Interactive Pet Toys

Abstract

To provide an interactive pet toy that includes audio feedback to encourage pets to focus and pay attention to chewing. [Solution] An interactive pet toy for encouraging a pet's focus and attention on chewing, including audio feedback, includes a body portion having a surface and one or more flexible inserts that can be transformed into two different geometric configurations along with the production of an audible sound, wherein in a first configuration, the one or more inserts have protruding and recessed surfaces, and in a second configuration, the protruding surfaces become recessed surfaces and the recessed surfaces become protruding surfaces.

Description

Technical Field

[0003]

[0001] (Cross - reference to Related Applications) This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 381,153, filed October 27, 2022, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

[0002] The present invention is directed to an interactive pet toy that includes audio feedback to encourage a pet's focus and attention on chewing.

Background Art

[0006] In at least one embodiment, at least one flexible insert is convertible from a first configuration to a second configuration, and then convertible back from the second configuration to the first configuration.

[0007] In at least one embodiment, at least one flexible insert generates an audible sound when converted to a second configuration and generates an additional audible sound when converted back to a first configuration.

[0008] In at least one embodiment, at least one flexible insert undergoes elastic deformation when converted to a second configuration and elastic recovery when converted back to a first configuration.

[0009] In at least one embodiment, the protruding surface is a hemispherical protruding surface, and the recessed surface is a hemispherical recessed surface.

[0010] In at least one embodiment, at least one flexible insert is located within a through-hole in the main body portion.

[0011] In at least one embodiment, the body portion includes a surface surrounding at least one flexible insert, and a portion of the protruding surface of at least one flexible insert extends higher than the surface of the body portion surrounding at least one flexible insert.

[0012] In at least one embodiment, the protruding surface of at least one flexible insert extends 1.0 mm to 10.0 mm higher than the surface of the body portion surrounding the at least one flexible insert.

[0013] In at least one embodiment, the protruding surface of at least one flexible insert extends higher than the surface of the body portion surrounding the at least one flexible insert in either the first or second configuration.

[0014] In at least one embodiment, the audible sound is in the range of 50 Hz to 45,000 Hz.

[0015] In at least one embodiment, the main body portion comprises a thermoplastic or thermosetting material. In at least one embodiment, the material is selected from polyamide, polycarbonate, polyethylene, polypropylene, polyacetal, polystyrene, impact polystyrene, polyurethane, polyisoprene, thermoplastic elastomer, PET, or PBT.

[0016] In at least one embodiment, at least one flexible insert comprises a thermoplastic elastomer or a thermosetting elastomer. In at least one embodiment, the elastomer comprises a polyester thermoplastic elastomer, a polyamide thermoplastic elastomer, a polystyrene-polybutadiene elastomer, and a polyisoprene elastomer.

[0017] In at least one embodiment, at least one flexible insert contains an attractant or flavoring agent.

[0018] In at least one embodiment, at least one flexible insert is convertible to an intermediate configuration, which is convertible to one of two different geometric configurations without the application of force.

[0019] In at least one embodiment, a method is provided for using an interactive toy for animals, the interactive toy for animals comprising: a body portion; and at least one flexible insert coupled to the body portion, wherein the at least one flexible insert is convertible to two different geometric configurations, with the generation of an audible sound, wherein the at least one flexible insert has a protruding surface and a recessed surface in a first configuration, and in a second configuration, the protruding surface becomes a recessed surface and the recessed surface becomes a protruding surface; and the method is provided for converting the at least one flexible insert from the first configuration to the second configuration, with the generation of an audible sound.

[0020] In at least one embodiment, the method further includes converting at least one flexible insert from a second configuration back to a first configuration, and generating additional audible sounds when converting back to the first configuration. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0021] The features and advantages of this disclosure will become more apparent as the following detailed description progresses and by referring to drawings in which similar figures designate similar parts.

[0022] [Figure 1] This is a side view of the interactive pet chew toy disclosed herein. [Figure 2] This is a cross-sectional view of the insert of the interactive pet chew toy shown in Figure 1, taken along line AA, before a force F is applied to the first side of the insert / toy. [Figure 3] This is a cross-sectional view of the insert of the interactive pet chew toy shown in Figure 1, taken along line AA while a force F is applied to the first side of the insert / toy. [Figure 4] This is a cross-sectional view of the insert of the interactive pet chew toy shown in Figure 1, taken along line AA after a force F is applied to the first side of the insert / toy. [Figure 5] Cross-sectional view of the insert of the interactive pet chew toy of FIG. 1 taken along line A-A before force F is applied to the second opposite side of the insert / toy. [Figure 6] Cross-sectional view of the insert of the interactive pet chew toy of FIG. 1 taken along line A-A while force F is being applied to the second opposite side of the insert / toy. [Figure 7] Cross-sectional view of the insert of the interactive pet chew toy of FIG. 1 taken along line A-A after force F has been applied to the second (opposite) side of the insert / toy.

MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

[0023] It will be understood that the present disclosure is not limited, in its application, to the details of the construction and arrangement of the components described in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention herein may have other embodiments and may be implemented or executed in various ways. Also, the expressions and terms used herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting, as being understandable by those skilled in the art. Further, throughout this specification, like reference numerals and letters indicate corresponding structures throughout several figures, and such corresponding structures need not be considered separately. Additionally, any particular feature of any particular exemplary embodiment may, as appropriate, be equally applied to any other exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. In other words, the features among the various exemplary embodiments described herein are interchangeable as suitable and not exclusive.

[0024] Figure 1 provides a view of a preferred interactive pet chew toy 2 of the present specification. As can be seen from the figure, it has an elongated body portion 10, preferably in the form of a bone, and includes at least one, preferably a plurality of flexible inserts 11 coupled to the body portion 10, such as adhesively joined to the body portion 10. More specifically, the insert 11 is disposed within a through-hole of the body portion 10, and this insert closes the through-hole. The insert 11 can take the shape illustrated at 12a and 12b when chewed by an animal. In addition, the configuration illustrated at 12a and 12b is a relatively stable configuration, meaning that it remains in such a configuration unless the animal chews further. The body portion 10 preferably provides separate durability against chewing. The pet chew toy body portion 10 may preferably be formed from a thermoplastic or thermosetting (crosslinked) material such as polyamide (nylon) type resins, polycarbonate, polyacetal, polystyrene, polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, impact-resistant polystyrene, polyurethane (thermoplastic or thermosetting), polyisoprene (e.g., natural or synthetic rubber), thermoplastic elastomers (e.g., polyester-based or polyurethane-based), and polyesters such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or polybutylene terephthalate (PBT).

[0025] Each of the one or more inserts 11 can exist in two different relatively stable geometric configurations, indicated by 12a and 12b. Therefore, the inserts 11 are preferably formed from a material that is flexible at room temperature and can deform during animal biting. Such flexible materials can preferably be selected from thermoplastic elastomers and / or thermosetting elastomers. Examples of thermoplastic elastomers include polyester thermoplastic elastomers, polyamide thermoplastic elastomers, polystyrene-polybutadiene elastomers, and natural and synthetic rubbers (polyisoprene elastomers). The inserts 11 may have a thickness in the range of 0.5 mm to 3 mm, more specifically 0.75 mm to 2.5 mm, and even more specifically 1 mm to 2 mm.

[0026] The flexible material for one or more inserts 11 may preferably contain various additives. Such additives may include attractants or flavorings designed to engross animals in the interactive pet chew toy and more specifically entice them to chew. Such additives may preferably be present at levels of 0.1% to 5.0% by weight.

[0027] The insert 11 is preferably convertible, that is, it can be individually converted into different geometric configurations, along with the generation of audible sounds, as can be first observed in Figure 1, where two insert configurations 12a and 12b are illustrated. Thus, as seen in Figure 1, the insert 11 of configuration 12a provides a first protruding surface 14P. Such a protruding surface 14P preferably has a portion that surrounds the insert 11 and extends higher than the surface of the pet chew body 10 defining the through-hole of the body portion 10. The protruding surface 14P also preferably extends higher than the surrounding surface 16 of the insert 11 and defines the through-hole of the body portion 10. Preferably, a portion of the protruding surface 14P extends 1.0 mm to 10.0 mm higher than the surrounding surface of the pet chew body 10 defining the through-hole of the body portion 10, and also from the periphery of the insert 11. Therefore, this protrusion can serve to allow force to be applied to the protruding surface 14P when the pet's teeth are biting, as will be explained more fully below.

[0028] Therefore, when a pet bites and applies force F to the protruding surface 14P of the flexible insert in configuration 12a, it can be transformed from the first configuration 12a to the second configuration illustrated in 12b. That is, the first protruding surface 14P now becomes a recessed surface 14R, and on the opposite side of the interactive pet chew toy 2, the insert 11 itself protrudes on the other side of the chew toy that has the protruding surface 14P, and the opposite side of the insert provides the protruding surface 14P. Thus, it can be understood that one or more flexible inserts 11, hereby acted upon by an animal, can transition from the configuration shown in 12a to the configuration shown in 12b and vice versa.

