Abstract:
An electronic amusement device includes a housing having an outer side presented to a consumer using the device; an electronic timer in the housing and a controller. The timer is configured to track time to an end of an extended time period having a length of at least a plurality of weeks and preset in the device before the device is released to the consumer. The timer is further configured to output a signal at the end of the extended period to the controller. The controller is configured to perform at least one task in an initial mode of operation available to the consumer using the device and to respond to the signal from the timer to enable, for a first time, the performance of at least one new additional mode of operation the controller did not perform before receipt of the timer signal or to disable a mode of operation it had performed or to exchange a new mode of operation for a previously performed mode of operation.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Toy makers have taken advantage of the falling costs of electronic processors and memory and increasingly sophisticated sound generators utilizing programmable microcontrollers that can further be used to control other operations as well as play patterns of a toy or other amusement device. In addition, one or more user inputs can be provided in the form of switches, buttons, sensors or the like which are coupled to the microcontroller. The microcontroller responds to such inputs in accordance with how it is programmed. The microcontroller may play back sounds of various kinds, including music, speech and/or sound effects, through loud speakers or other transducers or may control sources of light, movement and so on. 
     The types of microcontrollers currently used in toys vary in complexity from simple, state-machine based 4-bit controllers to R.I.S.C. based 16-bit microprocessor. The choice of microcontrollers is based on many factors including costs, performance and availability. 
     Some devices have microcontrollers which are programmable by the ultimate user. These include, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,697,829, 5,656,907, 5,908,345 and 6,083,104. These devices either require access to an outside computer, e.g over the Internet, to download new programming or require the end user to reprogram the device itself using a PC or other separate computer. This does, however, have the benefit of allowing play patterns and/or modes of operation of the device to be changed so that the devices remain fresh and entertaining. It is believed that it would be very desirable to provide the ability to change the operation(s)/play pattern(s) of an amusement device automatically so that the user does not have to have access to the Internet, an outside processor or the like. It is further believed that having an inherent capability to change in the device would provide a very valuable capability beyond the mere change of modes of operation and play and/or play patterns. By mode of operation, reference is being made to one or more tasks provided by a controller of the device in simultaneously or in a sequence in a prescribed order. Tasks are any discrete operation performed by the device including but not limited to the recognition of user inputs and the activation of one or more sources of action, i.e. sound, light and/or movement. A play mode or play pattern is a set or collection of related mode(s) of operation, which define how the device operates or interacts with the user. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In one aspect, the invention is an electronic amusement device comprising: a housing having an outer side presented to a consumer using the device; an electronic timer in the housing configured to track time to an end of an extended time period having a length of at least a plurality of weeks and preset in the device before the device is released to the consumer, the timer further being configured to output a signal at the end of the extended period; and a controller in the housing configured to perform at least one task in at least an initial mode of operation available to the consumer using the device, the controller being operably coupled with the timer and responsive to the signal from the timer to enable, for a first time, performance of at least one new additional task the controller did not perform before receipt of the timer signal. 
     In another aspect, the invention is an electronic amusement device comprising: a housing having an outer side presented to a consumer using the device; a controller in the housing configured to provide at least one initial mode of operation of at least part of the device for the consumer; and an electronic timer in the housing operably coupled with the controller, the timer being configured to track time to an end of an extended time period, the period being of a length of at least a plurality of weeks and preset in the device before the device is released to the consumer, the timer further being configured to output a signal to the controller at the end of the extended period; wherein the controller is configured to respond to the signal from the timer to provide for a first time, a new mode of operation different from all of the initial modes of operation provided by the controller before receipt of the timer signal by the controller. 
     In yet another aspect, the invention is an electronic amusement device comprising: a housing having an outer side presented to a consumer using the device; a controller in the housing configured to provide at least one initial mode of operation of at least part of the device for the consumer; and an electronic timer in the housing operably coupled with the controller, the timer being configured to track time to an end of an extended time period, the period being of a length of at least a plurality of weeks and preset in the device before the device is released to the consumer, the timer further being configured to output a signal to the controller at the end of the extended period; wherein the controller is configured to respond to the signal from the timer to disable for a first time, at least one of the initial modes of operation provided by the controller before receipt of the timer signal by the controller. 
