Interactive device with sound-based action synchronization
Contents
1. thesizer The central processor could also control various motors that were coupled to the features ofthe doll in order to simulate life like actions These animated toys typically portrayed popular charac ters that appeared in other entertainment modalities such as television shows and movies and accordingly appeared and sounded alike Some commercially available toys with these interactive features include Furby amp from Hasbro Inc of Pawtucket R I and Barney from HiT Entertainment Lim ited of London United Kingdom Despite the substantially increased interactivity with these dolls there remain a number of deficiencies Some parents and child psychologists argue that these dolls do nothing to stimulate a child s imagination because they are reduced to reacting passively to a toy much like watching television Notwithstanding the increased vocabulary the limited num ber of acceptable commands and responses has proven inter action to be repetitious at best Although children may ini tially be fascinated they soon become cognizant of the repetition as the thrill wears off and thus quickly lose interest Accordingly there is a need in the art for an improved amuse ment device Furthermore there is a need for interactive toys with sound based action synchronization BRIEF SUMMARY One embodiment of the present invention contemplates an amusement device that may include a first acoustic transducer and a second acoustic tra2. 13 US 8 715 031 B2 R21 22K Tw Tw 14 L4 C26 US 8 715 031 B2 Sheet 12 of 13 x 1 X mts a Z N bud i i S s A r Pus 4 4 Ne amp 4 p JE 8 in LL d E es S 1 H 2 n i j Ww 5 T i i FIG 9 FIG 9D FIG 9B May 6 2014 U S Patent FIG 9A U S Patent May 6 2014 Sheet 13 of 13 US 8 715 031 B2 300 POWER ON SLEEP MODE BUTTON PRESSED 302 NO 304 302 RETURN TO SLEEP MODE CLEAR ALL REGISTERS YES ENTER DEMONSTRATION MODE 306 USER INPUT DETECTED 320 CLEAR REGISTER_O INCREMENT REGISTER_1 322 324 302 RETURN TO SLEEP MODE CLEAR ALL REGISTERS 328 YES FIG 10 US 8 715 031 B2 1 INTERACTIVE DEVICE WITH SOUND BASED ACTION SYNCHRONIZATION CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS Not Applicable STATEMENT RE FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT Not Applicable BACKGROUND 1 Technical Field The present invention relates generally to toys and amuse ment devices and more particularly to an interactive toy with sound based action synchronization 2 Related Art Children are often attracted to interactive amusement devices that provide both visual and aural stimulation In recognizing this attraction a wide variety have been devel oped throughout re
3. Although the present disclosure describes various features of the interactive device 10 in relation to the functionality of the piezoelectric trans ducer 32 it is understood that such features are adaptable to the alternative modalities for detecting the user input actions With reference to the plot of FIG 4 a condensed represen tation of a user input signal 41 that corresponds to the clap ping sound inputs is shown The signal 41 is defined by a starting point 42 at which the musical soundtrack begins playing and the piezoelectric transducer 32 is activated Each small tick mark 44 represents an equal time interval of the musical soundtrack and larger tick marks 46 represent the instant in time when the clapping sound was detected The signal 41 is also defined by an ending point 48 at which the musical soundtrack ends playing and the piezoelectric trans ducer 32 is deactivated The small tick marks 44 are understood to have a corre sponding timestamp associated therewith Considering that each of the large tick marks 46 overlap with one of the small tick marks 44 the timestamp is also associated with each moment a clapping sound was detected and each handclap is linked to a particular playback position of the musical soundtrack Referring again to the flowchart of FIG 3 step 204 includes storing into memory these timestamps for when the user input actions were detected To ensure real time write speeds the timestamps may be stored
4. actions a mechanical actuator coupled to a movable element 34 The method of claim 26 wherein playing the graphical output includes retrieving a digital representation of the graphical output from a memory and generating a visualization of the graphical output from the digital representation 35 The method of claim 34 wherein the retrieved digital representation of a graphical output is chosen from a plurality of digital representations of graphical outputs stored in the memory 36 The method of claim 35 wherein the retrieved digital representation of a graphical output is chosen by an associa tion with a user input action 37 The method of claim 26 wherein the timestamps are derived from one of timer values and instruction cycle count values generated by a programmable data processor ke
5. and the extended position simulate a clapping action being performed by the doll FIG 11 Similarly the head 18 has a resting position as shown in FIG 1A an intermediate position as shown in FIG 1B and an extended position as shown in FIG 1C Those having ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the movement of the features of the doll FIG 11 are not limited to the head 18 and the ears 24 and any other features may also be movable to simulate various actions being performed by the doll FIG 11 The block diagram of FIG 2 best illustrates the functional components of the interactive device 10 A programmable data processor 26 is central to the interactive device 10 and is configured to execute a series of preprogrammed instructions that generates certain outputs based upon provided inputs Specifically the executed instructions are understood to be steps in a method for interactive amusement according to one embodiment of the present invention The programmable data processor 26 is understood to have an arithmetic logic unit various registers an instruction decoder and a control unit as is typical of data processing devices An internal random access memory may also be included By way of example the programmable data processor 26 is 16 bit digital signal pro cessing DSP integrated circuit One commercially available option is the eSL Series IC from Elan Microelectronics Cor poration of Hsinchu Taiwan though any other suitab
6. at least one movable feature The amusement device may include a first acoustic transducer that is receptive to a sequence of sound signals in a first soundtrack playback US 8 715 031 B2 3 iteration The sequence of sound signals may correspond to pattern of user input actions associated with the soundtrack Additionally the amusement device may include a mechani cal actuator with an actuation element that is coupled to the movable feature of the animated figure The amusement device may also include a programmable data processor that has a first input connected to the acoustic transducer and a first output connected to the mechanical actuator The mechanical actuator may be activated by the programmable data processor in synchronization with the received sequence of sound signals in a second soundtrack playback iteration In a different embodiment an amusement device is con templated The amusement device may similarly have a replayable soundtrack The amusement device may include a first acoustic transducer that is receptive to a first sequence of sound signals in a first soundtrack playback iteration The sequence may correspond to a pattern of user input actions associated with the soundtrack There may also be a program mable data processor that has a first input connected to the first acoustic transducer and a first output connected to a second acoustic transducer A second sequence of sound sig nals may be played by the pro