[0029] Next, looking at Figures 2 to 4, the aforementioned transition in the geometric shape of the insert 11 is illustrated in more detail in the partial cross-sectional view. As shown in Figure 2, a first protruding surface 14P can be seen from the first side of the pet chew, and this first protruding surface preferably presents itself as a rounded type of geometric shape (in the form of a hemispherical dome), as shown. Other geometric shapes are also possible, such as oval, elliptical, polyhedron, pyramidal, or any other three-dimensional shape. A recessed surface 16R (in the form of a hemispherical recess) can be defined on the other or second side of the first protruding surface 14P.

[0030] Next, let us look at Figure 3. When a force F is applied to the flexible first protruding surface 14P, the insert configuration 12a can be described as beginning to deform with elastic deformation, inverting, and transitioning toward the opposite configuration 12b. Thus, as shown in the intermediate position of Figure 3, a portion of the first protruding surface 14P appears to have the first recessed surface 14R. Next, in Figure 4, the transition is complete, resulting in the generation of an audible sound. The recessed surface 16R (Figure 2) is here the protruding surface 16P (Figure 4).

[0031] Considering the flexible nature of insert 11, and turning our attention back to Figure 3, it is worth noting that insert 11 is once pushed into the intermediate configuration shown in Figure 3, and that insert 11 can complete the transition on its own without any additional force. In other words, the flexibility and geometric shape of insert 11 are configured such that the animal only needs to initiate the transition from the state schematically shown in Figure 2 to the intermediate position shown in Figure 3, and insert 11 can complete the transition to the state illustrated in Figure 4, accompanied by the generation of an audible sound, without any additional force.

[0032] Similarly, starting from the configuration shown in Figure 5, a force F may be applied again to the protruding surface 16P by the animal while it is biting. As shown in Figure 6, in the intermediate position, as a result of such biting, it is observed that a portion of the protruding surface 16P is transformed to provide a recessed surface 16R from the other side of the pet bite. In Figure 7, the transition is completed with a fully reformed protruding surface 14P, i.e., elastically restored. Furthermore, as described above, once the insert 11 is roughly positioned in the intermediate position shown in Figure 6, the transition to the state shown in Figure 7 can be completed with the generation of an audible sound without any additional force.

[0033] As described above, the transitions illustrated in Figures 2 to 4, and the transitions illustrated in Figures 5 to 7, are preferably accompanied by an audible sound. Such a sound may also be relatively short (0.1 to 1.0 seconds) and described as a popping or snapping type sound. The audible sound is preferably one that can be perceived by animals such as dogs. For example, the sound may be in the range of 50 Hz to 45 kHz (45,000 Hz). Such a sound occurs when the flexible insert undergoes a configuration change from configuration 12a shown in Figure 2 to configuration 12b shown in Figure 4. Similarly, such a sound is thought to occur when the insert returns from configuration 12b shown in Figure 5 to configuration 12a shown in Figure 7.

[0034] While preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described, it should be understood that various changes, adaptations, and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention and the appended claims. Therefore, the scope of the invention should not be determined by reference to the above description, but rather by reference to the appended claims, along with the entire scope of their equivalents. Furthermore, it should be understood that the appended claims do not necessarily encompass the broadest scope of the invention for which the applicant has the right to claim a patent, or the only way in which the invention can be claimed, or that all enumerated features are required.

Claims

1. An interactive toy for animals, The main body and At least one flexible insert coupled to the main body portion, the at least one flexible insert being exposed so as to be contactable by an animal's teeth in order to apply force to the at least one flexible insert, Equipped with, The at least one flexible insert is capable of being transformed into two different geometric configurations along with the generation of audible sound, The two different geometric configurations are the first configuration and the second configuration, The at least one flexible insert is In the first configuration, a first configuration protruding surface and a first configuration recessed surface are provided, and both the first configuration protruding surface and the first configuration recessed surface are exposed so as to be contactable by an animal's teeth in order to apply force to the at least one flexible insert. In the second configuration, the first configuration protruding surface becomes the second configuration recessed surface of the at least one flexible insert, and the first configuration recessed surface becomes the second configuration protruding surface of the at least one flexible insert, and both the second configuration protruding surface and the second configuration recessed surface are exposed so as to be contactable by an animal's teeth in order to apply force to the at least one flexible insert. Interactive toys for animals.

