Patent ID: 7018213

Claim:
An electronic educational toy having a housing for teaching letters, words, numbers or pictures, comprising: a toy housing supporting a planar work platform on which a child can make selections by causing contact across the planar surface of the work platform and, the toy housing enclosing: a speaker, a processor, and at least a portion of a sensing system capable of distinguishing between two or more co-existing child-caused contacts with the work platform, wherein the sensing system comprises a grid of wires, wires of the grid being sequentially energized so that contact caused by the child generates a variation in one or more of the wires of the grid from which the location of contact on the work platform can be determined; a first learning mode wherein the child explores letters, words, numbers or pictures by causing contact with the work platform without there being an incorrect selection, or indication of an incorrect selection, of a letter, word, number or picture and the toy provides audio feedback to the child when such contact corresponds to the selection of a letter, word, number or picture, the audio feedback relating to the selected letter, word, number or picture; and a second learning mode including: a plurality of audio prompts output by the speaker enclosed within the toy housing, a prompt including a question or instruction having at least one correct response, the question or instruction designed to encourage a child to make a cognitive selection of a letter, word, number or picture and indicate the cognitive selection of the letter, word, number or picture by causing contact with the work platform, the occurrence of contact on the work platform in response to the question or instruction indicating the cognitive selection by the child of the letter, word, number or picture corresponding to the question or instruction, the processor enclosed within the toy housing capable of: a) executing educational software, b) receiving information from the sensing system corresponding to the occurrence of contact by the child on the work platform and, c) using the information from the sensing system to determine whether the child's cognitive selection of the letter, word, number or picture as indicated by the occurrence of contact by the child on the work platform corresponds to a correct response to the question or instruction, a first audio feedback response output by the speaker enclosed within the toy housing, the first audio feedback response indicating that the letter, word, number or picture selected by the child corresponds to a correct response to the question or instruction, and a second audio feedback response output by the speaker enclosed within the toy housing, the second audio feedback response indicating that the selection by the child is something other than a correct response to the question or instruction.