7. if it is determined that the second register has a value greater than 1 then execu tion continues to a step 328 where the first and second regis ters are reset and returns to the sleep mode in step 302 Thus if the interactive device 10 has traversed through the learning and playback modes more than once it is put into the sleep 0 5 20 35 40 45 50 14 mode After the first traversal however execution returns to entering the learning mode per step 308 Each of the aforementioned embodiments generally segre gates those functions performed during the learning mode and those functions performed during the playback mode The present invention also contemplates however embodi ments in which the reception of the user input actions the playback of the musical soundtrack and the playback of the output audio signals occurs at in real time without particular association with a learning mode or a playback mode With such embodiments it is likewise contemplated that the sound input from the piezoelectric transducer 32 is received at sub stantially the same time as the various sound outputs to the loudspeaker are generated It will be recognized by those having ordinary skill in the art that a miniscule delay may be introduced between the receipt of the sound input analysis thereof selecting the appropriate output and generating that output In one exemplary embodiment a story telling Santa Claus may recite
8. in the cause of providing what is believed to be the most useful and readily understood description of the principles and conceptual aspects of the present invention In this regard no attempt is made to show structural details of the present invention in more detail than is necessary for the fundamental understand ing of the present invention the description taken with the drawings making apparent to those skilled in the art how the several forms of the present invention may be embodied in practice What is claimed is 1 A method for interactive amusement comprising playing a musical soundtrack continuously and uninter rupted in a first game iteration corresponding to a learn ing mode detecting a sequence of user input actions received during the learning mode storing into memory timestamps of each of the detected sequence of user input actions each of the timestamps designating a time instant at which the respective user input action was detected relative to the playing of the musical soundtrack in the learning mode and corre US 8 715 031 B2 15 sponding to one ofa plurality of time intervals uniformly segmented over an entire length of the musical soundtrack replaying the musical soundtrack continuously and unin terrupted in a second game iteration corresponding to a playback mode and generating in the playback mode an output audio signal on at least one interval of the received sequence of user 5 input actio
9. of the musical soundtrack that is the sequence of handclaps performed during the learning mode is repeated identically in the play back mode with the same pattern and timing relative to the musical soundtrack In other words the output audio signal is synchronous with the user input signal 41 In one embodiment the output audio signals are pre re corded sounds Different pre recorded sounds may be ran domly generated for each of the timestamps user input actions The same pre recorded sound may be generated for each of the timestamps user input actions It will be appreci ated that any type of pre recorded sounds may be utilized Additionally different pre recorded sounds may be played corresponding to different user input action sequences detected during the learning mode As indicated above the number of claps the pattern ofthe claps and so forth may be designated for a specific kind of output Ina different embodiment the output audio signals are the sound signals of the user input actions recorded in step 206 As indicated above the sound signals corresponding to each of the timestamps or user input actions are individually recorded so the output audio signals are understood to be generated in sequence from such individual recordings US 8 715 031 B2 9 Along with generating an output audio signal ina step 212 mechanical actuators or electric motors 38 are activated based upon the stored timestamps At each time interva
10. sensitive panel may be included on the remote controller 64 Thus no graphical output will be generated on the remote controller 64 By way ofexample only and not of limitation the selection of one of the icons 80 in the left column 76 is understood to select a specific animation of a feature of the character 61 that is activated according to the timestamps For example selec tion of a first left column icon 80a activates the animation of the mouth 22 while a selection of a second left column icon 802 activates the animation of the ears 24 Selection ofa third left column icon 80c activates the animation of the legs 14 and selection of a fourth left column icon 804 activates the animation of a tail Upon selection of any of the icons 80 visual feedback is provided by placing an emphasis thereon such as by for example highlights The selection of one ofthe icons 82 in right column 78 on the other hand is understood to select a particular output sound signal that is generated according to the timestamps Selection of a first right column icon 82a is understood to generate a trumpet sound and selection of a second right column icon 825 generates a spring or boing type sound Furthermore selection of a third right column icon 82c gen erates a bike horn sound while selection a fourth column icon 82d generates a drum sound In some embodiments different output channels may be assigned to a particular sound with each of the o
11. surface for ready access to the same As will be described in further detail below the control switches 34 may be power switches and mode changing switches Along these lines the power supply 30 is also embedded within the doll FIG 11 with access covers to the batteries being disposed on the exterior surface of the same As indicated above and shown in FIGS 1A 1C the head 18 and the ears 24 of the doll FIG 11 are movable and the electric motors 38 are understood to be mechanically coupled thereto Specifically the actuation element of the electric motors 38 that is its rotating shaft is coupled to the movable elements of the doll FIG 11 Conventional gearing tech niques well known by those having ordinary skill in the art may be employed therefor In the block diagram of FIG 2 the pair of the electric motors 38 corresponds to the head 18 and the ears 24 Based on the output signals generated by the programmable data processor 26 the ears 24 can be selec tively moved It is also contemplated that the electric motors 38 be coupled to other movable features of the doll FIG 11 including the legs 14 and the arms 16 addition to the visual stimuli provided by the animation of the various features of the doll FIG 11 it is also contem plated that the interactive device 10 provides aural stimula tion The programmable data processor 26 is understood to have sound synthesizing functionality that is the functional ity of genera
12. user input action 24 The method of claim 15 wherein the timestamps are derived from timer values generated by a programmable data processor US 8 715 031 B2 17 25 The method of claim 15 wherein the timestamps are derived from instruction cycle count values generated by a programmable data processor 26 A method for interactive amusement comprising playing a graphical output continuously and uninterrupted in a first game iteration corresponding to a learning mode detecting a sequence of user input actions received during the learning mode storing into memory timestamps of each of the detected sequence of user input actions each of the timestamps designating a time instant at which the respective user input action was detected relative to the playing of the graphical output in the learning mode and corresponding to one of a plurality of time intervals uniformly seg mented over an entire length of the graphical output replaying the graphical output in a second game iteration corresponding to a playback mode and generating in the playback mode an output signal on at least one interval of the received sequence of user input actions based upon the recorded timestamps the output signal being coordinated with the replaying of the graphical output generating in the playback mode an output signal on at least one interval of the received sequence of user input actions as designated by the recorded timestamps the output si
