Simulated animal

This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application No. 61/012,853, filed Dec. 11, 2007, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

This invention relates to a simulated animal that may be used as a toy or for therapeutic purposes.

Many children and adults find that holding and petting an animal, such as a cat, helps soothe and relax them, and may help them to fall asleep. The sensation of a warm cat purring and breathing softly may provide comfort and solace for a child who has difficulty falling asleep. This sensation may also be helpful to patients recovering from trauma or injury, providing them with assistance in relaxing, or to anyone who has trouble falling asleep. Such a sensation may even substitute for sleep medications, providing a natural and non-chemical way to ease into a night of slumber.

However, there are many responsibilities and costs involved in maintaining a pet. People who enjoy the effects of holding a pet may not want to take care of a live animal. The costs of feeding and taking the pet to the veterinarian may be prohibitive for some. Parents may not wish to feed and clean up after a cat or a dog. Also, the pet may not cooperate with a person, particularly a child, who is not asleep or may not want to stay with a child or an adult for long periods of time while the child or adult sleeps. Moreover, the potential pet owner, or someone who lives with the potential pet owner, may be allergic to pets. The potential pet owner may be prohibited from owning a pet by legal restrictions, such as lease clauses, or may simply not be home enough due to travel or work to provide the proper care for a pet.

Artificial pets are available on the market today. There are stuffed animals with no mechanisms or moving parts. There are toy animals with internal mechanisms and motors, but these generally have hard outer bodies or exaggerated movements. Neither stuffed animals nor mechanized animals provide the comforting sensation provided by an actual pet. Therefore, they are not useful for comforting one who is having difficulty falling asleep.

Therefore, what is needed in the art is substitute for a pet that can provide the calming and relaxing qualities that a real pet can provide, without the attendant costs and responsibilities of an actual pet. It is thus the purpose of the present invention to provide a simulated pet that can provide the relaxing and calming sensation that a real pet can provide, without requiring the maintenance and cost of a real pet.

A simulated animal is described herein. The simulated animal may be constructed of any material and may or may not closely resemble an actual animal. The simulated animal may contain an internal device that assists in the simulation. The internal device may create sounds and/or vibrations that resemble those of an actual animal, such as a cat. The sounds and vibrations may be created through the use of coupled oscillators and a weighted cone. The configuration and/or operation of the simulated animal may be user adjustable, such as volume, heat level, vibration intensity, etc. Automatic adjustment may also be configured on the simulated animal, such as light detection that results in increasing or decreasing the volume of the internal device within the simulated animal.

These and other features and advantages of various exemplary embodiments of a simulated animal according to this disclosure are described in, or are apparent from, the following detailed description of various exemplary embodiments of the this subject matter.