Toy brick with sensing, actuation and control

Abstract

A toy brick includes a housing, a first coupling element, an operating assembly, and a power source. The first coupling element releasably couples the housing to the housing of at least one other toy brick. The operating assembly is carried by the housing. The operating assembly includes user reprogrammable computing control element, and at least one sensing element capable of sensing an input value, the at least one sensing element operably coupled to the computing control element. The user reprogrammable computing and control element is configured generate an actuator output based at least in part on the sensed input value. The operating assembly also includes at least one actuator operably coupled to the computing control element to receive the actuator output. A power source is coupled to the operating assembly to supply electrical power thereto.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO OTHER APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application No. 61 / 633,824, filed 17 Feb. 2012.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Toy bricks such as LEGO® brand toy bricks have been available for many decades. Toy bricks typically have releasable couplings between bricks, which allow them to be connected to form a larger structure. In their simplest form they build unanimated objects such as castles or houses.[0003]An advancement of toy bricks was the addition of bricks with a rotating joint or axel coupled to a wheel. Such a toy brick can be attached to an inanimate structure in order to make that structure roll along a surface when pushed.[0004]A further advancement of toy bricks was the addition of “pull back motors.” These motors are mechanical energy storage elements, which store energy in a watch spring or flywheel. Typically these are toy bricks which have the “pull back motor” mechanism contained within the brick. There...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention is related to a toy brick that includes a housing, a coupling element, an operating assembly, and a power source. The toy brick also includes a computing control element and at least one sensing element capable of sensing input values. The computing control element is configured to generate an actuator output based at least in part on the sensed input value and a previously sensed input value. The operating assembly includes at least one actuator operably coupled to the computing control element to receive the actuator output. The power source supplies electrical power to the operating assembly. The toy brick may also include one or more sensing elements such as a radio frequency sensor, a camera, a sound emission device, a light source, a motor, a solenoid, a radio frequency transmitter or transceiver, a display, an electrical solenoid, and a radio frequency identifier. The toy brick may also have a unique electronic identifier address and a group electronic identifier address so that multiple toy bricks can be simultaneously addressed using the group electronic identifier address. The computing control element may be a reprogrammable computing control element and the actuator output may include a time course of actuator outputs. The technical effects of the invention include the ability of the toy brick to sense and respond to input from the user, as well as the ability to communicate with external computing devices.

Problems solved by technology

The most complex state of prior art is the programmable robotics kit sold by the LEGO Group under the trademark Mindstorms®.

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