Abstract:
Communication means allowing a hand controlled toy play set to communicate data with another play set article or a joystick through hand contact or hand shake motion. Said toy play set comprises memory means and identity means to represent the performance parameters and personality of a toy member.

Description:
This is a formal patent application of provisional patent application 60/324,202 filed Sep. 22, 2001. It is also a continuation in part of the U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/896,434 filed Jun. 29, 2001 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,586,942 and Ser. No. 10/118,706 filed Apr. 8, 2002 now U.S. Pat. No. 8,641,474. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a control apparatus that interfaced with a hand held miniature electronics article, particularly applicable as a racing vehicle set. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Traditional portable electronics/electrical devices such as electrical tools or toys draw power from the batteries installed inside the devices. The number of batteries required depends on the working voltage specified by the circuit utilized. For many electronics circuits, three batteries are needed to provide a typical working voltage between 3V to 4.5V. The working voltage required by many microcontroller chips are in between 3V to 6V. In order to provide a reasonable working battery life to a device drawing a current over 100 mA, such as the products that comprise a light bulb, motor or speaker, the size of the batteries selected are typically of AA, C or D size batteries. These batteries not only add considerable weight to the device, it limits the ability of the designer to shrink the product size. It is the objective of this invention to provide a system that does not required bulky batteries to be built inside a hand held article of sales such as a toy size racing vehicle. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is firstly directed to a racing vehicle that comprises a electrical circuit inside the vehicle. A first characteristic of this system is that there is no battery required inside the vehicle for the internal electrical circuit to perform it&#39;s normal function. A second characteristic of the system is that the vehicle itself is used as part of the joystick controller for the user to control, steer or race the vehicle. A third characteristic of the system is that the information about the characteristics of a vehicle, or a race, is fed to an external control apparatus through conducted contacts, typically the finger contact of the vehicle. A fourth characteristic of the system is that each vehicle can be reconfigured or upgraded electronically, and the upgraded vehicle can be traded with other players. 
     In a first embodiment, an interactive electronic racing play set comprising a stretch fabric glove attached with two finger contacts and a power module which houses an LCD display, control buttons, batteries and a speaker. The play set further comprising a base/joystick and a series of racing vehicles. The object of this game is to race the clock or with multiple opponents on a selected racetrack for points. Earned points can be converted into upgrades that can be applied to vehicles such as cars, trucks or motorcycles. 
     Typical car size is 36th scale or at a size that is comfortable to be held against the palm of a player. The glove that equipped with contact points at the index finger and thumb must be worn to interact with the car. When picking up a vehicle with the glove, the power inside the controller box of the glove is fed to the vehicle through the finger contacts. An identification circuit built inside the vehicle such as an integrated circuit (IC) or an identity resistor will identify the vehicle to the controller box of the glove. Engine noises and racing sounds personalized to the particular selected vehicle can then be generated. 
     Next, the controller attached on the glove may ask if the player wants to race or look at the inventory. If race, the options are for multiple or single player modes. If the multiple players mode is selected, it will ask the players to shake hands with opponents to register and synchronize the racing clock on each controller. Each player must select the same track. The player must place the car onto the base, which houses a joystick for forward and reverse control. Twisting the car will determine the steering direction. The racetrack is displayed on the LCD screen, located on top of the controller box. The control signals input through the car are conducted to the controller box through the finger contacts. These signals move an icon along the racetrack. The control mechanism can be built inside each vehicle or inside the joystick base. The winner is who finishes the race first with the least mistakes, or with the best score. The game is not limited to regular racetracks. Typical adventure games to score point can be included in the competition. The games control software is preferred to be interfaced with the controller circuit inside the controller box. Additional racetracks or games can be provided through additional external cartridges. The challenger, who is also the timekeeper, must shake hands again with all the opponents to determine the winner. The challenger also will pick up all the scores at the end of the race. The handshake, a sign of sportsmanship, is in fact a mode of transferring digital information from glove to glove. Each glove has two contacts, one on the index finger the other on the thumb. In addition, each glove has two additional conductive patches. By shaking hands, the contacts of one glove will touch the patches of another glove, thus enabling information exchange. The winner will be awarded points, which he can compile or exchange for upgrades or modifications. To encourage team play, the points awarded in multiple players mode is much higher than the solo mode, at which the player race against the clock. 
