A TOY BUILDING ELEMENT WITH ELEMENTS FOR PROVIDING POSITIONAL INFORMATION

Abstract: The invention concerns a toy building set for construction of various forms of electric detectors, in particular for providing positional information for steering movable models constructed by means of a toy building set. The building set of the invention comprises a toy building element, having on an upper side coupling studs (2) for mechanical connection of the element with an adjacent element and on the underside complementary coupling means. The elements for providing positional information by detection of radiated, reflected energy, such as light, comprise a building element, which contains an energy radiating source and an energy receiving detector, and means for mechanical coupling of the element with other elements belonging to the building set and for operative coupling of the building element with said energy reflecting elements. The building element is provided with mechanical coupling means on a pair of opposite sides and on the other side with line codes with changing reflection properties.

Description: This invention concerns a toy building set with elements for providing positional information, the elements comprising an energy radiating source and an energy receiving detector adapted for receiving energy reflected from the energy radiating source, said elements having means for mechanical coupling of one element with another element belonging to the building set. A toy building set as mentioned above is generally known in the art of toy manufacturing. The object of the invention is to provide a toy building set with improved means with respect to the prior art for providing positional information. This object is achieved in that the toy building set comprises an element of the type defined in the characterizing portion of claim 1. The light source may be a laser thus making it possible to perform a highly sensitive detection. For example, the oscillations of a membrane can be registered by means of coherent light, and in particular in such a detection it is important that the structure is mechanically stable and geometrically well-defined. When coherent light is used, the variations in the reflective power of the energy reflecting means may be obtained as stated in claim 4. The mentioned examples, which will be described more fully later, indicate various situations where special advantages are obtained by positioning both the light source and the light receiver in a housing having mechanical coupling means, which involve pre-determined positioning of both the transmitter and the receiver with respect to other energy reflecting building elements of the toy building set. The invention will be explained more fully by the following description of some embodiments with reference to the drawing, in which fig. 1 schematically shows a use of the toy building set of the invention, fig. 2 schematically shows another use of the toy building set of the invention, figs. 3-5 show in more detail an embodiment of the building set, seen from below, from the side and from the top, respectively, while fig. 6 is a section along the line XI-XI in fig. 4. The building elements shown in fig. 1 might conceivably be incorporated e.g. in a model of a car with autocatic steering gear comprising the beam 21. The beam 21 may thus be movable in its longitudinal direction with respect to the chassis of the car, while the holders 29 and 30 are stationary with respect to the chassis. The detector elements 25 and 26 may be placed on a stationary or on a movable part of the car because of the flexible light conductor cables 27 and 28. It will thus be appreciated that, through the electric information from the detector elements 25 and 26, positional information may be generated for the steering gear by scanning the line codes present on the building elements 22-24. It will be sufficient with a single detector element 25 which may be connected to a control computer coded to interpret the line code information, but the information may be made more selective by using several detector elements 25, 26. The associated computer may optionally be coded to respond to a pre-determined code pattern, and by mechanically changing the shown line code elements 22-24 or by changing the position of the elements various control characteristics for the constructed model may be provided with the predetermined interpretation in the computer. Fig. 2 schematically show another use of the building set of the invention, and this use may be related to the steering gear for a car model as explained in connection with fig. 1. The element 31 represents the detector element described previously which is turned so that the light is transmitted downwardly toward a path 32 provided on a lain and consisting of a solid line and a broken line closely spaced from each other. Since the element 31 is firmly mounted on the car, it may be detected by means of generally known electronic equipment how the vehicle is positioned with respect to the path 32 on the lane. This information may be used for generating a steering signal to the steering gear, which may be designed as explained in connection with fig. 1. The code lines 33 across the direction of travel may be placed in order for the steering system to receive information on how far the car as reached along the distance determined by the path 32. Optionally, the code lines 33 may also inform the steering system to steer along another path 34. It will be understood that the line itself could be constituted by means of interconnectable building elements of the kind described in connection with fig. 1, i.e. the code lines 32 to 34 being dedicated to separated building elements. It has almost been presupposed in the above explanations that digital signals are generated from the detector element. However, it should be noted that nothing prevents detection of an analog signal, since this is just a matter of the design of the electric circuit detecting the current consumption of the light source. Figs. 3-6 show some other representations of an embodiment of the detector element of the invention, the figures showing an element seen from below, from the side, from above and in section along the line XI-XI in fig. 4, respectively. Figs. 3-6 show the main components of an embodiment of the building element of the invention. 3 is a hollow box having four coupling studs 2 on its upper side, two of the coupling studs from fig. 5 being replaced by a pair of through holes 4 for reception of an electric plug. Further, the housing 3 has two holes, a large hole 5 and a small hole 6. Fig. 6 shows a plate 8 whose base is formed with the complementary coupling means already mentioned. The plate 8 is contiguous partly with a bushing 9. It will thus be seen from fig. 3 that the base of the plate 8 is provided with a pair of coupling tubes 35, 36 which constitute the previously mentioned complementary coupling means for coupling studs on an adjacent alement. Fig. 6 shows some details for the position of an insert in the housing 3, it being seen how the bushing 9 at the top engages some stops within the housing 3. It will be appreciated that the embodiment shown just serves as an example.

Claims: A toy building set with elements for providing positional information, the elements comprising an energy radiating source and an energy receiving detector adapted for receiving energy reflected from the energy radiating source, said elements having means for mechanical coupling of one element with another element belonging to the building set, characterized in that the building set comprises code elements being adapted for interconnection with other elements of the building set and provided with a pre-selected code (32-34) for interchangeable reflective coupling of the energy radiating source and the engergy receiving detector. Building set according to claim 1, characterized in that the code elements comprise a bar code defining said pre-selected code. Building set according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the code elements comprise areas with changing reflection properties. Building set according to claim 3, characterized in that said changing reflection properties are provided by elevations and depressions in the surface of the code elements. Building set according to claims 1-4, characterized in that the radiating source and the energy receiving detector are adapted for transmitting and receiving coherent light, respectively. Building set according to claims 1-5, especially providing stearing information for a vehicle, characterized in that the energy radiating source comprises a source of electromagnetic energy and that energy receiving means comprise an electromagnetic sensor, said code elements being arranged to selectively reflect electromagnetic energy from said source to said detector, as the vehicle moves past a code element.

Inventors: BACH, ERIK, TOFT, ALLAN
Applicants: INTERLEGO AG, LEGO A/S
Application year: 1987
Main classification: A63H33
IPC codes: A63H33, A63H29, G09B23, G09B9