Patent Application
20200152074
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
The disclosure and prior art relates to educational devices and more particularly pertains to a new educational device for teaching the difference between upper and lower case letters of the alphabet.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a doll that a head, a control circuit that is coupled to the doll and an electronic memory that is coupled to the doll. The electronic memory stores a database comprising audible pronunciations of letters of the alphabet. A plurality of buttons is each movably coupled to the doll and each of the buttons is positioned on the head. The control circuit receives an alert input when any of the buttons is manipulated. Each of the buttons has indicia is printed thereon and the indicia comprise a plurality of lower case letters each is assigned to a respective one of the buttons. A speaker is coupled to the doll to emit audible sound outwardly therefrom and the speaker is electrically coupled to the control circuit. The speaker emits the audible pronunciation of the letter of the alphabet corresponding to the manipulated button. In this way the speaker assists the user with learning lower case letters of the alphabet.
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.
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:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
A plurality of buttons 26 is each movably coupled to the doll 12 and each of the buttons 26 is positioned on the head 20. Moreover, each of buttons 26 is strategically positioned on the head 20 to resemble eyes, ears and a nose of the doll 12. Each of the buttons 26 is electrically coupled to the control circuit 22 and the control circuit 22 receives an alert input when any of the buttons 26 is manipulated. Each of the buttons 26 has an outwardly facing surface 28 and the outwardly facing surface 28 of each of the buttons 26 has indicia 30 printed thereon. The indicia 30 comprises a plurality of lower case letters that is each assigned to a respective one of the buttons 26. Moreover, the indicia 30 may include the lower case letters “d” “b” m″ “w” “a” and “c”
A speaker 32 is coupled to the doll 12 to emit audible sound outwardly therefrom and the speaker 32 is electrically coupled to the control circuit 22. The electronic memory 24 communicates the audible pronunciation of the letter of the alphabet corresponding to a manipulated button to the speaker 32 when the control circuit 22 receives the alert input. Thus, the speaker 32 emits the audible pronunciation of the letter of the alphabet corresponding to the manipulated button. In this way the speaker 32 assists a user, such as a child or other user who is learning to read and write, with learning lower case letters of the alphabet.
A plurality of light emitters 34 is each coupled to the head 20 and each of the light emitters 34 is electrically coupled to the control circuit 22. Each of the light emitters 34 is turned on when the control circuit 22 receives the alert input, and the plurality of light emitters 34 is arranged to form a smile on the head 20. Each of the light emitters 34 may comprise an LED or the like and each of the light emitters 34 facilitates a visual alert in conjunction with the audible pronunciation emitted by the speaker 32.
A switch 36 is slidably coupled to the doll 12 and the switch 36 is electrically coupled to the control circuit 22. The switch 36 has an off position, a manual position and an automatic position. A power supply 38 is coupled to the doll 12, the power supply 38 is electrically coupled to the control circuit 22 and the power supply 38 comprises at least one battery.
In use, the switch 36 is positioned in the either the manual position or the automatic position. The control circuit 22 randomly selects audible pronunciations from the electronic memory 24 to be emitted from the speaker 32 when the switch 36 is in the automatic position. Thus, the user is instructed to depress the button that corresponds to the emitted audible pronunciation when the switch 36 is positioned in the automatic position. In this way the doll 12 assists the user with associating printed letters of the alphabet with the pronunciation of the letters of the alphabet. The speaker 32 emits the audible pronunciation from the electronic memory 24 that corresponds to a manipulated button when the switch 36 is in the manual position. Thus, the user can hear the audible pronunciation of the letter on the manipulated button.
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.