     Typical examples of vehicle enhancement are upgrading of tires, suspension, exhaust system, handling mechanism, steering angle, turbo engines, high torque transmissions, vehicle body weight and brakes. All these elements are examples of performance parameter of the racing vehicle embodiment. Performance parameters of a toy are defined as the parameters that enable two or more comparable toys to compare the performance of each other. Upgrading a first toy is defined by the play pattern to add performance parameter to said first toy, or to elevate the performance parameter of said first toy from a lower level to a higher level for said first toy to outperform a comparable second toy without such upgrade. Each vehicle in the product line may have a different personality. The controller or LCD game console attached on the glove provides a variety of racetracks; each also has a different personality and game rule. A first racetrack simulates off road conditions while another racetrack tests the acceleration capability of the vehicle. A suitably upgraded vehicle will perform better in a particular racetrack. Accordingly the game play requires the player to plan for good strategy, and build a vehicle that best fit the nature of the racetrack. To enhance fun of the games, a complete game is recommended to include a number of racetracks, and each vehicle is allowed to appear only in one racetrack. Accordingly a proper strategy and planning is required to put appropriate vehicle on the different racetracks according to their characteristics. 
     To further enhance the play value, although the features of each vehicle are upgradeable, not all vehicles are capable to be upgraded to provide the maximum performance for every upgradeable feature. For example, the best turbo engine of car A may deliver a maximum power of 500 horse power while that of car B is just 420 horse power. However, the steering angle upgradeable for car A is 25 degree while that of car B is 32 degrees. In these examples, each of the performance parameters “power” and “steering angle” is represented by a value that may be upgraded. It means car B is more responsive to sharp curves driving than car A as determined by the different values of the “steering angle” of car A and car B. The upgraded features are preferred to be memorized in a memory located inside the vehicle. As understood by a person having ordinary knowledge in the art, memory or memory means herein refers to any art recognized device or component capable of storing data. The car can than be traded with any players in exchange of points, or money represented by the points. Alternately, the upgrade record of a vehicle can be maintained at the memory located inside the controller box attached to the glove. In this case, the trading of the vehicle requires a title change hand shake that transfers the ownership of a car from a first glove to a second glove in exchange for the points from the second glove. 
     In an alternate embodiment, the controller box equipped with the LCD display is placed at the side of the controller. A connector interfaced the controller box with the electrical circuit built inside the vehicle and also the driving control signals. In this situation, data exchange between controller boxes can be achieved by wired or wireless communication channels. Alternately, the controller box can be removed and reattached to the glove for the handshake mode of data exchange. 
     The personalized sounds generated by each vehicle during the game play can be embedded inside the electrical circuit of each vehicle or stored inside the controller box. A timer counter or clock keeping track of the playing time record for each vehicle is preferred. If a vehicle is not run or raced for a certain time, the upgradeable features of the vehicle may be degraded, a sign of lack of practice and maintenance. The player is required to pay for maintenance to bring the vehicle back to it&#39;s original condition. This provision encourages the player to regularly playing with all the vehicle collections in order to keep all the vehicles at it&#39;s premium conditions ready for racing. 
     Although a play set of racing vehicles are used to demonstrated the invented technology, other embodiments of the article including dolls, action figures, toy characters, airplane, helicopter, toy size electrical hand tool or other different toy articles can be used with a properly designed different game rule. A motor can also be included in many of these toy articles to provide different responses. For example, a motor can be installed together with the joystick mechanism or with the glove to provide vibration feeling or other kinds of animation. 
     It should also be noted that the glove attaching with the controller box and the conductive fingertips could be structured in other different forms without sacrificing the merit of the invention. As compared with traditional hand held LCD games, the play set enables the involvement of physical miniature size objects, such as toy size motor vehicles. Identity and personalized characteristics can be stored inside the physical objects. In addition, the toy size vehicles is becoming an important part of the driving and steering mechanism during the race. Actually “driving” the vehicle gives the player more real feeling than regular joystick controllers. The introduction of finger contacts for a controller box to communicate with the physical object, the joystick base or a second controller box brings the fun of the play set to a new level. The finger contact design can be achieved in different ways including but not limiting to attaching conductive finger contacts to a glove. 
     The novel features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the claims to be followed. The invention will best be understood from the following description, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     
       DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is an embodiment having a controller attached to a glove; the target toy vehicle is contacted by the finger contacts connected to said controller; 
         FIG. 2  illustrates another preferred embodiment of said vehicle play set making use the vehicle as part of the joystick mechanism for driving control; 
         FIG. 3  illustrates how the finger contacts interface two controller boxes through a hand shake; 
         FIG. 4A  is an embodiment of an interface circuit built inside an article of sales; 
         FIG. 4B  is the waveform of the electrical current flowing through the contact terminals and the interface circuit of  FIG. 4A . 
