Music – Instruments – Electrical musical tone generation
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-03
2002-03-05
Donels, Jeffrey (Department: 2837)
Music
Instruments
Electrical musical tone generation
C084S476000, C446S397000, C446S408000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06353168
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to musical instruments and, in particular, to educational musical instruments for children.
2. Description of Related Art
A variety of toys for children are known in the art and many of these toys generate different sounds. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,127,869 issued to Hanzawa is a sound producing toy including a board having a path and a plurality of animal figures drawn on the board along the path, and a toy sightseeing bus which is moved along the path. Electrically conductive members are formed on the path at positions opposing the animal figures for producing commands which specify the corresponding animals. A group of contacts are arrayed on the bottom of the toy bus in such a manner that the contacts come into sliding contact with the electrically conductive members. In particular, when the toy bus arrives at a position opposing an animal figure, a set of the contacts is closed selectively by the electrically conductive member corresponding to this animal figure so that the closed contacts generate a signal designating the animal. The toy bus is provided with a signal processing circuit for producing command signals corresponding to the animal figures and a speaker for producing the cries of the animals. Thus, this device simply matches the sound of an animal with a picture of that animal.
Another toy is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,513 issued to Diaz-Plaza which is an interactive teaching apparatus and a method of teaching graphemes, i.e., letter symbols of an alphabet; grapheme names, phonemes, and phonetics. The method includes the steps of utilizing a display of graphemes to learn the phonemes associated with the letters to form words; and forming words, phrases and sentences phonetically with a set of cards. Each of the cards includes at least one graphemes and an image positioned adjacent to the grapheme. Each card is color-coded with the same distinctive color used to color-code the grapheme on the display and an individually-activated, sound generating device is associated with each of the graphemes. Thus, this device requires numerous color-coded graphemes, images and sound generating devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,280,809 issued to Greenberg, et al. discloses an educational toy for testing a child's ability to properly associate related symbols. In particular, the toy includes an area for displaying two groups of symbols, and two members are movably mounted to the toy to allow the child to move a symbol from one group into alignment with a symbol from another of the group. In response to manual actuation of a switch, the toy emits a first signal to indicate correct performance if the symbols are correctly aligned and a second signal to indicate incorrect performance if the members are not properly aligned. The symbols are displayed on interchangeable cards to allow different symbols to be displayed so that the educational content of the toy can be varied simply by changing the cards. Disadvantageously, the toy only indicates whether the symbols are logically created and it does not develop the child's musical awareness or abilities.
A need therefore exists for a musical toy which eliminates the above-described disadvantages and problems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One aspect of the present invention is a musical toy which allows one or more musical sequences to be played. The toy includes a base with a signal processing unit and machine readable storage media, and a plurality of receiving portions which are in communication with the signal processing unit. The toy also includes a plurality of blocks which are configured to engage the receiving portions, and when one of the blocks engages one of the receiving portions, a musical sequence or phase is played by the toy. In greater detail, the blocks are preferably shaped like a cube and each face of the cube is configured to engage a receiving portion. The musical sequence played by the toy is desirably dependent upon which face of the cube is engaged with the receiving portion and different cubes preferably cause different musical sequences to be played. Accordingly, the musical toy can play numerous different musical sequences depending upon which cube is engaged with a receiving portion and the orientation of the cube within the receiving portion.
Another aspect of the present invention is a musical toy which can play a series of musical sequences or phrases when a plurality of blocks are engaged with a plurality of the receiving portions. Preferably the musical sequences or phrases are played one after the other to create a succession of tones or a tune. The positioning and orientation of the blocks in the receiving portions determines which of a plurality of musical sequences is played by the toy. Significantly, the positioning and orientation of the blocks in the receiving portions is readily changeable to create different musical sequences. For example, one or more of the blocks may be rotated so that a different face of the block engages the receiving portion and that changes the musical sequence played by the toy and/or the positions of the blocks may be swapped or moved to change the order in which the musical sequences are played. The musical toy preferably includes a play button which may be activated to play the series of musical sequences.
Still another aspect of the present invention is it advantageously allows a child to create his or her own musical compositions, and this stimulates the musical interest of the child. Significantly, this also provides the foundation for successful learning. In greater detail, the musical toy allows children to create beautiful music simply by playing with different blocks. The blocks can be inserted into receiving portions at random or in carefully selected arrangements to create a composition. Significantly, because each block causes the musical toy to create different sounds and each side of the block creates yet another different sound, many different musical sequences and compositions can be constructed simply by mixing and matching blocks. This maintains a high interest level in the toy, because the musical combinations can be continuously changed to create new and varied musical compositions. Additionally, because different musical cartridges may be used in conjunction with the musical toy to create different types of music, millions of possible musical compositions may be created.
Yet another aspect of the present invention is an educational toy for children which allows one or more musical sequences to be played according to a pattern determined by a child. The toy includes a base with a signal processing unit and machine readable storage media, a plurality of receiving portions including a first contact which is in communication with the signal processing unit, and a plurality of blocks configured to engage the receiving portions. Each of the blocks includes a second contact which is configured to be in communication with the first contact when the block is engaged with a receiving portion. The educational toy advantageously can play a single musical sequence or phrase when a single block is engaged with a receiving portion, or the toy can play a plurality of musical sequences when a plurality of blocks are engaged with a plurality of receiving portions. The musical sequences can be readily changed by rotating and/or moving one or more of the blocks. Additionally, the toy preferably includes one or more speakers which produce sounds corresponding to an output signal from the signal processing unit.
In yet another aspect, each block is individually identified by a unique symbol or marking—such as color, texture or other distinguishing features—and the blocks are preferably shaped like a cube. Desirably, each side of the block has different indicia—such as letters, numbers, shapes or patterns—to identify a particular side of the block. Advantageously, this allows the blocks to be arranged, for example, according to color and the shapes on the sides of the b
Abercrombie Brooke
Emerson Brad
Gerstein Adam
Sosoka, Jr. John R.
Donels Jeffrey
Neurosmith, LLC
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