13. 2 is deacti vated in step 310 In decision branch 312 it is determined whether any user input actions were detected that is whether any timestamps were stored into memory If there was noth ing detected a first register nominally designated Register 0 is incremented Thereafter in decision branch 316 it is determined whether the first register has a value greater than 2 If not then the learning mode is entered again in step 308 repeating the steps associated therewith Otherwise the first register is cleared in step 318 and returns to the sleep mode in step 302 In general the foregoing logic dictates that if the learning mode is attempted twice without any user input actions the interactive device 10 is deactivated into the sleep mode Returning to the flowchart of FIG 10 if there has been any user input actions detected per decision branch 312 the method continues with a step 320 of clearing the first register As noted above the first register tracks the number of times the learning mode is entered and deactivates the interactive device 10 to the sleep mode 302 if there 15 no activity Having detected activity the method continues with entering the playback mode in step 322 and traverses through the steps described above and as shown in the flowchart of FIG 3 Then after the playback of musical soundtrack completes a second register nominally designated Register 1 is incre mented in step 324 In decision branch 326
14. FIG 11 In this regard the method for interactive amusement includes a step 214 of activating the animations based on the timestamps The graphical display device 60 may be a conventional television set having well known interfaces to connect to a console device 62 that generates the audio and graphical outputs According to one embodiment the console device 62 is a commercially available video game system that may be loaded with a variety of third party game software such as the PlayStation from Sony Computer Entertainment Inc of Tokyo Japan or the Xbox from Microsoft Corp of Red mond Wash Alternatively the console device 62 may be a dedicated video game console with the appropriate dedicated software to generate the audio and graphical outputs being preloaded thereon These dedicated video game consoles are also referred to in the art as plug N play devices In accordance with one embodiment of the present inven tion the console device 62 communicates with a remote controller 64 to perform some functionalities of the amuse ment device With reference to the schematic diagram of FIG 7 the remote controller 64 may include a device circuit 66 with the programmable data processor 26 the piezoelectric transducer 32 the microphone 33 and the memory module 40 As with the first embodiment the amusement device begins with playing a musical soundtrack and detecting a sequence of user input actions with the piezoelectric trans d
15. IR Receiver D2 R5 5 IR Transmitter 32 C172 Rg ci 3 6K T 104 21 lezo R9 Transducer 68K 20M R16 Q4 9014H FIG 5B Sheet 6 of 13 U S Patent May 6 2014 R18 PA2 2 47 R17 IK 010 8050 i 10K a R24 47 R23 1K Q16 8050 FIG 5C US 8 715 031 B2 PA3 8050 019 8050 10K U S Patent May 6 2014 Sheet 7 of 13 US 8 715 031 B2 FIG 6 U S Patent May 6 2014 Sheet 8 of 13 US 8 715 031 B2 FIG 7 FIG 7 ci 62 05 C4 MA lt 104 i FIG 7B FIG 7D T 104 104 fios Fr iuF R1 E 2 2 Loses RESET 8 4 swi 1 gt gt x 9 9 G C3 104 RESET C111 47n PLLC AVDD OSC 12 12 AVDD AD osco m AVDD DA 2 32 768 C13 12P OSC1 PBO PBI R16 PB2 GND 10K PB15 L ise VDD CPU a um SW2 7c KEY SW3 MODE U S Patent May 6 2014 Sheet 9 of 13 US 8 715 031 B2 MIC POWER U S Patent May 6 2014 Sheet 10 of 13 US 8 715 031 B2 vec U5 70 C16 LCD Driver 1 220uF 1 Bi 7 i w 1 z 1 U IR receiver D12 se X AZ IR TRANSMITTER I I I R19 R26 l c18 10 9013H 100uF 1 R2 Qt 9013H FIG 7 U S Patent May 6 2014 3v MISO FIG 7D RF MOSI Transceiver IC Sheet 11 of
16. SED ON TIMESTAMPS ACTIVATE MECHANICAL ACTUATORS BASED ON TIMESTAMPS 212 ACTIVATE ANIMATION BASED ON TIMESTAMPS 214 US 8 715 031 B2 Sheet 1 of 13 May 6 2014 U S Patent FIG 1 FIG 1B FIG 1A U S Patent May 6 2014 Sheet 2 of 13 US 8 715 031 B2 POWER SUPPLY PROGRAMMABLE DATA PROCESSOR 26 38 40 MEMORY FIG 2 41 44 46 MUSICAL SOUNDTRACK START PLAYBACK END PLAYBACK OF MUSICAL OF MUSICAL SOUNDTRACK SOUNDTRACK ACTIVATE DEACTIVATE ACOUSTIC ACOUSTIC TRANSDUCER TRANSDUCER FIG 4 U S Patent 200 202 May 6 2014 Sheet 3 of 13 US 8 715 031 B2 199 GENERATE INSTRUCTIONAL COMMAND PLAY MUSICAL SOUNDTRACK DETECT SEQUENCE OF USER INPUT ACTIONS 206 DERIVE USER INPUT STORE SOUND STORE TIMESTAMPS ACTION TYPES FROM SIGNALS OF FOR EACH OF THE USER INPUT ACTIONS 208 GENERATE OUTPUT AUDIO SIGNAL BASED ON TIMESTAMPS 210 RECEIVED SOUND RECORDED USER SIGNALS INPUT ACTIONS LEARNING MODE PLAYBACK MODE REPLAY MUSICAL SOUNDTRACK ACTIVATE MECHANICAL ACTUATORS BASED ON TIMESTAMPS ACTIVATE ANIMATION BASED ON TIMESTAMPS 212 214 FIG 3 U S Patent May 6 2014 Sheet 4 of 13 US 8 715 031 B2 AVSS_AD OVSS PC OVSS PB OVSS VSS OSC VSS_PM VSS CPU FIG FIG 5B FIG 5C Ede FIG 5 FIG 5A U S Patent May 6 2014 Sheet 5 of 13 US 8 715 031 B2 U3
17. United States Patent US008715031B2 12 10 Patent No US 8 715 031 B2 Fong et al 45 Date of Patent May 6 2014 54 INTERACTIVE DEVICE WITH 4 717 364 A 1 1988 Furukawa SOUND BASED ACTION 1949327 A 8 1990 Forsse etal 949 orsse et al SYNCHRONIZATION 5 145 447 9 1992 Goldfarb 446 408 5 5 587 545 12 1996 Nakada et al 84 600 75 Inventors Peter Sui Lun Fong Monterey Park CA 6 312 307 1 11 2001 Dean 446 297 US Xi Song Zhu Shenzhen CN 6 514 117 Bl 2 2003 Hampton et al Kelvin Yat Kit Fong Monterey Park eat y Z003 vn 463 43 US 682 7 120 257 2 10 2006 2008 0139080 1 6 2008 Zheng 446 268 73 Assignee Peter Sui Lun Fong Monterey Park CA US OTHER PUBLICATIONS Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this Elan Microelectronics Corp User s Manual Doc Version 1 3 patent is extended or adjusted under 35 Nov 2007 U S C 154 b by 1279 days Macronix International Co Ltd MXIC Oct 13 2005 Elan Microelectronics Corp Reference Guide Doc Version 1 3 21 Appl No 12 536 690 Nov 2007 22 Filed Aug 6 2009 cited by examiner 65 Prior Publication Data Primary Examiner William Brewster US 2011 0034103 Al Feb 10 2011 Assistant Examiner R P Rada II 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Stetina Brunda Garred amp 51 In
18. a Christmas story While the spoken story is gen erated by the loudspeaker the piezoelectric transducer 32 and the microphone 33 are activated and receptive to the user input actions As the story is being told it is possible for the user to alter the storyline by providing user input actions that vary according to pattern amplitude frequency and so forth as described above From the moment the user input action is detected the narration continues with an alternate story line By way of example when a portion of the story relating to Santa Claus rounding up reindeer on Christmas Eve is being narrated and the user inputs three claps the narration will indicate three reindeer being rounded up As a further example when the portion of the story relating to Santa Clause boarding the sleigh and being ready to begin his trek the user may input progressively louder hand claps to simu late the sleigh gaining speed for flight Along with the narra tion sound effects typically associated with take offs can be output The foregoing example is presented by way of example only and those having ordinary skill in the art will be capable of envisioning alternative game play scenarios in which the reception of the user input actions are simultaneous with the playback of the output audio signals The particulars shown herein are by way of example and for purposes of illustrative discussion of the embodiments of the present invention only and are presented
19. a particular one of the derived user input action types 16 The method of claim 15 wherein the user input actions correspond to hand claps 17 The method of claim 15 wherein the output signal is generated from predefined signals stored in the memory 18 The method of claim 15 further comprising generating an audible instructional command prior to play ing the background multimedia sequence in the first game iteration 19 The method of claim 15 further comprising activating on at least one interval of the received sequence of sound based user input actions a mechanical actuator coupled to a movable element 20 The method of claim 15 further comprising generating on a display device an animation coordinated with the received sequence of sound based user input actions 21 The method of claim 15 wherein playing the back ground multimedia sequence includes retrieving a digital representation of the background mul timedia sequence from a memory and generating an audio signal of the background multimedia sequence from the digital representation 22 The method of claim 21 wherein the retrieved digital representation of a background multimedia sequence is cho sen from a plurality of digital representations of background multimedia sequences stored in the memory 23 The method of claim 21 wherein the retrieved digital representation of a background multimedia sequence is cho sen by an association with a sound based