         FIG. 4C  is another interface circuit built inside an article of sales; 
         FIG. 5A  is an example of a sound generating interface circuit built inside an article of sales; 
         FIG. 5B  is the waveform of the electrical current flowing through the contact terminals and the interface circuit of  FIG. 5A . 
         FIG. 6A  illustrates a preferred embodiment of the joystick controller; 
         FIG. 6B  illustrates the top view of the joystick controller of  FIG. 6A ; 
         FIG. 7A  illustrates the internal structure of a joystick embodiment for use with the preferred embodiment of  FIG. 2 ; 
         FIG. 7B  illustrates the an electrical circuit to indicate driving direction; 
         FIG. 7C  illustrates a rotating resistor potentiometer; an alternate electrical circuit to provide analog or digital proportional driving information; 
         FIG. 8A  illustrates the internal structure of a joystick embodiment for use with the embodiment of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 8B  illustrates a motor providing vibrating effect to the controller box or the joystick embodiment; 
         FIG. 8C  illustrates an alternate motor mechanism providing vibration to a joystick assembly. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Attention is initially directed to  FIG. 1 , which depicts a play, set comprising a controller embodiment or game unit embodiment and a vehicle embodiment. The controller embodiment is represented by the controller box or name unit  111  having a LCD panel  114 , the glove  109  and the finger contacts  102  and  103 . The vehicle embodiment is represented by the racing vehicle  101  connected to a joystick supporting base  104 . The controller box or game unit  111  is attached to a glove  109  by velcro or other attachment members. A LCD panel  114  is provided on top of the controller box or name unit  111  for displaying a game play such as a racing tack. Buttons  116  and  117  enables the player to select options, different play modes or to provide responses according to the request of the game play. 
     More than one vehicles, each has a different personality are provided for the product line. In an example game play, the hand wearing the glove  109  picks up the vehicle  101 . The controller box  111  is interfaced with the internal electrical circuitry of the vehicle  101  through the finger contacts  102 ,  103  and the conductive pads  106  located on the two sides of the vehicle. An identity circuit inside the vehicle enables the controller box  111  to identify which vehicle was picked up. The vehicle is then connected to a joystick mechanism located on the joystick base  104 . The relative movements of the vehicle  101  against the joystick base  104  is converted in to vehicle movement control signals such as acceleration, braking and steering. These control signals are fed to the controller box  111  through the finger contacts  102 ,  103  and  106  between the glove and the vehicle. The received control signals directs the movement of the icon  113  that represents the vehicle  101  racing on the race track  112 . The connector  105  and velcro  120  are provided as an option for the controller box  111  to be connected to the base  104  instead of being attached to the glove  109 . 
     It should also be noted that each glove  109  is preferred to have a pair of conductive pads, one on each side of the hand. Conductive pad  110  locates at the backside of a hand. These conductive pads are provided for exchange of information in between the controller boxes between players. It should be noted that only two conductor lines are provided for the data communication and power supply purposes. There are different data information to be communicated in between these two lines in both directions. Accordingly, the data flowing through this communication channel are arranged in the form of data packets transmitted in serial format. Handshake signals or directional control signals are also required in between data packets to properly handle the direction of information flow. 
     Attention is now directed to  FIG. 2  illustrating the alternate embodiment for the controller box  211  to be located on the joystick base  204  instead of the glove  209 . The power supply and also the control signals in between the controller box and the racing vehicle  201  are interfaced through the socket  105  as shown in  FIG. 1  and another mating socket located beneath the controller box  215 . Normally the power supply is preferred to be positioned inside the controller box. 
     Although the controller box  211  is shown as a configurable design allowing the unit to be attached either to the joystick base  204  or the glove  209 , it is the desire of another preferred embodiment to integrate the controller box  214  with the base unit  204 . In this case the handshake data exchange operation is preferable to be replaced by a wired or wireless communication links in between two controller boxes. Typical wireless communication link are represented by infra red, ultrasonic or RF communication links. 