     In yet another aspect, the invention is an electronic amusement device comprising: a housing having an outer side presented to a consumer using the device; a controller in the housing configured to provide at least one initial mode of operation of at least part of the device for the consumer; and an electronic timer in the housing operably coupled with the controller, the timer being configured to track time to an end of an extended time period, the period being of a length of at least a plurality of weeks and preset in the device before the device is released to the consumer, the timer further being configured to output a signal to the controller at the end of the extended period; wherein the controller is configured to respond to the signal from the timer to change for a first time, the one initial mode of operation provided by the controller before receipt of the timer signal by the controller to a different mode of operation. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The foregoing summary, as well as the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention, will be better understood when read in conjunction with the appended drawings. For the purpose of illustrating the invention, there is shown in the drawings embodiments which are presently preferred. It should be understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown. 
     In the drawings: 
     FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic, front view of an electronic amusement device of the present invention; 
     FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the electronic and electromechanical components of the device of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the electronic, long duration timer of FIG. 2; and 
     FIG. 4 is a schematic of a configuration of the microcontroller portion of the timer of FIG.  3 . 
     FIG. 5 is a flow chart of the new mode of operation enabled by the timer of FIGS. 3 and 4 in the device of FIG.  1 . 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     FIG. 1 depicts a first exemplary embodiment of the invention, an electronic amusement device in the form of a doll indicated generally at  10 . Device  10  has a “plush” or soft fabric body indicated generally at  20 , which is an outer housing of the device  10 . That is to say, body  20  has an outer side, approximately half of which is depicted in FIG. 1, which is presented to a consumer using the device  10 . The fabric body/outer housing  20  is maintained in three dimensional condition with internal stuffing or batting in a conventional matter for plush toy dolls. The doll  10  has a torso  22 , legs  23 ,  24  with feet  25 ,  26 , respectively, arms  27 ,  28  with armpits  29 ,  30 , respectively and a head  31  with nose  32 , eyes  33 ,  34  and mouth opening  35 , respectively. The device  10  includes a plurality of user input devices  41 - 46 , preferably in the form of momentary contact switches, which are located in various places in the housing/fabric body  20  of the device, for example, the feet  25 ,  26 , armpits  29 ,  30 , tummy (lower front central area of the torso  22 ) and nose  32 . Device  10  further includes several other electrical, electronic and electro-mechanical components to be described, which are located together in a protective inner housing indicated in phantom at  38 , which is generally not presented or visible to a consumer using the device. Inner housing  36  is preferably located within the housing/fabric body  20  and generally rigid in comparison to the outer housing/plush body  20  but is surrounded by the internal batting. Input devices/switches  41 - 46  are all operably, (at least electrically) coupled with a controller to be described that is preferably located in the inner housing  38 . A seventh switch  47  may be provided to permit a TRY-ME mode of the device in its package. Such a capability is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,319,087B1 issued Nov. 20, 2001 and incorporated in its entirety by reference. 