20. ates another exemplary embodiment of the interactive device including an on board display device FIGS 9A 9D are illustrations of an animation sequence generated on the on board display device FIG 10 is a detailed flowchart illustrating one exemplary software application being executed by the central processor to implement the interactive device according to an embodi ment of the present invention Common reference numerals are used throughout the drawings and the detailed description to indicate the same elements DETAILED DESCRIPTION The detailed description set forth below in connection with the appended drawings is intended as a description of the 5 40 45 50 55 65 4 presently preferred embodiment of the invention and is not intended to represent the only form in which the present invention may be constructed or utilized The description sets forth the functions of the invention in connection with the illustrated embodiment It is to be understood however that the same or equivalent functions and may be accomplished by different embodiments that are also intended to be encom passed within the scope of the invention It is further under stood that the use of relational terms such as first and second top and bottom left and right and the like are used solely to distinguish one from another entity without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities Wi
21. cent history beginning with the earliest talking dolls that produced simple phrasings with string activated wood and paper bellows or crying sounds with weight activated cylindrical bellows having holes along its side These talking dolls were typically limited to crying mama or papa Further advancements utilized wax cylinder phonograph recordings that were activated with manually wound clock work like mechanisms Various phrases were recorded on the phonographs for playback through the dolls to simulate dia logue Still popular among collectors today one historically significant embodiment of a talking doll is the Bebe Pho nographe made by the Jumeau Company in the late 19th century In addition to spoken words music was also recorded on the phonograph so that the doll could sing songs and nursery rhymes Thereafter dolls having an increased repertoire of ten to twenty spoken phrases were developed The speaking func tion was activated with a pull of a string that activated a miniature phonograph disk containing the pre recorded phrases The Chatty Cathy talking doll includes such a pull string activated mechanism In addition to the aforementioned speaking capabilities there have been efforts to make a doll more lifelike with movable limbs and facial features Further the movement of such features was synchronized with the audio output For example when a phrase was uttered the jaws ofthe doll could becorrespo
22. d storing that as well In this regard the analog signal from a microphone 33 may be input to the program mable data processor 26 where it is analyzed for certain characteristics with the aforementioned signal processing algorithms As previously noted one basic embodiment con 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 8 templates the reception of user input actions solely with the piezoelectric transducer 32 and it will be appreciated that the addition ofthe microphone 33 represents a further refinement thatallows for more execution alternatives from different user inputs Amongst the characteristics derived from the analog signal include the amplitude frequency and duration of each sound signal the different combination of which may be variously categorized into the user input action types More sophisticated analyses of the user input action types built upon the basic amplitude frequency and duration char acteristics are also contemplated such as rhythm tempo tone beat and counts For example a hand clap may be distinguished from a whistle a drum beat and any other type of sound Additionally it is also contemplated that a sequence of user input actions may be matched to a predefined pattern as being representative of a characteristic By way of example such a predefined pattern may include a sequence of one or more progressively quieter hand claps or a sequence of claps that alternate variously from quie
23. e soundtrack and the output sounds may be stored in a memory internal to the programmable data processor 26 The eSL IC mentioned above for example is understood to have 1 megabyte of internal memory In playing back the soundtrack stored in the external memory module 40 the data is first retrieved from the same by the programmable data processor 26 and then an analog audio signal is generated with the sound synthesizer This audio signal is then output through the speaker 36 Prior to playing the musical soundtrack however there may be a prefatory step 199 of generating an audible instruc tional command This instructional command may describe in a user friendly manner the general format of the preferred input sequence Further details pertaining to the method of interactive amusement will be subsequently described but may be generally described in the following exemplary instructional command Hello I feel like singing That s great You can help me out by clapping your hands Another exemplary instructional command is as follows I sure could use your help with the dance moves Just clap when my ears should flap Here goes It will be appreciated that numerous variations in the phrasing of the instructional command are possible and so the foregoing examples are not intended to be limiting The vocalization of the instructional command may also be varied and may be accompanied by a musical score The audio signal of the inst
24. emplated to have a peripheral execution flow as will be described in further detail These behaviors are presented by way of example only and not of limitation and any other suitable behaviors may be incorpo rated without departing from the present invention With ref erence to the flowchart of FIG 10 a typical sequence begins with powering on the interactive device 10 in step 300 Imme diately a sleep mode is entered in step 302 until further input is provided In a decision branch 304 a button press is detected As shown in the schematic diagram of FIG 5 pin PB2 of the programmable data processor 26 is connected to a switch 54 and is understood to be the button that is pressed in the decision branch 304 Until the switch 54 is activated however the interactive device 10 remains in the sleep mode After decision branch 304 a demonstration mode is entered in step 306 Here an opening dialog may be played back along with the musical soundtrack The opening dialog may introduce the portrayed character to the user and describe what is being demonstrated It will be appreciated that differ ent versions of the opening dialog may be pre recorded and stored in the memory module 40 and selected at random Then the learning mode is entered in step 308 and traverses the steps described above and as shown in the flowchart of FIG 3 After completing the playback of the musical soundtrack in the learning mode the piezoelectric transducer 3
25. gnal being generated at substantially the same time instant relative to the replaying of the graphical output in the playback mode as when the respective one of the user input actions was detected during the playing of the graphical output in the learning mode as desig nated by the timestamp therefor 27 The method of claim 26 wherein the sequence of user input action s detected from received signals 28 The method of claim 27 further comprising deriving user input action types from the received signals 20 25 30 35 18 wherein the output signal is generated from a one of a plurality of predefined signals corresponding to a par ticular one of the derived user input action types 29 The method of claim 28 wherein the user input action type is based upon a characteristic of the received signals selected from a group consisting of the length of the signal the frequency of the signal and the amplitude of the signal 30 The method of claim 26 wherein the user input actions correspond to hand claps 31 The method of claim 26 wherein the output signal is generated from predefined signals stored in the memory 32 The method of claim 26 further comprising generating at least one of an audible or a visual instruc tional command prior to playing the graphical output in the first game iteration 33 The method of claim 26 further comprising activating on at least one interval of the received sequence of user input