     Attention is now directed to  FIG. 3 , which illustrates how a sportsmanship hand shake enables the data transfer and synchronization between two controller boxes. When the LCD displays of two different controller box are programmed to exchange data, the players are prompted to start exchanging the information be shaking hands. As illustrated by  FIG. 3 , the thumb contact  304  of player A is in contact with the conductive pad  322  of user B. The forefinger  305  of player A is in contact with the conductive pad  328  located at the palm side of user B. Similarly the thumb and forefinger of user B are also in contact with two conductive pads connected to the controller box of user A. Accordingly four conducting paths are provided in between the two controller boxes allowing data to flow in two directions. Before a car race is initiated, player A and B shake hands. This action synchronizes and starts the racing start count down clock inside the two controllers. Players A and B may shake hands with player C and D to download their count down clock value into the racing count down clocks of players C and D. Accordingly the count down clocks of all the players are synchronized that will command the LCD panels and controller boxes of all the players to start the racing game at the same moment. After the racing is over, the leading player shakes hand with each of the other players and their scores are compared and the winner will be announced. During another hand shake with the final winner, the winner controller box is allowed to deposit a generous sum of money represented by winners reword points. The winner is then able to make use of these reward points to upgrade any vehicle he possessed. Suppose a player run short of points, or money that is represented by points in the game, the player is able to trade one of his car with another player for a particular amount of points. After a handshake, the title of the car and the agreed amount of points will be exchanged. 
     Attention is now drawn to  FIG. 4A  illustrating a preferred embodiment of an electrical circuit  400  included inside the body of a vehicle. This circuit is able to generate digital signals when power is received. The digital signal can be used for signaling the identity of the vehicle or to serve other applications. The contact terminals  408 ,  409  represents the conductive terminals positioned at the two sides of the vehicle, such as the contact terminal  106  of the toy car  101  in  FIG. 1 . The heart of the circuitry is a microcontroller  401 . The microcontroller is powered by the external voltage obtained from terminals  408  and  409 . The capacitor  406  is included as a filter and also a power reservoir to store electrical energy when the contact terminals are momentarily out of contact. When power is connected to the contact terminals  408 ,  409 , the microcontroller is powered up. At this moment, the voltage waveform across the terminals  408  and  409  is illustrated in  FIG. 4B . Once the electrical circuit is stabilized, the microcontroller  401  generates a series of pulses  421  and  422  according to the nature of the target article. These pulses turn the transistor  402  ON and OFF. Accordingly it gives a pulsing loading to the power line through the resistor  404 . The amplitude of the pulses  421  and  422  are determined by the value of the resistor  404  and the internal impedance of the interfacing facing circuit at the controller end. The pulses  421  and  422  are then processed by the electrical circuit at the controller end. Responses are generated according to the pulses detected. The diode  405  of  FIG. 4A  is included to attenuate the pulsing signal to enter the power supply line  407  of the microcontroller circuit. 
     In order to determine when the microcontroller  401  should generate pulses and what kind of pulses can be generated, a trigger switch  410  is included in the circuit  400 . The switch  410  is preferably be integrally positioned right behind the contact terminal  409 , so that the switch  410  can be triggered by the same finger accessing the contact terminal  409 . Another advantage of this design is that the electrical circuit can be set to a low power standby mode to conserve energy. The circuit is revoked to the normal operation mode only when this controller switch is triggered. 
       FIG. 4C  illustrates another generic circuit applicable for the vehicle. The block  434  represents the working circuit of the vehicle. Triggering is provided by pushing the switch  433 , which connects the capacitor  435  to the power line of the circuit. The capacitor  433  will provide a momentary negatively going triggering pulse  424  as shown in  FIG. 4B . This trigger pulse will be useful to trigger the electrical circuit located at the controller end and to reset the electrical circuit  434 . The resistor  436  is included for discharging the capacitor  435  when the trigger switch  433  is released. 
       FIG. 5A  is a design alternative of  FIG. 4A , wherein the functional block  501  generates an analog signal such as a voice waveform. This voice waveform is amplified by the transistor  502  and coupled to the contact terminal  508  by the capacitor  511 . The DC voltage measured across the terminals  508  and  509  are represented by the voltage waveform  520  of  FIG. 5B . The coupled AC signal is represented by the analog waveform  521  which is picked up by the controller box through the finger contacts. These analog signals are extracted and amplified to drive a speaker located at the controller end. Since the circuit  500  is not required to drive a speaker, a substantial high impedance resistor can be added in series with the contact  508  to define the internal impedance of the communication line and also to reduce the current flowing through the circuit  500 . 
       FIG. 6A  illustrates the motor vehicle  601 , which is inserted to the top of the joystick  604 . When the position of the vehicle  601  is moved relative to the base  602 , driving signals in serial packet of pulses are sent to the controller box through the finger contacts  605  located at the two sides of the vehicle  601 . When the vehicle  601  is moved towards the direction  606 , a move forward signal, or acceleration signal is generated. When the car  601  is moved backward in the direction  607 , a braking signal is generated to slow down the racing car on the LCD screen. It is preferable to provide a digital signal indicating the magnitude of movement of the vehicle in the directions  606  and  607  so that the speed of the vehicle can be properly controlled. 
