1. Field of Invention
The present invention generally relates to interactive toy systems, and more particularly relates to interactive play items influenced and operated under electric field.
2. Description of Related Art
Various self-propelled mobile robots have been known in the art. With the partial exception of industrial automation for highly repetitive situations, educational purposes, and toys, mobile robots are not widely used. This is because the problems of coping with machine vision, artificial intelligence, general purpose robotic “arm” and “hand” like actuation systems, limited battery life, and the like make it difficult to devise flexible and general purpose systems suitable for widespread use. These systems have used a variety of different techniques to achieve interactive conversation, and have ordinarily had limited success at conversations which were more than mere simple question and answer sessions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,062 which teaches a type of robotic arm that may be controlled by radio from a remote location, and may be programmed by radio from a remote location. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,231,693 and 5,046,022 describe methods of semi-automating tele-robotic control.
Various conventional devices have now become bored and required ones with new effects. There has been a loss of billions USD to the toy industry and therefore, there is a requirement of new interactive toys where users may create virtual worlds and could express their fantasies and control game consoles.
In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a system and method for tele-interactive gaming, is provided.
An object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for tele-interactive gaming with one or more play items to release action signals, a function control unit to receive action signals and a personal assistant portal to broadcast the action signals and further being displayed by a feedback unit. The one or more play items are under the influence of electric field produced by the function control unit.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for tele-interactive gaming with the indexing of functional control unit and the personal assistant portal. The indexing allows the function control unit to be recognized by the personal assistant portal.
Another object of the present invention is to provide the personal assistant portal with a user bank to store user details, a job bank to store instructions of the gaming and virtual personal assistant software to transmit information stored in the job bank and the user bank.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a function control unit with a generator, a convertor, one or more sensors, a s2f box and an interface.
Another object of the present invention is to provide one or more play items with action sensors that respond to the movement of the user actions.
While this technology is illustrated and described in a preferred embodiment, electronic-supported game system may be produced in many different configurations, forms and materials. There is depicted in the drawings, and will herein be described in detail, as a preferred embodiment of the invention, with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the principles of the invention and the associated functional specifications for its construction and is not intended to limit the invention to the embodiment illustrated. Those skilled in the art will envision many other possible variations within the scope of the technology described herein.
The function control unit 104 receives the one or more action signals released from the one or more play items 102. The function control unit 104 further sends the one or more action signals to the personal assistant portal 106 through an input server. The function control unit 104 releases alternating electric field 108 to influence one or more play items 102 for releasing one or more action signals. The function control unit 104 is explained in detailed in conjunction with
The personal assistant portal 106 stores gaming instructions and user information. The gaming instructions and user information is explained in detailed in conjunction with
In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the user bank 202 includes a register page 208 for allowing registration of one or more users 101. The job bank 204 includes an instruction page 210 which allows an operator to create or store game and contend related action scripts, called jobs. The registration page 208 allows the user 101 to fill details such as name, age, date of birth, country, marital status, preferences etc. The instruction page 210 allows entering commands or information such as game instructions, time codes, networks or content links, calculations, statements etc.
In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the virtual personal assistant software 206 is connected to control sequences 212a and content selector 212b to select the content to be played on the one or more feedback unit 110. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention as shown in the
In another embodiment of the present invention, the personal assistant portal 106 further includes a customer relationship management module 213 for maintaining the records of the activities of the user 101.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the function control unit 104 includes a generator 214 for generating a frequency, a convertor 215 for converting the frequency into alternating electric field 108, one or more sensors 216 for detecting the one or more action signals received from the one or more play items 102 and an interface 218 connected to the one or more feedback 110. The interface 218 transmits the one or more action signals to the virtual personal assistant software 206 through the input server 220. The one or more action signal is explained in detailed in conjunction with
In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the personal assistant portal 106 provide gaming instructions from the job bank 204 to the feedback unit to display set of instructions for the play item 102. The user 101 has to follow said instructions by acting with the play item. For example, the user 101 can approach or touch a play item at a specific position. The user also can perform game related gestures close to the play item 102.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the play items 106 may further be controlled directly by the personal assistant portal 106. With reference to
In an exemplary embodiment, the play item 102 is a dog. If under the influence of electric field, the user moves the hand in the right direction near to the dog, then action sensors 302 and actors 304 in the dog react to the movement of the hand.
SMS command for sending short messages to the user via internet. An example of the command may be SMS thank_U.txt. EML command sends an email to the user via internet. An example of the command may be EML You_Won.html. S2F command sends signal to function sequence to the S2F box of the function control unit. An example of the command may be S2F dancing_doll.wav. This will make the doll (play item) to dance as per instructions. CRM command maintains activities of the user while playing a game. The command will be given to the user bank. An example of the command may be CRM 25 (add points). ICC command informs a call center to call a user. The call center may be informed either through SMS or email. An example of the command may be ICC Harry Smith phone#reason.txt. TCO command transfers content to a feedback unit such as video player. An example of the command may be TCO Set-Top box 1106 U_Lose.AVI. JRN command writes into a log or journal via internet. An example of the command may be JRN Winner.JRN Harry Smith today. JOB command interprets another script from the job bank. An example of the command may be JOB more_action.job.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the one or more play items are placed on the touch screen of a computing device. The computing device to process the action signals released from the one or more play items. The one or more play items plays the processed action signals on the one or more feedback unit. Examples of computing device includes but not limited to smartphones, IPAD, notebook etc.
However, it is to be understood that the foregoing commands are for exemplary purpose and any person skilled in the art would appreciate that similar commands may be also be produced without deviating from the scope of the present invention.
The foregoing discussion discloses and describes merely exemplary embodiments of the present invention. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from such discussion and from the accompanying drawings that various changes, modifications and variations can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Furthermore, equivalents and modifications not described above may also be employed without departing from the scope of the invention, which is defined in the accompanying claims.
This application is a continuation-in-part application of a U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/156,339 filed on Jun. 9, 2011 which is currently co-pending. The application Ser. No. 13/156,339 further claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/353,463 filed on Jun. 10, 2010, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by references.