26. grammable data processor in the second soundtrack playback iteration In this regard the sec ond sequence of sound signals may be synchronous with the first sequence of sound signals The present invention will be best understood by reference to the following detailed description when read in conjunc tion with the accompanying drawings BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS These and other features and advantages of the various embodiments disclosed herein will be better understood with respect to the following description and drawings in which FIGS 1A C illustrate an exemplary embodiment of an interactive device in various states FIG 2 is a functional block diagram of the interactive toy in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention whereupon a method for interactive amusement may be implemented FIG 3 is a flowchart illustrating the method for interactive amusement FIG 4 is a plot illustrating an exemplary signal of user input actions generated by an acoustic transducer FIG 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating the embedded systems components of the interactive device including a central processor a memory device a pair of mechanical actuators and acoustic transducers and FIG 6 illustrates an alternative embodiment of an interac tive device in use FIG 7 is a schematic diagram of the alternative embodi ment of the interactive device including a display driver and a wireless transceiver FIG 8 illustr
27. he received sequence of user input actions a mechanical actuator coupled to a movable element 9 The method of claim 1 further comprising generating on a display device an animation coordinated with the received sequence of user input actions 10 The method of claim 1 wherein playing the musical soundtrack includes retrieving a digital representation of the musical soundtrack from a memory and generating an audio signal of the musical soundtrack from the digital representation 11 The method of claim 10 wherein the retrieved digital representation of a musical soundtrack is chosen from a plu rality of digital representations of musical soundtracks stored in the memory 12 The method of claim 11 wherein the retrieved digital representation of a musical soundtrack is chosen by an asso ciation with a user input action 13 The method of claim 1 wherein the timestamps are derived from timer values generated by a programmable data processor 14 The method of claim 1 wherein the timestamps are derived from instruction cycle count values generated by a programmable data processor 15 A method for interactive amusement comprising playing a background multimedia sequence continuously and uninterrupted in a first game iteration corresponding to a learning mode 20 30 35 40 45 60 16 detecting a sequence of sound based user input actions received during the learning mode based upon external sound signal
28. in the local random access memory of the programmable data processor 26 The programmable data processor 26 includes a timer module that utilizes an external clock signal oscillating at a predefined frequency The timer module is understood to generate a time value when queried The timer may be reset to zero at the starting point 42 and the time value may be provided in seconds milliseconds or other standard measure of time which are then stored as the timestamp Alternatively where the programmable data processor 26 does not include a timer the instruction cycle count value may be utilized to derive the timestamp Given a consistent oper ating frequency of the programmable data processor 26 it is understood that the time interval between each cycle is simi larly consistent A unit measure of time may thus be derived from multiple instruction cycles so the instruction cycle count value is therefore suitable as a reliable timestamp In order to ascertain the elapsed time between each of the user input actions the instruction cycle count value may be incre mented at each instruction cycle with the particular value at the time of detecting the user input action being stored as the timestamp For reasons that will be set forth in greater detail below in addition to storing the timestamps of each ofthe detected user input actions the method may also include a step 205 of deriving user input action types from the received sound signals an
29. ircuit 68 that is connected to the programmable data proces sor 26 via its general purpose input output ports 28 for receiv ing and transmitting data It will be appreciated that any suitable wireless transceiver standard or spectrum may be utilized such as the 2 4 GHz band Wireless USB Bluetooth or ZigBee Over this wireless communications link the US 8 715 031 B2 11 timestamps the user input action types and as applicable the recorded sound signals of the user input actions are transmit ted The console device 62 may include another RF trans ceiver integrated circuit and another programmable data pro cessing device to effectuate data communications with its counterparts in the remote controller 64 It will be appreciated by those having ordinary skill in the art however that a wired link may be utilized Instead of or in conjunction with the television set the animations may be displayed on an on board display device 70 which may be a conventional liquid crystal display LCD device The animations are generated by the programmable data processor 26 based upon the timestamps and the user input action types The on board display device 70 may be a grayscale device capable a color device or a monochrome device in which individual display elements may be either on or off As noted above it is contemplated that various animations are generated on the display device 60 and or the on board display device 70 During the learni
30. l in which a user input action was detected the electric motors 38 are activated This is effective to move for example the ears 24 of the doll FIG 11 in an apparent clapping action The acti vation of the electric motors 38 is synchronized with the output audio signals so visually and aurally the doll FIG 11 claps to the musical soundtrack in the playback mode exactly as performed by the user in the learning mode It is expressly contemplated however that the electric motors 38 need not be activated for every timestamp or detected instance of user input actions Depending on the pattern of the user input actions detected a different corresponding movement may be produced that is a different sequence of motor activations may be generated Furthermore although the output audio signals are typically played back in combination with the movement of the doll FIG 11 it is also envisioned that these outputs may be separate that is the movement of the ears may occur without the output audio signals and vice versa The schematic diagram of FIG 5 provides a more specific illustration of an exemplary circuit utilized in one embodi ment of the interactive device 10 As indicated above the programmable data processor 26 includes general purpose input output ports 28 labeled as 0 15 0 15 and PCO0 PC7 Although the specific programmable data proces sor 26 includes two 16 bit wide ports Port and Port B and an 8 bit wide