       FIG. 6B  illustrates the top view of the vehicle  601 . When the vehicle is turned towards right in the direction  624 , a right turn signal is sent. Similarly a left turn signal is sent when the vehicle is steered towards the direction  625 . Digital proportional steering is also preferable to provide smoother steering control to the racing vehicle. 
       FIG. 7A  illustrates an embodiment of the joystick controller. The guiding plate  705  and housing  704  represent the plate  603  and the housing  602  of  FIG. 6A  respectively. The joystick  701  is inserted into the bottom plate of the racing vehicle  601  of  FIG. 6A . The contact points  702  and  703  is connected to the electrical circuit located inside the vehicle so as to receive the identity signal or to exchange information with the racing vehicle. The contact plates  706 ,  707 ,  708  and  709  represents the simple version of switch to indicate the directional movement of the vehicle. When the central contact plate  706  is in contact with the contact plate  707 , the car is in forward moving direction. Contact plate  708  is positioned to determine the braking position of the controller. A microprocessor  712  picks up all these directional signals and send it to the controller box through the connector  714  as illustrated in  FIG. 2 .  FIG. 7B  illustrates the contact design to define steering directions. When the contact plate  721  is in contact with the contact plate  722 , a right steering signal is sent. When the contact plate  721  is in contact with the plate  723 , a left steering signal is then transmitted.  FIG. 7C  is another preferred embodiment of the steering mechanism replacing the contact plates of  FIG. 7B  to provide digital proportional signals that measures the steering angle. The analog resistance value of the potentiometer  732  is converted into digital steering signals to be sent to the controller box. It should be noted that digital proportional signal is also preferred to simple contact switches for accelerating or braking the racing vehicle. 
       FIG. 8A  illustrates another preferred embodiment that moved the control mechanism and electronics from the joystick supporting base into the motor vehicle. Accordingly the joystick supporting base  813  is a simple supporting base that provides the solid joystick  812 , which is inserted into a ball joint  811  located beneath the vehicle  818 . The control movement of the vehicle enables the contact  827  to touch the contact plates  807  and  806  to signify acceleration or braking motions. All these control signals, together with the steering signals are fed to the controller box through the contact pads  827  and  828  by the microprocessor  802 , as shown in the embodiment of  FIG. 1 . It should be noted that the ownership and/or upgrade information of a vehicle can be stored inside a vehicle. In order to retain these information data after the power supply derived from the controller box is removed from the controller pads  827  and  828 , a nonvolatile memory is provided for the electrical circuitry  804 . Alternately a local back up power supply represented by the battery  803  is provided to maintain the information stored in the low standby current memory of the circuit board  804 . 
       FIG. 8B  illustrates a motor  825  installed inside the racing vehicle. This motor is connected to an uneven load  824  which when rotates, provide a vibrating feeling to the racing vehicle, that increases the fun and feeling of racing.  FIG. 8C  illustrates an alternate embodiment to provide a different kinds of vibrations such as in the case of a off road racing. The motor  843  is geared down to drive an irregular shaped cam  839 , which in turn moves the joystick base  835  up and down. 
     Although  FIG. 1  illustrates the vehicle to be controlled by the right hand of the player having a glove attached with the controller box, alternate embodiment is possible to provide a left handed glove to hold the joystick base  104 . This will enable the controller box attached to the left handed glove to maintain finger contact with the base  104  so as to communicate with the electrical circuit as shown in  FIG. 7A . In this arrangement, the racing vehicle is controlled by the right hand without wearing the glove. 
     From the foregoing, it should now be appreciated that the applicant has disclosed herein embodiments of a controller device configured to power or interface an electrical powered article of sales. It is intended that the article of sales does not require internal battery as a power source. The electrical power needed by the target article are derived from the controller compartment by finger contacts. Particularly, it should be noted that there are different variations of finger contact designs, different ways to attach a contact terminal to the finger of a human hand and different methods to mount the controller box to the body of the user. Although detailed embodiments of the invention have been disclosed, it is recognized that variations and modifications, all within the spirit of the invention, will occur to those skilled in the art. It is accordingly intended that all such variations and modifications be encompassed by the claims to be followed in the formal patent application of the invention. 
     As understood by a person having ordinary knowledge in the art, it should be note that the term “hand” described in this specification is defined by the terminal section of a human upper limb beyond the wrist section and does not include the wrist section. Typically the “hand” section includes the section of the palm and the fingers. Similarly the term “handshake” is defined by shaking the “hands” of two persons, and a “hand attaching members” is defined as a member attached to a hand, as commonly understood by a person having ordinary knowledge in the art.