     The other internal electrical, electronic and electromechanical components of the device  10  are indicated in schematic diagram presented as FIG.  2 . Devices of the invention generally include a controller operably coupled with one or more source(s) of sound, light and/or movement of the amusement device. This output or these outputs provide the amusement aspect of the electronic amusement devices of the present invention. In this example  10  of the present invention, the controller is preferably in the form of an integrated electronic programmable microcontroller or microprocessor indicated at  50 . Microprocessor  50  preferably includes a CPU, electronic data storage including an operating program, software and/or hardware sufficient to synthesize sounds and other software and hardware to control the operation of a variety of output devices within amusement device  10 . Controller/processor  50  is operatively (at least electrically) coupled with each of the user input devices  41 - 46  (or  47 ) identified above (momentary contact switches in various parts of the doll&#39;s body  20 ). In device  10 , controller/processor  50  is operatively (at least electrically) coupled with a source of sound in the form of a speaker  52  through an electronic switch  53  in a drive circuit indicated generally at  54 . The controller/processor  50  is also operatively coupled (at least electrically) with a source of movement in the form of an internal electric motor  56  through an electronic switch  57  in a motor drive circuit indicated generally at  58 . Although device  10  does not include any, controller/processor  50  could also be connected with a source or sources of light (e.g. light bulb(s), diode, LCD or other types of visual displays, lasers, etc.) to control their operation(s) as well. Motor  56  is configured to cause movement to some part of the device  10 . In particular, motor  56  rotates a shaft with an eccentrically positioned weight which causes the torso  22  of the doll  10  to shake or vibrate. 
     The device  10  further includes, operatively coupled to processor  50 , to the speaker  52  and to the motor  58  as well as to the other circuit elements to be described, either directly or through the controller/processor  50 , a power supply indicated generally at  14 . In this case the power supply is provided by plurality of replaceable cells (e.g. 3 AA batteries), but other batteries sizes and types (e.g. rechargeable) as well as other electrical power supplies (e.g. ac wall supplies or transformers) can be used in or with the devices of the present invention. 
     According to a most important aspect of the present invention, devices such as device  10  include an electronic timer, in particular, a relatively long duration timer operatively coupled with at least one controller in the device that is itself coupled with at least one source of sound, movement or light. Here timer  60  is operatively coupled with the electronic microcontroller/processor  50  that is operatively coupled with sources  52  and  56 . Timers of the present invention including but not limited to timer  60  of device  10  are different from conventional timers in several respects. First, they are long duration timers. Timers of the present invention are configured to track time to the end of an extended time period having a length of at least a plurality of weeks, suggestedly for at least a month or a plurality of months and, if appropriate, even for one or a plurality of years. Secondly, the time period being tracked is preset in the timer before the device is released to the consumer. Timers of the present invention can be preset at the factory during manufacture but could be made to be preset by a distributor before release of the device to the consumer, i.e. the final purchaser or ultimate user. Timers of the present invention are configured to output a signal at the end of the extended period, suggestedly to the controller. In the simplest forms of the invention, a “controller” may be nothing more than a relay or a switch, the existing state of which would be changed by the signal output from the extended timer. Timers of the present invention can also be configured to output a signal at the end of each of two or more extended time periods tracked by the timer. 
     FIG. 3 is a schematic of a timer for device  10  configured to track time for any desired period up to several years if an appropriate power supply is provided. Timer  60  includes a PC interface connector  62 , a general purpose microprocessor  64 , and a crystal oscillator  66 . It further includes its own battery power supply  68  and, in this particular configuration, a switching circuit  70  enabling the timer  60  to be powered by either its own power supply  68  or the main power supply  14  of the device  10 . Referring back to FIG. 1, the connector  62  can be extended outside the housing/fabric body  20  and the device  10  provided in a package (indicated in phantom at  80 ) suitably open in design like that disclosed in the aforesaid U.S. Pat. No. 6,319,087 so as to be accessible from outside the package without opening the package. 