31. le IC devices may be readily substituted without departing from the scope of the present invention The programmable data processor 26 has a plurality of general purpose input output ports 28 to which a number of peripheral devices are connected as will be described below US 8 715 031 B2 5 The programmable data processor 26 is powered by a power supply 30 which is understood to comprise a battery and conventional regulator circuitry well known in the art According to one embodiment among the input devices con nected to the programmable data processor 26 are a piezo electric transducer 32 and control switches 34 With respect to output devices the programmable data processor 26 is also connected to a speaker 36 and mechanical actuators or elec tric motors 38 According to one embodiment of the present invention the piezoelectric transducer 32 and the speaker 36 are embedded within the doll FIG 11 As is typical for dolls that depict animals and other characters that appeal to children the doll FIG 11 may be covered with a thick fabric material There fore the respective diaphragms of the piezoelectric trans ducer 32 and the speaker 36 are disposed in substantial prox imity to its exterior so that input sounds can be properly detected and output sounds can be properly heard without any muffling effects The control switches 34 are similarly embedded within the doll FIG 11 but are also disposed in proximity to its exterior
32. ndingly moved The instructions required for such synchronized animation ofthe features ofthe doll were stored in a cassette recording with the control signals and the audio signal One deficiency with these earlier talking dolls was the rather low degree of interactivity between the doll and the child as the input to trigger speaking and movement was limited to decidedly mechanical modalities such as pulling a string turning a crank or pushing a button Further improve ments involved dolls with basic sensors such as piezoelectric buzzers that when triggered cause the doll to respond imme diately by outputting a sound or movement Examples of such devices include the Interactive Sing amp Chat BRUIN Bear from Toys R Us Inc of Wayne N J With substantial improvements in digital data processing and storage how ever dolls having greater interactivity became possible 10 20 25 30 40 45 50 55 2 Instead of mechanical activation the child provided a voice command to the doll The received audio signal was pro cessed by a voice recognition engine to evaluate what com mand was issued Based upon the evaluated command a response was generated from a vocabulary of words and phrases stored in memory central processor controlled a speech synthesizer that vocalized the selected response In conjunction with the vocalized speech an accompanying musical soundtrack could be generated by an instrument syn
33. ng mode the frames of the animation may be advanced in synchrony with the received user input actions or one animated sequence may be displayed at each detected user input action Where the ani mation is linked to the user input actions in these ways the display device 60 and or the on board display device 70 may output a default animation different from those specific ani mations associated with user input actions as the soundtrack is replayed For example where the depicted character 61 exhibits substantial movement when the user input action is detected or a timestamp so indicates the default animation may involve just a minor movement of the character 61 Furthermore it is contemplated that such animations are gen erated on the display device 60 and or the on board display device 70 during the playback mode which are likewise coordinated with the received user input actions as recorded in the timestamps The display of animations on on board display devices is not limited to those embodiments with the console device 62 As best illustrated in FIG 8 another example of the doll FIG 11 includes a Light Emitting Diode LED array display 84 that includes a plurality of individually addressable LED elements 86 that are arranged in columns and rows By selec tively activating a combination of the LED elements 86 vari ous images can be shown Further by sequentially activating a combination of the LED elements 86 animations can be sho
34. ns as designated by the recorded timestamps 45 the output audio signal being generated at substantially the same time instant relative to the replaying of the musical soundtrack in the playback mode as when the respective one of the user input actions was detected during the playing of the musical soundtrack in the learning mode as designated by the timestamp therefor 2 The method of claim 1 wherein the sequence of user input actions is detected from received sound signals 3 The method of claim 2 further comprising deriving user input action types from the received sound signals wherein the output audio signal is generated from a one of a plurality of predefined sound signals corresponding to a particular one of the derived user input action types 4 The method of claim 3 wherein the user input action type is based upon a characteristic selected from a group consisting of the length of the sound signal the frequency of the sound signal and the amplitude of the sound signal 5 The method of claim 2 wherein the user input actions correspond to hand claps 6 The method of claim 1 wherein the output audio signal is generated from predefined sound signals stored in the memory 7 The method of claim 1 further comprising generating an audible instructional command prior to play ing the musical soundtrack in the first game iteration 8 The method of claim 1 further comprising activating on at least one interval of t
35. nsducer Additionally the amuse ment device may include a programmable data processor that has an input port connected to the first acoustic transducer and an output port connected to the second acoustic trans ducer The programmable data processor may be receptive to input sound signals from the first acoustic transducer contem poraneously with an audio track being output to the second acoustic transducer In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention a method for interactive amusement is contem plated The method includes a step of playing a musical soundtrack in a first game iteration that corresponds to a learning mode Additionally the method includes detecting a sequence of user input actions received during the learning mode Then the method continues with a step of storing into memory timestamps of each of the detected sequence of user input actions The timestamps may be synchronized to the musical soundtrack The method may also include replaying the musical soundtrack in a second game iteration that corre sponds to a playback mode Further the method includes generating in the playback mode an output audio signal on at least one interval of the received sequence of user input actions based upon the recorded timestamps The output audio signal may be coordinated with the replaying of the musical soundtrack According to another embodiment an animated figure amusement device is contemplated The device may have
36. onnected to the speaker 36 and pins PC4 and PC7 are each connected to the piezoelectric trans ducer 32 and the microphone 33 Furthermore Pins PA12 PA15 are connected to the memory module 40 In this con figuration data transfers and addressing are performed serially though it will be appreciated that parallel data trans fers and addressing are possible with alternative configura tions known in the field With reference to the illustration of FIG 6 another embodiment of the present invention contemplates an amuse ment device that is independent ofthe doll FIG 11 As will be described in greater detail the various components of such alternative embodiment find correspondence to the features of the amusement device 10 noted above It will be recog nized that the method for interactive amusement can be simi 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 10 larly implemented thereon player 58 views and interacts with a graphical display device 60 capable of displaying animations of a character 61 and generating the appropriate output sounds as previously described Similar to the doll FIG 11 the character 61 may portray humans and animals such as rabbits dogs cats birds and so forth and include features that can be animated including the legs 14 the head 18 the eyes 20 the mouth 22 and the ears 24 Generally such animated features are understood to correspond to the mov able physical features of the doll
