Luminous toy

Details Luminous toy Luminous toy

2000-09-08

2003-02-25

Ricci, John A. (Department: 3712)

Amusement devices: toys

Electric

With lamp

C446S140000, C446S279000, C446S438000, C446S451000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06524161

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a luminous toy, and more particularly to a luminous toy which is adapted to actuate a strain generating means, to thereby strain or distort a piezoelectric element provided in a toy body, leading to luminescence of a luminous element.
A variety of luminous toys each including a luminous element have been conventionally proposed and put to practical use. The conventional luminous toys each typically include a battery which acts as a power source for feeding electric power to the toy.
Unfortunately, use of a battery as a power source possibly causes a failure in normal operation due to exhaustion of the battery when the toy is repeatedly operated. Also, it is supposed that when the toy is left alone for a long period of time, the battery is unserviceable due to natural discharge thereof. Thus, it is required to always secure a spare battery. Further, even when a secondary battery is used as the power source, it has to be discarded ultimately, leading to an environmental problem such as environmental pollution.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the foregoing disadvantage of the prior art.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a luminous toy which is capable of carrying out luminescence anywhere at any time without having to worry about a power shortage of a battery and failing to turn off a switch and the like.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a luminous toy which does not cause any environmental problem such as environmental pollution.
In accordance with the present invention, a luminous toy is provided. The luminous toy includes a toy body provided with a piezoelectric element which induces a voltage when it is strained, a rectifying circuit for rectifying the voltage generated from the piezoelectric element, a capacitor for smoothing the voltage rectified by the rectifying circuit and a luminous element connected in parallel to the capacitor. The luminous toy also includes a strain generating means for generating strain for straining the piezoelectric element.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the strain generating means is selected from a beating mechanism for beating the piezoelectric element and a flip mechanism for flipping the piezoelectric element.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the beating mechanism or flip mechanism may be constructed so as to repeatedly strain the piezoelectric element.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the toy body may be constituted by a target toy and the strain generating means may be constituted by a shooting unit for shooting a projectile at the target toy body.
Alternatively, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the toy body may be constituted by a card body including a substrate and the strain generating means may be constituted by the substrate of the card body, wherein the substrate may have the piezoelectric element fixed thereon.
Also, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the toy body may be constituted by a spherical body and the strain generating means may be constituted by a weight member, wherein the weight member may be fixed to the piezoelectric element.
Further, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the toy body may be constituted by a traveling body including turning wheels and the beating mechanism or flip mechanism may be operated in association with the turning wheels.


REFERENCES:
patent: 2817926 (1957-12-01), DeCicco
patent: 3456134 (1969-07-01), Ko
patent: 3666976 (1972-05-01), Gourlay et al.
patent: 4556396 (1985-12-01), Kennedy et al.
patent: 4748366 (1988-05-01), Taylor
patent: 4889514 (1989-12-01), Auer et al.
patent: 5138535 (1992-08-01), Aragon et al.
patent: 5482493 (1996-01-01), Rapisarda

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