     Microcontroller  64  is suggestedly a 4-bit, general purpose microprocessor with a programmable HOLD mode which will allow the timer  60  to operate in a very low current mode, thus saving battery life. This feature is an important consideration in a long duration timer, especially to minimize overall costs. A Winbond W741 series microcontroller is suggested as suitable for this use but any microcontroller having the requisite number of I/O ports, its own programmable timer and a HOLD or other low power operational mode could be used. Firmware that controls microcontroller  64  of timer  60  is attached at APPENDIX A. A fourteen pin/lead edge connector  62  provides all of the I/O needed to interface the timer  60  with a personal computer (PC) to program the timer  60 . Seven I/O lines are used to store data into the microcontroller: ports RA 0 -RA 2  are control flags and ports RB 0 -RB 3  are actual data transfer lines. Data is entered into the microcontroller  64  in 4-bit-packs. The READY line is used to signal the PC that the microcontroller  62  us ready to accept data. The remaining lines are or can be used for diagnostics. This interface can also be used to read back programmed data to the programming PC for quality assurance. The interface can be exposed on the exterior of the inner housing as indicated in phantom in FIG. 1 so as to be programmed after the housing  38  is closed or even extended to the exterior of the device  10  so as to be exposed on or exposable from the plush outer housing  20 . Crystal oscillator  66  provides a frequency source to the internal clock of the microcontroller  64 . Timer  60  could be powered by the main battery power supply  14  of the device  10 , but is suggestedly provided with its own exclusive power supply. In this case, power supply  68  is configured to act as a back-up power supply. Because of the low current draw of the system, a supply  68  of three button cell type batteries is all that are needed for a two-hundred and fifty day extended time period of operation. Switching circuit  70  is in the form of an OR circuit provided by a pair of identical diodes  72 . Circuit  70  enables microcontroller  64  to be powered by main battery supply  14  if available and adequate but to switch to supply  68  should the main supply fail or be removed from the device  10 . 
     A microcontroller chip such as a 4-bit Winbond W741C201, is suggestedly used as the main counter-timer. Referring to FIG. 4, the microcontroller  62  is configured to emulate a repeating timer/counter  610 , a time period register  630  and a storage register  640  holding a day count length, e.g. xxx days. Repeating timer/counter  610  is provided by emulating five, 4-bit registers  611 - 615 , which are serially connected so each register  611 - 614  increments the next register  612 - 615 , respectively, when it cycles and which collectively divide the clock frequency provided by the oscillator  66  down to one cycle per day. Each register  611 - 614  of the counter  610  is allowed to count only as high as the four bits provided so a CARRY flag is not used. A once per day signal is output by the counter  610  and is used to increment the time period (“DAYCOUNT”) register  630  each day. Register  630  is provided by emulating three, series connected, 4-bit registers to count the number of days passed. CARRY flags are used between these 4-bit registers. The value maintained in the time period/DAYCOUNT register  630  is compared to the predetermined/preprogrammed day count value stored in the storage register  640  (or elsewhere in RAM of the microcontroller  64 ) by a COMPARATOR  650  (or emulated comparison function). When the target date (end of the preprogrammed day count period) is reached, an output bit is set high to the microcontroller  52 . 
     Referring to the firmware in Appendix A, the internal TIMER 0  is set to divide the crystal oscillator frequency down to one pulse per 6-second interval (refer to the W741C20x data sheet). In order to avoid using the carry flag, each of the registers of the clock divider/repeating timer/counter  610  count only as high as 4 bits will allow. Thus, with a 6-second interval, it is only necessary to count to 10 (1010b) to determine that 1 minute (60 seconds) has passed. The counting scheme for the five emulated, serially connected 4-bit registers of the counter  610  is as follows: 
     Count 10 (1010b), six second intervals to log 1 minute 
     Count 15 minutes (1111b) for one Quarter Hour 
     Count 4 Quarter hours (0100b) for 1 hour 
     Count 12 hours (1100b) for one-half day 
     Count 2 (0010b) Half-days for 1 Full day 
     Each time two half-days are counted (equivalent to 1 full day), the first of the three DAYCOUNT registers ( 630 ) is incremented. This is the only time the carry flag (CF) is used. These registers are continually compared to the target setting stored in microcontroller  64  in a storage register  640  or in RAM and read into a register for comparison by a comparator function of the microcontroller  64 . 
     Mathematically the day counting algorithm works this way: 
     6 seconds×10×15×4×12×2 86,400 seconds or 24 hours. 
