Patent ID: 7645178

Claim:
A virtual world toy system comprising: a physical doll; a virtual world unit including: a housing; a receptacle configured to receive the physical doll; a display configured to present a virtual representation of the physical doll in a virtual world; a processing device configured to determine that the physical doll is in the doll receptacle and to generate the virtual representation on the display in response to the determination, wherein the display is positioned substantially in a first plane and the doll receptacle is positioned substantially in a second plane that is substantially parallel to the first plane and the receptacle is configured to move in and out of the housing along the second plane; the display is positioned adjacent to the doll receptacle and is configured to block the view of a user of a portion of the doll and an interior portion of the doll receptacle that is inside the housing; and the processor is configured to present on the display a virtual representation of only the portion of the doll that is blocked from view; and one or more physical props for use with the toy system, wherein the virtual world unit includes a prop receptacle to receive the one or more physical props, and the processing device is configured to determine a physical prop in the prop receptacle and to generate a virtual representation of the determined prop on the display.