the central station determines from the additional command from the pads that the commands from the pads are not to be directed to the additional accessory and for processing the commands in a second relationship different from the first relationship to provide a second pattern of binary indications when the central station determines from the additional command from the pads that the commands are to be directed to the auxiliary accessory, and sixth means in the central station for transmitting the first and second patterns of the binary indications to the accessories and the second patterns of the binary indications to the auxiliary accessory.
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47. In combination,
a plurality of accessories, an auxiliary accessory different from the accessories, a pad operative to provide an address for selecting an individual one of the accessories and to provide commands to such individual one of the accessories for operating such individual one of the accessories in accordance with such commands and to provide an additional command indicating whether or not such individual one of the accessories is to be operated or the auxiliary accessory is to be activated, a central station connected to the pad, first means in the central station for receiving the address and the commands and the additional command from the pad, second means responsive in the central station to the additional command from the pad for determining from such additional command whether or not the commands from the pad are intended for the individual one of the accessories or for the auxiliary accessory, third means in the central station for directing the commands from the pad to the auxiliary accessory when the central station determines from the additional command that the commands are intended to activate the additional accessory, fourth means in the central station for processing the address and commands in a first relationship to provide a first pattern of binary indications when the central station determines from the additional command in the pad that the commands from the pad are not to be directed to the auxiliary accessory and for processing the commands in a second relationship different from the first relationship to provide a second pattern of binary indications when the central station determines from the additional command in the pad that the commands are to be directed to the auxiliary accessory, fifth means in the central station for transmitting the first and second patterns of the binary indications to the accessories and the auxiliary accessory, sixth means in the individual one of the accessories for operating the individual one of the accessories in accordance with the first pattern of the binary indications, and seventh means in the auxiliary accessory for activating the auxiliary accessory in accordance with the second pattern of the binary indications.
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50. In combination for use in a system including a plurality of accessories, each individual one of the accessories being responsive, in a first relationship, to an individual address and to a plurality of commands for providing operations of such individual one of the accessories in accordance with such commands, the system including, in a second relationship, at least one auxiliary accessory for receiving commands,
a plurality of pads each operative to provide an address for selecting one of the accessories and each operative to provide commands for operating such selected one of the accessories in accordance with such commands, a central station connected to the pads, a smart port constructed to be connected to the central station, first means in the central station for interrogating the pads to determine if the smart port is connected to the central station, second means associated with the central station for processing the commands from the pads in a particular relationship, when the central station determines that the smart port is connected to the central station, to provide commands for operating the auxiliary accessory, and third means in the central station for transmitting the commands in the particular relationship through the smart port to the auxiliary mechanism when the central station determines that the smart port is connected to the central station.
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55. In combination for use in a system including a plurality of accessories, each individual one of the accessories being responsive in a first relationship to an individual address and to a plurality of commands for providing operations of such individual one of the accessories in accordance with such commands, the system including, in a second relationship, at least one auxiliary accessory for receiving commands,
a central station, first means in the central station for determining whether the auxiliary accessory is a smart accessory or a dumb accessory, a plurality of pads each operative to provide an address for selecting an individual one of the accessories and to provide commands to such individual one of the for operating such individual one of the accessories in accordance with such commands and each providing an address and commands to operate the auxiliary accessory when the auxiliary accessory is a dumb accessory, the central station being connected to the pads, second means in the central station for processing the addresses and commands from the pads to obtain an operation of the accessories in accordance with such addresses and commands, third means in the central station for operating the auxiliary accessory in accordance with the address and commands from the pad when the central station determines that the auxiliary accessory is a dumb accessory, and fourth means in the auxiliary accessory for modifying the commands from the pads and for transmitting the modified commands to the central station for transmission by the central station to the accessories, the auxiliary accessory is a smart port.
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59. In combination for use in a system including
a plurality of accessories, each individual one of the accessories being responsive in a first relationship to an individual address and to a plurality of commands for providing operations of such individual one of the accessories in accordance with such commands, the system including, in a second relationship, an auxiliary accessory for receiving commands, a central station including first microcontroller means, a plurality of pads each operative to provide an address for selecting an individual one of the accessories and to provide commands to such individual one of the accessories for operating such individual one of the accessories in accordance with such commands and each providing an address and commands to obtain an operation of the auxiliary accessory, second microcontroller means in the auxiliary accessory, first means in the central station for processing the addresses from the pads for determining whether such addresses are intended for the accessories or the auxiliary accessory, second means in the central station including the first microcontroller means for processing the address and commands for operation of the accessories when the central station determines that the addresses and the commands are intended for the accessories and for introducing the addresses and commands to the auxiliary accessory when the central station determines that the addresses and commands from the pads are intended for the auxiliary accessory and the auxiliary accessory is a dumb accessory, third means including the second microcontroller means for processing the addresses and commands from the central station to provide commands for operating the auxiliary accessory when the addresses and commands from the pads are intended for the auxiliary accessory and the auxiliary accessory is a dumb accessory, and fourth means including the second microprocessor means for modifying the addresses and commands from the central station and for transmitting the modified addresses and commands to the central station when the auxiliary accessory is a smart accessory.
Specification