Toy brick with sensing, actuation and control

Inactive Publication Date: 2013-08-22
TECHNOLOGYONE
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

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®.

Method used

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  • Toy brick with sensing, actuation and control
  • Toy brick with sensing, actuation and control
  • Toy brick with sensing, actuation and control

Examples

Experimental program
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examples of various embodiments

[0073]By way of example, in one embodiment a single brick 10, similar to that shown in FIG. 1, may, when left undisturbed simply go to a “sleep” state, such as when power on the timer has expired at step 78 in FIG. 16, while charging its battery or other energy storage element via ambient light, from a solar cell 16 on one of its surfaces. Then when brick 10 is lifted, it may, for example, emit the sound of an airplane taking off, when dived make the sound of an airplane diving, and when shaken emit the sound of guns. Such a brick 10 would be suited to the building of a toy brick fighter aircraft as shown in FIG. 23. The toy brick fighter aircraft as shown in FIG. 23 is constructed with a single toy brick 10 including the components illustrated in FIG. 2. The other toy bricks used in the construction of the toy brick fighter aircraft are conventional toy bricks without the components of FIG. 2. However, as discussed below, additional toy bricks 10 could be used in the construction o...

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PUM

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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...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & Authority Applications(United States)
IPC IPC(8): A63H33/04
CPCA63H33/042A63H33/086A63H33/22
Inventor KARUNARATNE, ARJUNA RAGUNATH
Owner TECHNOLOGYONE
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