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The disclosure relates to night light devices and more particularly pertains to a new night light device for soothing a child to sleep. The device includes a star shaped housing, a cassette reader integrated into the housing and a light emitter integrated into the housing. The device includes a cassette that stores a message recorded by a parent and which is insertable into the cassette reader to read the message.
The prior art relates to night light devices including a variety of night light devices that include a motion sensor for sensing motion of a child and an audio unit for emitting an audible message to the child. The prior art discloses a sleep enhancement device that is structured to resemble an elephant and which includes an imagery projector for projecting imagery and an optical disk reader for reading a story on an optical disk. In no instance does the prior art disclose a star shaped housing with a cassette reader and a cassette with a pre-recorded audio message.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a housing that is structured to resemble a star to visually comfort a child. A light emitter is positioned within the housing to emit light outwardly through the housing thereby facilitating a child to be soothed by the light at night. A cassette reader is integrated into the housing and a cassette is provided that stores data comprising a pre-recorded audio message. The cassette is insertable into the cassette reader thereby facilitating the cassette reader to read the data on the cassette. A speaker is integrated into the housing to audibly emit the pre-recorded message outwardly through the sound slots.
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
The outer wall 14 has a cassette slot 24 extending into an interior of the housing 12 and the cassette slot 24 is positioned on a respective one of the intersecting sides 20. The front wall 16 has a plurality of sound slots 26 each extending into the interior of the housing 12 to pass audible sound through the sound slots 26. The front wall 16 has indicia 28 printed thereon and the indicia 28 comprise imagery of eyes and a smiling mouth. In this way the indicia 28 present the ornamental appearance of a person's face. Additionally, the housing 12 is comprised of a semitranslucent material to pass a limited amount of light through the housing 12.
A light emitter 30 is positioned within the housing 12 to emit light outwardly through the housing 12 when the light emitter 30 is turned on. In this way the child can be soothed by the light at night. The light emitter 30 may comprise a light emitting diode or other type of electronic light emitter 30. A cassette reader 32 is integrated into the housing 12 and the cassette reader 32 is aligned with the cassette slot 24 in the outer wall 14 of the housing 12. The cassette reader 32 may be an electronic cassette reader, including but not being limited to, a magnetic tape reader, a memory card reader or any other electronic data reader.
A cassette 34 is provided and the cassette 34 stores data that comprises a pre-recorded audio message. The pre-recorded audio message might be a story spoken by a family member or any other verbal message. Additionally, the pre-recorded message may include music or other form of audio entertainment. The pre-recorded message may be recorded onto the cassette 34 at the time of manufacturing. Conversely, the pre-recorded message may be recorded onto the cassette 34 by the family member with any means of voice recording that would be compatible with the design of the cassette 34. The cassette 34 is insertable into cassette slot 24 in the outer wall 14 of the housing 12 thereby facilitating the cassette reader 32 to receive the cassette 34 in order to read the data on the cassette 34. The cassette 34 may comprise a magnetic tape cassette, an electronic memory cassette or any other type of data storage cassette.
A speaker 36 is integrated into the housing 12 and the speaker 36 is aligned with the sound slots 26 to emit audible sound outwardly through the sound slots 26. The speaker 36 is electrically coupled to the cassette reader 32 to audibly emit the pre-recorded audio message. A plurality of control buttons 38 is each movably integrated into the back wall 18 of the housing 12, and each of the control buttons 38 is electrically coupled to the cassette 34 player. The plurality of control buttons 38 includes a stop button 40, a play button 42, a pause button 44 and a power button 46. The power button 46 may be electrically coupled the light emitter 30 for turning the light emitter 30 on and off.
A power supply 48 is positioned in the housing 12 and the power supply 48 is electrically coupled to the cassette reader 32 and the light emitter 30. A power cord 50 is coupled to and extends away from the outer wall 14 of the housing 12 and the power cord 50 is electrically coupled to the power supply 48. The power cord 50 has a distal end 52 with respect to the housing 12 and a male plug 54 is electrically coupled to the distal end 52. The male plug 54 can be plugged into a female electrical outlet 55 to supply power to the power supply 48.
In an alternative embodiment 56 as is most clearly shown in
In use, the cassette 34 is inserted into the cassette reader 32 at night when the child is put into bed. Thus, the pre-recorded audio message is played to the child to help the child fall asleep. In this way a parent that is traveling for work, for example, can read a bed time story to the child when the parent is away. Additionally, a series of stories that were recorded onto cassette 34 at the time of manufacturing can be played to the child. The light emitter 30 emits a soothing, low intensity light to comfort the child's fear of the dark.
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.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
5307051 | Sedlmayr | Apr 1994 | A |
7264377 | Cooper | Sep 2007 | B2 |
8979731 | Aarts | Mar 2015 | B2 |
10086302 | Boeckle | Oct 2018 | B2 |
20120188451 | Schmidt | Jul 2012 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
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WO2010130676 | Nov 2010 | WO |