Patent Publication Number: US-6666782-B1

Title: Blinking spherical toy

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a spherical toy, more particularly to a blinking spherical toy. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     A sphere plays an important role in children&#39;s toys, because a sphere is smooth and rollable, which much safer than other toys with angular shapes. Furthermore, the moving direction of a sphere is multi-directional and expectedly, therefore a sphere can satisfy children&#39;s curiosity. 
     For example, a common toy: a ball inside another ball carries a weight at the bottom of an internal ball, and a decorative pattern is printed on the upper section of the exterior of the ball. After the internal ball is placed inside a hemisphere of larger curvature, and the hemisphere is engaged with another hemisphere of same curvature, an external ball is made. A liquid is filled into the space between the two balls through a predetermined ball hole on the external ball and a plug seals the hole so that the liquid will not leak. When such toy is played, the external ball can be rolled in any direction, and the pattern on the internal ball always faces upward due to the movement of the liquid and the gravitational force of the weight at the bottom. 
     After such ball in another ball has been played for a while, the excitement disappears very soon and no longer attracts consumers. Therefore, toy manufacturers try to extend the life of such product, and intentionally combine a key chain or pen, etc with the spherical toy to give diversified functions and a more appealing appearance. For example, the inventor of this invention has been granted with a R.O.C. Utility Model Patent No. 135683 entitled “Rotary spherical toy” (foreign counterpart U.S. Pat. No. 5,893,789), which disclosed a novel idea for spherical toys. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a blinking spherical toy comprising an internal sphere with its lower hemisphere containing a battery module, a lamp, and a circuit board of related circuits, and the circuit being extended downward to two electrode poles and passing through the lower hemisphere; a transparent or semi-transparent upper hemisphere being engaged with the lower hemisphere, and the internal sphere being placed inside the external sphere, and both sides of the axial line on the external sphere having two electrically conductive ends; a bottom hemisphere being engaged with a top hemisphere to constitute the external sphere; a non-conductive liquid (oil liquid) being filled into the space between the external sphere and the internal sphere through a ball hole on the external sphere; a plug sealing the ball hole; by means of the gravitational force of the internal sphere, the upper hemisphere always facing upward and the two electrode rods being in contact with the contact ends. When a conductor is in contact with the two contact ends, it forms an electric circuit with the circuit board and lights up the lamp or makes the lamp to blink. Such structure is definitely a great idea and breaks through the traditional structure. 
     The secondary objective of the present invention is to provide a blinking spherical toy, wherein patterns are printed on the surface of the upper hemisphere of the internal sphere for enhancing the visual effect. In addition, the lower hemisphere of the internal sphere has at least one support member such as a support ring for supporting the circuit board. Further, a hollow axial pillar is disposed around the axial line at the bottom of the lower hemisphere of the internal sphere for passing the two electrode rods through and coupling to a weight in order to cope with the situation of insufficient gravitational force. In addition, the non-conductive liquid is an oil liquid. 
     In view of the above description, the inventor of the present invention based on years of experience accumulated from the engagement in the related industry conducted extensive research and experiments to resolve the shortcomings of the prior-art spherical toy structure and invented the “Blinking Spherical Toy” according to the present invention. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective diagram of the disassembled parts of the spherical toy according to the present invention. 
     FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional diagram of the assembled structure according to the present invention. 
     FIG. 3 is a perspective diagram of the assembled spherical toy of the present invention during its operation. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Please refer to FIGS. 1 and 2 for the present invention. The blinking spherical toy of the present invention comprises an internal sphere  1 , an external sphere  2 , and a non-conductive liquid  3 ; wherein the internal sphere  1  is composed of a lower hemisphere  11  and an upper hemisphere  12  engaged with each other. Since transparency is taken into consideration, the upper hemisphere  12  is made of transparent or semi-transparent plastic materials such as acrylic. The present invention is characterized in that the lower hemisphere  11  comprises a circuit board  13 , and such circuit board is electrically coupled to at least one lamp  131  and a battery module  132 , and its bottom has two electrode rods  133  passing through two predetermined rod holes  111  disposed on the lower hemisphere  11  to seal the rod holes  111  with a traditional sealing method such as using a glue to seal the hole in order to assure that the non-conductive liquid  3  such as an oil will not leak into the internal sphere  1 . Further, in order to secure the circuit board  13  into a fixed position, at least one support member  112  such as a support ring is disposed at the periphery of the lower hemisphere  11  for supporting the circuit board. Furthermore, in order to increase the gravitational force of the internal sphere  1 , a hollow axial pillar  113  is protruded from the periphery of the axial line at the bottom of the lower hemisphere  11  for passing the two electrode rods  133  through and also for connecting a weight ring  14  to shift the center of gravity of the internal sphere  1  down. 
     Further, a decorative pattern  121  is printed on the surface of the upper hemisphere  12  to enhance the visual effect. 
     The external sphere  2  slightly larger than the internal sphere  1  is composed of a bottom hemisphere  21  and a top hemisphere  22 . The present invention is characterized in that the bottom hemisphere  21  has two conductive contact ends  23  on both sides of the axial line at its bottom of the bottom hemisphere  21  as shown in the figure. Each contact end  23  passes through a predetermined end hole  211  at the bottom hemisphere  21  and is exposed from the bottom hemisphere  21 . The two end holes are sealed with traditional sealing technology and thus not described in details here. The assembling of the foregoing components constitutes the external sphere  2  of the present invention. Finally, a non-conductive liquid  3  such as an oil liquid is injected through the ball hole  212  of an external sphere  2  to fill the space between the internal sphere  1  and the external sphere  2 . A plug  24  is used to seal the ball hole  212  and complete the assembling of the present invention. 
     Please refer to FIG.  3 . The internal sphere  1  attaches the bottom of the external sphere  2  due to the gravitational force. Therefore, no mater how the spheres are rolling or shaking, the upper hemisphere  12  with the decorative pattern  121  remains facing upward. When a player touches the two contact ends  23  by a finger (or a conductive object), it forms an electric circuit with the circuit board  13  to light up or blink a lamp such as a LED lamp. Besides having more the fun with the spherical toy, it also enhances the visual effect, and is definitely a great idea for objects of similar types. 
     While the present invention has been described by practical and preferred embodiments, it is understood that this invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments but is intended to cover various arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the broadest interpretations and equivalent arrangements.