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Interactive toy system and methods

Interactive toy system and methods description/claims

This application is a continuation-in-part of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/726,454, filed Mar. 22, 2007, which is a continuation-in-part of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/540,369, filed Sep. 29, 2006, which is a continuation-in-part of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/368,300, filed Mar. 3, 2006, which is a continuation-in-part of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/255,852, filed Oct. 21, 2005. Priority is claimed to these applications and they are incorporated by reference in their entirety.

The present invention relates generally to an interactive system. More particularly the present invention concerns a system, apparatus, and methods for interactive play.

Interactive toys have become increasingly popular in recent times. Children enjoy playing with toys that communicate or respond to different selections or prompts from the player.

For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,663,393 (Ghaly) 5,607,336 (Lebensfeld et al.), 6,648,719 (Chan) and 6,585,556 (Smirnov) all disclose toys, dolls or action figures who act or respond based on some activation by the user, or by the surrounding events.

The present invention provides a system, apparatus and methods for overcoming some of the difficulties presented above. In an exemplary embodiment, a method of validation of an interactive toy, or storage medium is provided. In this embodiment, the interactive toy communicates a code to a base-station. The base-station communicates the code to a server on the network. The server validates the code and responds to the base station with a verification message. The base station sends a verification message to the interactive toy. In response to receiving a validation message, functionality is enabled on the interactive toy.

In a another embodiment a method of updating the functionality of interactive toys is provided. In this embodiment, once an interactive toy has been validated a user can interact with the toy. Over time the interactive toy will accrue an accomplishment point total based on the user interactions. These accomplishments are communicated to the server and once they exceed a predetermined threshold, additional functionality is imparted to the interactive toy via the base-station.

In a still further embodiment, base-station apparatus is provided. In this embodiment, the base-station includes a network interface configured to communicate with a server on a network, such as the Internet. The base-station is further configured with a communications transceiver configured to communicate with interactive toys. When a new interactive toy communicates with the base-station, the toy is authenticated on the network. Additionally, the base-station is configured to send accomplishments to the server and receive additional functionality from the server based on the accomplishments.

An additional provided embodiment is an interactive toy. The interactive toy make take a plurality of forms. The toy includes a processor, a memory, a storage medium, and a communications transceiver. The toy may be configured to authenticate itself on a network via a base-station and a server. Further, in some embodiments, the interactive toy may change its functionality through the download of additional data and in some instances software. The download may be initiated once an accomplishment point total is achieved.

Various embodiments of the present invention taught herein are illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an interactive doll system according to one embodiment of the present invention with the doll shown positioned in the doll station;

FIG. 2 is a front perspective view of the doll station of the system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a rear perspective view of the doll station of the system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the base of the doll station of FIG. 1;

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• Utility Patent

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