37. port Port C not all pins are utilized so are not depicted The clock frequency of the programmable data processor 26 is provided by an oscillator crystal 50 connected to the OSCO and 1 ports Various positive and negative power supply pins are connected to the power supply 30 and chip control pins are connected in accordance with conven tional practices well known in the art Pins PA2 and PA3 are connected to a first motor 38a while pins PA6 and PA are connected to a second motor 385 The first motor 38a may be mechanically coupled to the ears 24 and the second motor 385 may be mechanically coupled to the head 18 It will be appreciated that the programmable data processor 26 generally does not output sufficient power to drive the electric motors 38 nor is it sufficiently isolated Accordingly driver circuitry 52 serves as an interface between the electric motors 38 and the programmable data processor 26 to amplify the signal power and reject reverse voltage spikes Those having ordinary skill in the art will recognize the particular signals that are necessary to drive the electric motors 38 Along these lines there may be sensors that monitor the operation of the motors 38 the output from which may be fed back to the programmable data processor 26 for precise control The specific implementation of the motors 38 described herein are not intended to be limiting and any other configuration may be substituted Pins PAO and PA1 are c
38. ructional command is digitally stored in the memory module 40 and retrieved for playback While the musical soundtrack is playing in the learning mode a sequence of user input actions is received and detected according to step 202 More particularly the user provides some form of an audio input that marks an instant in time relative to or as synchronized with the soundtrack that is simultaneously being played back Thus the present inven tion contemplates an amusement device capable of receiving a sound input via the piezoelectric transducer 32 while at the same time producing a sound output via the loudspeaker As will be described further below additional simultaneous inputs from a microphone are also contemplated By way of example only the user claps his or her hands to generate a short high frequency sound that is characteristic of such a handclap Any other types of sonic input such as those produced by percussion instruments clappers drums and so forth may also be provided This sound is understood to havea level sufficient to trigger the piezoelectric transducer 32 which generates a corresponding analog electrical signal to an input of the programmable data processor 26 The piezo electric transducer 32 which is also known in the art as a piezo buzzer or a piezo ceramic disc or plate effectively excludes any lower frequency sounds of the musical soundtrack In order to distinguish more reliably between the soundtrack and the
39. s deriving user input action types from the external sound signals for each of the sound based user input actions based upon an evaluation of signal characteristics including at least one of signal length signal frequency and signal amplitude storing into memory timestamps of each of the detected sequence of sound based user input actions each of the timestamps designating a time instant at which the respective sound based user input action was detected relative to the playing of the background multimedia sequence in the learning mode and corresponding to one of a plurality of time intervals uniformly segmented over an entire length of the background multimedia sequence replaying the background multimedia sequence continu ously and uninterrupted in a second game iteration cor responding to a playback mode and generating in the playback mode an output signal on at least one interval of the received sequence of sound based user input actions as designated by the recorded times tamps the output signal being generated at substantially the same time instant relative to the replaying of the background multimedia sequence in the playback mode as when the respective one of the sound based user input actions was detected during the playing of the back ground multimedia sequence in the learning mode as designated by the timestamp therefor the output signal being generated from a one of a plurality of predefined signals corresponding to
40. ser input action types As indicated above the doll FIG 11 may take a variety of different forms such as a robot a vehicle etc Along with a direction control pad 72 and pushbuttons 74 the on board display device 70 may include input capabili ties i e a touch sensitive panel may be overlaid With the use of such a touch sensitive panel the direction control pad 72 and the pushbuttons 74 may be eliminated Those having ordinary skill in the art will recognize that numerous types of touch sensitive panels are available Amongst the most popu lar is the capacitive touchpad that detects the position of a finger of a touch sensitive area by measuring the capacitance variation between each trace of the sensor The touch inputs are converted to finger position movement data to represent cursor movement and or button presses The additional inputs are contemplated for the selection of additional options in the playback mode Referring again to the illustration of FIG 6 the interface displayed on the graphical display device 60 includes a left column 76 and a right column 78 which include icons 80 82 respectively The icons 80 82 are posi tioned to correspond to the relative segregated regions on the touch sensitive on board display device 70 Thus the on board display device 70 may also output reduced size repre sentations of the icons 80 82 It is also possible however to eliminate the on board display device 70 and only the touch
41. t CI Brucker A63H 30 00 2006 01 52 US CI 57 ABSTRACT USPC 22222 446 175 446 297 446 484 463 1 interactive amusement device and a method therefor are 463 7 463 30 463 43 disclosed The device plays a musical soundtrack in a first 58 Field of Classification Search game iteration corresponding to a learning mode A sequence USPC 463 1 7 30 31 40 43 434 118 of user input actions received during this learning mode is 434 307 446 175 297 484 detected and timestamps for each is stored into memory Ina See application file for complete search history second game iteration corresponding to a playback mode the 56 References Cited musical soundtrack is replayed Additionally an output signal U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 4 245 430 A 1 1981 Hoyt 4 272 915 A 6 1981 Noble 200 PLAY MUSICAL SOUNDTRACK is generated on at least one interval of the user input actions based on the stored timestamps and is coordinated with the replaying of the musical soundtrack 37 Claims 13 Drawing Sheets 199 GENERATE INSTRUCTIONAL COMMAND 202 DETECT SEQUENCE OF USER INPUT ACTIONS STORE TIMESTAMPS FOR EACH OF THE USER INPUT ACTIONS 208 DERIVE USER INPUT ACTION TYPES FROM RECEIVED SOUND SIGNALS REPLAY MUSICAL SOUNDTRACK STORE SOUND SIGNALS OF RECORDED USER INPUT ACTIONS LEARNING MODE PLAYBACK MODE GENERATE OUTPUT AUDIO SIGNAL BA
42. t to loud It will be appreciated that any pattern of user input actions varying in the above characteristics could be predefined for recognition upon receipt In addition to deriving the user input action types the sound signal may also be recorded for future playback as will be explained below Again the analog signal from the micro phone 33 is input to the programmable data processor 26 where it is converted to a digital representation and stored in memory Since each detected instance of the user input actions may have different sounds all ofthe sound signals are separately recorded and stored After storing the timestamp for the last ofthe detected user input actions the learning mode concludes In a subsequent second iteration that corresponds to a playback mode the method continues with a step 208 of replaying the musical soundtrack As noted previously playing the musical soundtrack includes retrieving the digital representation of the same from the memory module 40 and generating an analog signal that is output to the speaker 36 While replaying the musical soundtrack and in coordina tion therewith the method continues with a step 210 of gen erating an output audio signal based upon the stored times tamps More particularly at each time interval where there was detected a user input action or handclap an output audio signal is generated It is contemplated that such output audio signals are synchronized with the playback
