Patent Application
20060283078
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the floral industry, generally in regard to the concept of the combination of a floral bouquet with sound emitting apparatus to present a vocal and/or musical message. More specifically, invention is particularly aimed at, but not limited to, bouquets of flowers such as displayed for sale in supermarkets and other retail establishments in containers of water in combination with a solid state chip such as designed for the emission of sound such as vocal and/or musical greetings.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known that the sale of bouquets of flowers, preferably but not necessarily cut flowers, is both done through retail establishments such as florists, often placed in vases, and more economically in wrapped bouquets of cut flowers in supermarkets where said bouquets are displayed in containers or buckets of water. When sold through florists, bouquets of cut flowers are sold not only in vases, but also in dry pack boxes, sometimes with each flower stem base encapsulated in an individual vial of water. However, it has also become commonplace for bouquets of fresh cut flowers to be sold in supermarkets and other retail establishments in bunches that are often simply held together with a rubber band or the like.
Whether flowers are sold to the consuming public by florists, in supermarkets, through other retail establishments, in open air markets, or by any other means, it is well established that flowers intended as a gift to someone else by the purchaser thereof will be accompanied by a card frequently identifying the recipient, the purchaser, and some usually abbreviated personal message such as “Happy Birthday,” “Happy Anniversary,” “Get Well,” “Congratulations,” “Sympathy on Your Loss,” or with a holiday greeting for a large number of holidays such as New Year's Day, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Hanukkah, Christmas and some others. Cards carrying these greetings are ordinarily quite small, in part because they must be attached either to the flowers or to some means that must be inserted into the bouquet.
Separate from the flower industry, there has been created in the 20th century an ever growing enterprise of greeting cards. The greeting card industry creates and markets greeting cards for virtually every conceivable occasion in a relationship between the giver and the recipient. Thus there are greeting cards for all the occasions and circumstances as described above concerning flowers, except that the numbers thereof are greatly multiplied by relationships. That is, there are greeting cards from wife to husband or husband to wife, from one parent or another or both to children, from children to parents, from aunts and uncles to nieces and nephews and vice versa, from grandparents to grandchildren and vice versa, etc. This is further amplified by differences between religious and secular messages, with card designs in an almost infinite variety with and without poetry, and with seriousness or humor. Furthermore, in the last 20 years or so greeting cards have become available with sound emitting chips that provide musical and/or vocal greetings, usually triggered by opening up the greeting card. Such greeting cards typically play synthesized music or vocal sounds by the incorporation of a memory, an oscillator/speaker, and a tiny battery using a printed circuit board as a part of a miniature solid state chip. Such devices frequently use a piezo-electric buzzer for converting the signal in memory to an audible signal. However, so far as is known to the present inventor such technology has never been adopted in the floral industry, and a preexamination search commissioned on behalf of the present inventor has revealed no such prior art.
Bearing in mind the foregoing, it is a principal object of the present invention to combine all of the present, contemplated, and future techniques of the flower industry in the assembly, packaging, display, marketing and sales of flowers with use of sound emitting apparatus to provide the sellers and givers of flowers with the ability to communicate audible musical and/or vocal greetings and messages to flower recipient.
Another principal object of the invention is to enhance the marketability of flower bouquets and other gifts that include flowers by enhancing said gifts with audible greetings and messages.
Another object of the invention is to facilitate the focus to recipient of the purpose of the giver in the gift of a bouquet of flowers.
A related object of the invention is to allow the recipient of a bouquet of flowers to retain the musical and/or vocal greeting that accompanied the gift of cut flowers after disposal thereof.
Other objects and advantages will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon reference to the following descriptions.
In accordance with the major aspect of the present invention therewith provided for use with a bouquet of flowers a solid state chip that includes a miniature battery powered printed circuit board including a memory chip with musical tone and/or vocal instructions and a piezo-electric buzzer or speaker with a switch for the user to activate same. While the preferred embodiment includes a selection of messages and/or music for a variety of occasions for which the gift of a bouquet of flowers is conventional, the invention also contemplates means by which the memory chip can be impressed with a personalized vocal message directed to the recipient. This message may be recorded by the giver at or after the time of purchase, either by itself, or with a musical recording upon which it is either superimposed or added.
Various other features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description taken in conjunction with the appended drawings, in which:
As required, detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention which may be embodied in various forms. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention in virtually any appropriately detailed structure. Specifically in this regard, it is to be noted that the schematic drawing of the circuit of the chip shown in
Reference is now made to the drawings wherein like characteristics and features of the present invention shown in the various figures are designated by the same reference numerals.
In
The present invention also contemplates that the switch 34 may be activated in a plurality of ways such as by touch, or by sound that may include a clap or a vocal command such as “Speak” or “Sing”.
Because the invention further contemplates the ability to personalize the message, the invention also includes as shown in
While the invention has been described, disclosed, illustrated and shown in various terms or certain embodiments or modifications which it has assumed in practice, the scope of the invention is not intended to be, nor should it be deemed to be, limited thereby in such other modifications or embodiments as may be projected by the teachings herein are particularly reserved especially as they fall within the breadth and scope of the claims here appended.