     The number of days for the time delay function is suggestedly downloaded into the RAM of the microcontroller  64  in three, 4-bit nibbles using the interface at  62 . Thus the maximum number of days to delay is 1111 1111 111b or 0FFFH. This is equivalent to 4095 days. In practice the actual number of days programmed in device  10  was less than 250. Once the target number of days is reached a trigger signal is provided by the timer microcontroller  64  (U 1  on schematic TMES 1 c) to controller/processor  50 . The controller/processor  50  reads this input line, and due to its program, is configured to respond by enabling a new input switch  46  and a new speech pattern in response to the closure of the switch  46 . For this application, five of the six user interface switches provided  41 - 45  are normally active. One switch, nose switch  46 , becomes active at a predetermined date at the end of the targeted extended time period. This change in operating modes is reflected in FIG.  5 . The microcontroller  50  responds to closure of each of the five initial switches  41 - 45  by generating a sound response. The microcontroller  50  further responds to tummy switch  45  closure by powering the motor  56  for a predetermined period of time to shake the device. At the end of the stored, predetermined time period, the microcontroller  50  will respond to closure of switch  46  with the generation of a poem or other sound bite. Before the end of the present extended time period, microcontroller  50  is not responsive to closures of switch  46  and does not output the poem or other sound bite that is finally outputted. 
     The design can have other variations. A single speech-processing microcontroller can be used, provided that it has a programmable timer and a low-power mode to reduce battery drain while the timer is running. Various input devices other than momentary contact switches and pushbuttons could be interfaced to the microcontroller (e.g. sensors, transducers, controls, etc.) to provide user interaction. Other output devices could be controlled (e.g. lights, visual display units, etc.) or none could be used. Battery  68  back-up may not be required. The programming interface  62  may not be needed if a remote PC is not used. Timer programming may take any of the following forms or other forms. (a) Single button start control—the user effectively resets the counting function to start from zero. The timer counts to the present time value and then causes a change in the play pattern. (b) The user enters actual time and date information so that the timer function is synchronized to real-time events such as time of day, or other special timed events such as television shows. (c) Auto-start in production so that timer function begins immediately and does not require any user interaction. The play pattern change can take place hourly, daily, monthly or yearly or any other increment of time desired. The play pattern change could be continuous (changes every day/week/month/etc.) or may only occur once or a limited number of times after the timer is initially started. The timer circuit could be used in a plush item (either mechanized or not) or in virtually any other amusement device of sufficient size such as but not limited to a hand-held game or toy, or in a toy vehicle, or any other toy. 
     As can be seen, the timer  60  of the present invention enables amusement device  10  to add at least one new mode of operation after a predetermined time period programmed into the timer during manufacture. Furthermore, the specific configuration of timer  60  enables the time period programmed to be changed for each device  10 . This enables the devices  10  to be programmed to add modes at the same time, that is at least on the same day or within a twenty four hour period. This enables even more modes of operation. The amusement devices of the present invention can be programmed to activate or change modes on specific calendar days thus enabling them to be tied into marketing plans, for example, the premier of a movie or the date of another entertainment event. It further enables them to be used in timed contests where the only one or a subset of the total number of devices distributed can be programmed to provide an indication that the device is a winner. 
     Devices of the present invention can be reconfigured in other ways. In the simplest form, the device may actually substitute the new mode of operation for an initial or previously offered mode of operation. For example, in device  10 , the nose switch  46  could have been enabled from the beginning and the controller/processor  50  programmed to substitute a different message regarding a contest only if the device was a winning device. Also, existing modes of operation can be disabled, if desired after the end of the preprogrammed time period. 
     It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes could be made to the embodiments described above without departing from the broad inventive concept thereof. For example, the comparator and the storage register  640  may be in the controller  52  or the stored time value just held in RAM and read in a direct comparison function bit by bit so it does not need to be buffered in a register before comparison. In the later case, the stored time value is an equivalent to the register as is the comparison function in microcontroller  52  to the COMPARATOR  650 . It is understood, therefore, that this invention is not limited to the particular embodiments disclosed, but it is intended to cover modifications within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.