2. The interactive toy for animals according to claim 1, wherein the at least one flexible insert is convertible from the first configuration to the second configuration and then convertible back from the second configuration to the first configuration.

3. The interactive toy for animals according to claim 2, wherein the at least one flexible insert generates the audible sound when converted to the second configuration and generates further audible sounds when converted back to the first configuration.

4. The interactive toy for animals according to claim 2, wherein the at least one flexible insert undergoes elastic deformation when converted to the second configuration and elastic recovery when converted back to the first configuration.

5. In the first configuration, the first configuration protruding surface is a first configuration hemispherical protruding surface, and the first configuration recessed surface is a first configuration hemispherical recessed surface, In the second configuration described above, the second configuration protruding surface is a second configuration hemispherical protruding surface, and the second configuration recessed surface is a second configuration hemispherical recessed surface. An interactive toy for animals according to claim 1.

6. The interactive toy for animals according to claim 1, wherein the at least one flexible insert is disposed within a through hole in the main body portion.

7. In the first configuration, the main body portion includes a first peripheral surface surrounding the at least one flexible insert, and a portion of the first configuration protruding surface of the at least one flexible insert extends higher than the first peripheral surface of the main body portion surrounding the at least one flexible insert. In the second configuration described above, the main body portion includes a second peripheral surface surrounding the at least one flexible insert, and a portion of the second configuration protruding surface of the at least one flexible insert extends higher than the second peripheral surface of the main body portion surrounding the at least one flexible insert. An interactive toy for animals according to claim 1.

8. The first structural protruding surface of the at least one flexible insert extends 1.0 mm to 10.0 mm higher than the first peripheral surface of the main body portion surrounding the at least one flexible insert. The second structural protruding surface of the at least one flexible insert extends 1.0 mm to 10.0 mm higher than the second peripheral surface of the main body portion surrounding the at least one flexible insert. An interactive toy for animals according to claim 7.

9. The interactive toy for animals according to claim 1, wherein the audible sound is in the range of 50 Hz to 45,000 Hz.

10. The interactive toy for animals according to claim 1, wherein the main body portion comprises a thermoplastic material or a thermosetting material.

11. An interactive toy for animals according to claim 10, wherein the material is selected from polyamide, polycarbonate, polyethylene, polypropylene, polyamide, polycarbonate, polyacetal, polystyrene, polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, impact-resistant polystyrene, polyurethane, polyisoprene, thermoplastic elastomer, PET, or PBT.

12. The interactive toy for animals according to claim 1, wherein the at least one flexible insert comprises a thermoplastic elastomer or a thermosetting elastomer.

13. The interactive toy for animals according to claim 12, wherein the elastomer includes a polyester thermoplastic elastomer, a polyamide thermoplastic elastomer, a polystyrene-polybutadiene elastomer, and a polyisoprene elastomer.

14. The interactive toy for animals according to claim 1, wherein the at least one flexible insert contains an attractant or flavoring agent.

15. The interactive toy for animals according to claim 1, wherein the at least one flexible insert is convertible to an intermediate configuration, and the intermediate configuration is convertible to one of the two different geometric configurations without applying force.

16. A method of using interactive toys for animals, The interactive toy for the animal, The main body and At least one flexible insert coupled to the main body portion, Equipped with, The at least one flexible insert is capable of being transformed into two different geometric configurations along with the generation of audible sound, The two different geometric configurations are the first configuration and the second configuration, The at least one flexible insert is In the first configuration, a first configuration protruding surface and a first configuration recessed surface are provided, and both the first configuration protruding surface and the first configuration recessed surface are exposed so as to be contactable by an animal's teeth in order to apply force to the at least one flexible insert. In the second configuration, the first configuration protruding surface becomes the second configuration recessed surface of the at least one flexible insert, and the first configuration recessed surface becomes the second configuration protruding surface of the at least one flexible insert, and both the second configuration protruding surface and the second configuration recessed surface are exposed so as to be contactable by an animal's teeth in order to apply force to the at least one flexible insert. To obtain the aforementioned interactive toy for the aforementioned animal, The at least one flexible insert is transformed from the first configuration to the second configuration, and the audible sound is generated when it is transformed to the second configuration. A method that includes this.

17. The method according to claim 16, further comprising converting the at least one flexible insert from the second configuration back to the first configuration, and generating further audible sounds when converting it back to the first configuration.

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