AUDIO PLAYBACK TOY

Description

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not Applicable

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

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THE NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT

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INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC OR AS A TEXT FILE VIA THE OFFICE ELECTRONIC FILING SYSTEM

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STATEMENT REGARDING PRIOR DISCLOSURES BY THE INVENTOR OR JOINT INVENTOR

Not Applicable

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

(1) Field of the Invention

The disclosure relates to audio playback toys and more particularly pertains to a new audio playback toy for playing recorded audio which corresponds with indicia included on a plurality of buttons.

(2) Description of Related Art including information disclosed under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98.

Various audio playback toys are disclosed by the prior art, including those in which audio may be recorded by a user for playback when pressing a selected button. However, the prior art fails to describe such an apparatus which arranges a plurality of buttons in a pair of rows below a housing and in which the buttons include indicia such as alphabet letters. Such an apparatus may be used to record the names of the letters or other indicia in order to teach a child through the child's use of the apparatus.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a housing with a front wall, a rear wall, and a perimeter wall. The perimeter wall is coupled to and extends between the front wall and the rear wall. The housing defines an interior space which is surrounded by the front wall, the rear wall, and the perimeter wall. A processor is mounted in the housing, and a memory is operatively coupled to the processor. A speaker is mounted in the housing and is operably coupled to the processor. A plurality of buttons is mounted to the housing and is operatively coupled to the processor. The processor is configured to cause the speaker to play an associated audio file to a selected button of the plurality of buttons when the selected button is operated in a playback operation. The playback operation is defined as pressing the selected button. The buttons are positioned below the housing and are arranged in a first row and a second row which each extend between a pair of lateral sides of the housing.

There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.

The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S)

The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a front perspective view of an audio playback toy according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a rear perspective view of an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a front view of an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 4 is an in-use view of an embodiment of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to FIGS. 1 through 4 thereof, a new audio playback toy embodying the principles and concepts of an embodiment of the disclosure and generally designated by the reference numeral 10 will be described.

As best illustrated in FIGS. 1 through 4, the audio playback toy 10 generally comprises a housing 12 with a front wall 14, a rear wall 16, and a perimeter wall 18. The perimeter wall 18 is coupled to and extends between the front wall 14 and the rear wall 16. The housing 12 defines an interior space 20 which is surrounded by the front wall 14, the rear wall 16, and the perimeter wall 18. The housing 12 has a grand piano casing shape. A processor 28 is mounted in the housing 12, and a memory 30 operatively coupled to the processor 28. A speaker 32 is mounted in the housing 12 and is operably coupled to the processor 28. The housing 12 defines a plurality of slots 24 which extends through the front wall 14 of the housing 12 adjacent to the speaker 32.

A plurality of buttons 34 is mounted to the housing 12 and is operatively coupled to the processor 28. The processor 28 is configured to cause the speaker 32 to play an associated audio file to a selected button 34 of the plurality of buttons 34 when the selected button 34 is operated in a playback operation. The playback operation is defined as pressing the selected button 34, but each button 34 may be operated in at least one other manner as further described below. The buttons 34 are positioned below the housing 12 and are arranged in a first row 36 and a second row 38 which extend between a pair of lateral sides 22 of the housing 12. The first row 36 is positioned between the second row 38 and the housing 12, and the second row 38 is positioned rearwardly of the first row 36 with respect to the housing 12. The first row 36 has an equal number of buttons 34 to the second row 38.

Each indicium 40 of a plurality of indicia 40 is coupled to an associated button 34 of the plurality of buttons 34. Each indicium 40 of the plurality of indicia 40 comprises an associated letter of a plurality of letters but may comprise other matter in other embodiments such as graphical images, numbers, or the like.

A microphone 42 is mounted in the housing 12 and is operably coupled to the processor 28. The housing 12 defines a plurality of apertures 26 which extends through the front wall 14 of the housing 12 adjacent to the microphone 42. The processor 28 is configured to record input audio via the microphone 42 when a selected button 34 of the plurality of buttons 34 is operated in a record operation. The processor 28 is further configured to store the input audio in an associated memory segment to the selected button 34 of a plurality of memory segments of the memory 30 when the selected button 34 is operated in the record operation.

The record operation is defined as pressing the selected button 34 for a longer duration than the selected button 34 is pressed during the playback operation. For example, the playback operation may include pressing the selected button 34 for less than one second, and the record operation may include pressing the selected button 34 for greater than one second. In other embodiments, the record operation may include pressing the selected button 34 in conjunction with pressing a separate record button 34 operatively coupled to the processor 28. Other embodiments may include other suitable means for recording audio files associated with the selected button 34.

A mount assembly 44 is coupled to the housing 12. The mount assembly 44 comprises a pair of hook members 46 coupled to the rear wall 16 of the housing 12. Each hook member 46 is movable between an extended position 48 and a retracted position 50 with respect to the housing 12. Each hook member 46 extends rearwardly and downwardly with respect to the housing 12 when positioned in the extended position 48. Each hook member 46 lies against the rear wall 16 of the housing 12 when positioned in the retracted position 50. The housing 12 may be mounted over a panel of a crib or a similar wall structure via the mount assembly 44 when the hook members 46 are positioned in their extended positions 48. The housing 12 may be set with the rear wall 16 of the housing 12 facing a floor surface when the hook members 46 are positioned in their retracted positions 50.

A tray 52 is coupled to the housing 12 adjacent to the plurality of buttons 34. The tray 52 has a back wall 54 and a pair of side walls 56. The back wall 54 is positioned rearwardly of the plurality of buttons 34, and the pair of side walls 56 is coupled to and extends away from the back wall 54. The side walls 56 are positioned opposite each other across the plurality of buttons 34.

A power supply 58 is mounted in the housing 12 and electrically coupled to the processor 28. The power supply 58 comprises a battery but may comprise a capacitor or other suitable energy storage. A power switch 60 is operatively coupled to the processor 28 and is operable to alternately activate and deactivate the processor 28.

In use, the buttons 34 may be operated in the playback operation to play the associated audio files and may be operated in the record operation to record new audio for each button 34. For example, an adult user may operate a given button 34 of the plurality of buttons 34 in the record operation to record audio of the adult user speaking the letter of the alphabet indicated by the indicium 40 associated with the given button 34. Then, when another user such as a child user 62 operates the given button 34 in the playback operation, the processor 28 plays the same audio of the adult user speaking the letter of the alphabet indicated by the indicium 40 associated with the given button 34. In other embodiments, where the indicia 40 include graphical images, numbers, or other matter, audio may be recorded which reads out the name of the indicium 40 of the given button 34.

With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.

Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.