43. th reference to FIG 1A one exemplary embodiment of an interactive device 10 is an anthropomorphized rabbit FIG 11 having a body section 12 a pair of legs 14 a pair of arms 16 anda head 18 In further detail the head 18 includes a pair of eyes 20 a mouth 22 and a pair of ears 24 Where appro priate each of the ears 24 will be referenced individually as right ear 24a and left ear 245 and collectively as ears 24 As will be appreciated the doll FIG 11 may portray humans other animals besides rabbits such as dogs cats birds and the like or any other character real or imagined It will also be appreciated that the foregoing features ofthe doll FIG 11 are presented by way of example only and not of limitation Itis contemplated that the various features of the doll FIG 11 are animated i e movable and have appropriate under lying support elements and joint structures coupling the same to the body section 12 along with actuators to move those features For example as shown in FIGS 1B and 1C the head 18 is capable of pivoting about the body section 12 and the ears 24 are capable of rotating or flapping about the head 18 In further detail FIG 1A shows the ears 24 in a resting position FIG 1B shows the ears 24 in an intermediate posi tion and FIG 1C shows the ears 24 in an extended position As will be described in further detail below the movement of the ears 24 between the resting position the intermediate position
44. ting an analog signal in the sound frequency range based upon a discrete time representation of the sound signal These sound signals may be representative of spoken dialogue or a musical soundtrack Having set forth the basic components of the interactive device 10 the functional interrelations will now be consid ered One embodiment of the present invention contemplates a method for interactive amusement that may be implemented with the interactive device 10 With reference to the flowchart of FIG 3 the method begins with a step 200 of playing a musical soundtrack with or without moving any of the mov able features of the doll FIG 11 It is contemplated that step 200 occurs in a first game iteration that corresponds to a learning mode As shown in the block diagram of FIG 2 the interactive device 10 includes an external memory module 40 in which a digital representation of the soundtrack as well as output sounds may be stored Although any suitable memory mod ule may be used the external memory module 40 in one embodiment of the present invention is a read write capable flash memory device One commercially available external 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 memory module 40 is the MX25L3205D device from Macronix International Co Ltd of Hsinchu Taiwan The particular external memory module 40 is understood to have a 4 megabyte or 32 megabit capacity In some embodiments it is contemplated that th
45. ucer 32 and the microphone 33 included in the remote con troller 64 In coordination with the received user input actions accompanying animations and or images may be generated on the display device 60 The embedded program mable data processor 26 then stores the timestamps for each of the user input actions and derives the user input action types During the learning mode the musical soundtrack and other instructional commands are output through the speaker associated with the display device 60 In this embodiment the remote controller 64 need not include a loudspeaker It will be recognized that the isolation of the microphone 33 in the remote controller 64 from any sound output source in this way is beneficial for reducing interference from the musical soundtrack during the learning mode Further filtering of the recorded sound signal is possible with the digital signal pro cessing algorithms on the programmable data processor 26 Alternatively the loudspeaker may be included in the remote controller 64 for playing back the musical soundtrack and or the output sound signals along with the loudspeaker associ ated with the display device 60 In one implementation the timestamps and associated user input action types are sent to the console device 62 With this input the software on the console device 62 generates the graphics for the animations and the sound outputs The circuit 66 includes a radio frequency RF transceiver integrated c
46. user input action the piezoelectric trans ducer 32 may be isolated that is housed in separate compart ments from the loudspeaker 36 Alternatively the piezoelec tric transducer 32 may be disposed in location anticipated to be closer to the source of the user input than that of the loudspeakers At or prior to initiating the playback of the musical soundtrack during the learning mode the piezoelec tric transducer 32 is activated When the musical soundtrack finishes playing the programmable data processor 26 may stop accepting further inputs from the piezoelectric trans ducer 32 or deactivate it altogether It will be appreciated that the piezoelectric transducer 32 is presented by way of example only and any other modalities US 8 715 031 B2 7 for the detection of the user input actions may be readily substituted For example a conventional wide dynamic range microphone may be utilized in conjunction with high pass filter circuits such that only the high frequency clap sounds are detected Instead of incorporating additional circuitry however the raw analog signal as recorded by such a conven tional microphone may be input to the programmable data processor 26 The analog signal may be converted to a dis crete time representation by an analog to digital converter of the programmable data processor 26 and various signal pro cessing algorithms well known in the art may be applied to extract a signal of the clapping sounds
47. utput channels being connected to the loud speaker Accordingly the various analog sound signals gen erated by the programmable data processor 26 may be mixed However itis also contemplated that the various output sound signals along with the musical soundtrack may be digitally mixed according to well known DSP algorithms prior to con version by a digital to analog converter DAC and output to the loudspeaker Itis expressly contemplated that other types of animations and sounds may be provided and the user s selection thereof may be accomplished by navigating the interface with the direction control pad 72 and the input buttons 74 for example One selection made during the learning mode may be made applicable to all of the user input actions during the US 8 715 031 B2 13 playback mode For example when the second left column icon 805 and the first right column icon 82a is selected at the outset of the learning mode then during the playback mode only the ears 24 are animated and the trumpet sound is gen erated for each user input action However it is also possible to accept different icon selections throughout the learning mode such that the particular animation or sound selected through the icons 80 82 are varied during the playback mode according to the sequence of selections In addition to implementing the above described steps in the method for interactive amusement one embodiment of the interactive device 10 is cont
48. wn FIGS 9A 9D depict one possible animation sequence uti lizing the LED array display 84 though any other sequence such as a moving equalizer beating drum and so forth may be readily substituted The animation speed that is the delay between changing from one frame to another may be varied As previously noted one contemplated embodiment outputs the animation on the LED array display 84 during the play back mode In this case the display of each frame or session is based upon the recorded timestamps much like the output audio signals and the movement of the various features of the doll FIG 11 by the electric motors Another contemplated embodiment outputs the animation on the LED array display 84 during the learning mode as the user input actions are received When utilizing the microphone 33 and variations in user input action types are discernible e g progressively louder hand claps etc as mentioned above the animations can be differed to correspond to such variations In the exemplary embodiment shown the LED array dis play 84 is mounted to the body section 12 ofthe doll FIG 11 It will be appreciated however that the LED array display may be of any size or configuration and may be mounted in 0 25 40 45 55 12 other locations on the doll FIG 11 Alternatively there may be a single LED having single or multiple color output capa bilities that flash in different colors and patterns according to u
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