GB2133951A

GB2133951A - A talking doll

Info

Publication number: GB2133951A
Application number: GB08334466A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Henri Mizoule; William Gardel
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1983-01-05
Filing date: 1983-12-23
Publication date: 1984-08-01
Also published as: GB8334466D0; DE3400040A1; FR2538711A1

Abstract

A talking doll in which the body (1) includes a receiver (5) adapted to receive audio frequency modulated radio signals transmitted by a transmitter (9). The modulating signal can originate from a microphone (11) or from a reading device (13) for recorded medium, e.g. magnetic tape play-back. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION A talking doll The invention concerns a talking doll capable of playing a considerable part in the affective and intellectual development of a child.

At the present time the education of children is considered most important in an environment which is becoming more and more sophisticated, and the child must be adapted from an early age to the world which surround it.

A toy is a useful medium in education since it enables fundamental ideas to be instilled by means of piay.

Talking dolls are known, but generally these dolls have only a very limited vocabulary which is always the same and/or the extent of the vocabulary depends on the available number of established recordings (generally on records) which are inserted into the doll. In the first case, the design of the system is too rudimentary to attain an educational aim which is at all complex or evolutive. In the second case, the interest of the child can be attracted by the sound message but this sole source readily becomes insufficient to enable the child to assimulate in a useful fashion, information other than purely audible information, which considerably limits the scope of the system.

In British Patent Specification No. 2117160, there is proposed the embodiment of an educational unit with varied possibilities enabling, in particular, the child to acquire complex intellectual notions and mechanisms on the basis of double perception, visual and audible. More particularly, there is proposed a doll whose parts make the child believe that it is knowledgeable, that is to say, for example, that is has the faculty of reading, counting, that it knows the tonic sol-fa, recognizes colours, animals etc.For this purpose a set of reading cards has been envisaged, each card comprising on the one hand a graphical representation and on the other a sound recording associated with graphical representation; the doll would have a card reading device enabling the input of a reading card and its passage in front of a reading head connected to a playback device which is placed inside the body of the doll.

This design, which is perfectly satisfactory from the educational point of view, necessitates, however, a relatively fine technical adaptation of the doll's body in order to locate the reading device and the card drive in it.

An object of the present invention is to provide a new talking doll whose technical embodiment is especially simple, which is not fragile and, in other respects, whose use offers new possibilities of acting upon the affective and intellectual development of the child.

This aim is achieved by the fact that the doll includes a receiver associated with a transmitter located close by and capable of transmitting by Hertzian waves to the receiver a signal representative of a sound message collected by a microphone or by a record reading device.

From the point of view of manufacture of such a doll one can see that there is no difficulty in as far as it is very easy to place a low-volume receiver in the body of any doll. It is not necessary to use dolls specially cast for this purpose.

Advantageously, the receiver is placed in the pivotal neck of the doll and the aerial in the head of the doll.

Since the doll of the invention has neither movements nor complex mechanical devices it is not fragile.

The possibilities of use are manifold. For instance, a child's mother can speak into the microphone while she is in one room of the house, and the child can hear her in another room via the doll. Thus a strong bond is created between the child and its doll which, in a magical way in the eyes of the child, takes on the voice of its mother.

Due to the establishment of this affective bond the "message" given out by the doll will have a much deeper penetration.

The mother can in this way without stopping what she is doing, tell a story to the child.

Alternatively, instead of telling a story directly she can pre-record a reading device such as a tape recorder at the output of which may be connected the transmitter. She can also use pre-recorded texts commercially available for this purpose.

To the above examples of use, which illustrate more particularly the affective and emotional impact of the invention, other examples of use can be added and combined which appeal to the intellectual capacities of the child.

Thus in particular, the transmitter can be connected to a card reading device, the cards having a sound recording associated with a graphical representation just as described in Patent Specification 211 71 60. In this case the child will use the doll and its card reader at the same time. The doll will "speak" giving the child the illusion that it is reading texts, notes, numbers, images or any graphical representations which appear on the card. In order to reinforce the idea in the child that the doll is "knowledgeable" the card reader can take the external form of a desk or a book next to which the child places the doll.

Two embodiments of the invention will be better understood from the following description, given by way of example only, with reference to the attached drawings in which: Fig. 1 shows a first embodiment of the invention; Fig. 2 shows a second embodiment of the invention; and Figs. 3 and 4 are electronic circuit diagrams of a transmitter and a receiver respectively.

Fig. 1 shows a doll 1 whose head 2 is fitted into the body 3 by a neck 4. A radio receiver 5 is fixed in the neck in any manner together with its loudspeaker 6 and its receiving aerial 7 which can be opened out inside the head and supported in it.

Associated with the doll 1 is a transmitter unit 8 comprising the actual transmitter 9 (transmitting on amplitude modulation or frequency modulation) and its transmitting aerial 1 0. The transmitter comprises advantageously a built-in microphone 11 and a standard jack plug 12 which can be plugged into the output of a record reading device 13 which may be a reader for magnetic tapes or records. A switch, not shown, on the transmitter enables the choice of switching to the microphone 11 or the reader 1 3.

The doll 1 in Figure 2 is exactly the same as in Fig. 1. However, the transmission unit 8 comprises a block consisting on the one hand of the transmitter 9, concealed in the selected form, and its aerial 10 and on the other hand a device 13 for reading recorded cards 14 which the child places in the device. A detailed description of such cards and of an example of the means of drive and reading them is given in the aforesaid Patent specification No. 211 71 60.

Fig. 3 illustrates a very simple wiring diagram of a transmitter in which the modulated signal coming from the voice speaking at the microphone 11 is amplified by the low-frequency amplifier 1 5, or alternatively the signal coming from the reader 13 is applied to an oscillating circuit comprising a high-frequency oscillator 16, a high-frequency amplifier 17, a modulator 18, a modulated signal amplifier 1 9 and a transmitting aerial 10. The transmission level can be kept weak enough in view of the closeness of the transmitter and receiver. The oscillator 1 6 is controlled depending on the selected and/or permitted transmission band, for example 27 MHz.

The radio receiver incorporated in the doll 1 is shown schematically in Fig. 4. It consists essentially of a tuning circuit comprising principally a coil 20 and a detection diode 21 followed by an amplifier 22 capable of operating the loudspeaker 6. Feedback and correction devices 23 and 24 are also provided.

Claims

1. A talking doll comprising a body including a receiver a signal representative of a sound capable of transmitting by Hertzian waves to the receiver signal respresentative of a sound message, and means for generating the message in the transmitter.

2. A talking doll according to claim 1, wherein the means for generating said message comprises 3 microphone.

3. A talking doll according to claim 1, wherein the means for generating said message comprises a reading device for recorded medium.

4. A talking doll according to any preceding claim wherein the receiver is located in the neck of the doll.

5. A talking doll according to any preceding claim, wherein an aerial for the receiver is located in the head of the doll.

6. A talking doll according to any preceding claim, including a reading device connected to said transmitter and one or more cards carrying graphical representations and a sound recording to be read by said reading device.

7. A talking doll substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Fig. 1 or Fig. 2 and Figs. 3 and 4 of the accompanying drawings.