GB2225665A - Toy telephone - Google Patents

Abstract

A toy telephone has a voice disc play back mechanism 13 operable by a button 14 engagable with a lever 5 provided with simulated buttons and by a receiver hook lever. A microprocessor controls the emitting of dialling, ringing and other sounds in response to the closing of switches operated by the levers, and controls the playback mechanism to emulate outgoing and incoming calls. <IMAGE>

Description

TOY TELEPHONE This invention relates to a toy telephone capable of repeatedly simulating a receiving operation in which a recorded voice is played back when the receiver is lifted following ringing of the telephone and of simulating a sending operation in which the recording is played back following the lifting of the receiver and the depressing of a button.

A toy telephone is known in which a simulated call is made when the dial is turned and a voice is played back following the pressing of a button to operate the play back mechanism. A toy telephone is also known in which the voice is played back when the receiver is lifted. However, neither toy is able to simulate correctly both a receiving operation and a sending operation.

The present invention is intended to solve the problem inherent in the conventional technique mentioned above, and allows a receive operation to be simulated in which a voice is played back when the receiver is taken up following the ringing of the telephone and a send operation is simulated in which a voice is played back when the receiver is lifted and the button depressed.

The problem is solved by a toy in the form of a telephone having a body and an imitation handset or receiver. The body contains a key lever formed with a key button-s which project on the upper side of the body.

A cradle lever is movably arranged within the body and has a projecting portion forming a cradle for the receiver. The key lever and the cradle lever are engagable with a button of a voice play back mechanism housed within the body. A key switch is closable when the key lever is moved downwardly and a cradle switch is closable when the cradle lever is moved upwardly, resulting in simulating the making of a call at a given period of time when the power switch is closed. A control means performs the receive operation for playing back the voice on operating the voice play back mechanism when the receiver is taken up to close the cradle switch, sending the call when the key switch is closed to operate the key button to close the cradle switch and the send operation for playing back the voice on operating the voice play back mechanism.

The present invention is arranged to operate the control means when the power switch is closed, to sound a call after certain period of time has passed and to initiate a receive operation including playing back a voice following lifting of the receiver, to operate the call on operating the key button to take up the receiver and to perform the send operation to send the voice on operating the voice play back mechanism.

The drawings show an example of the present invention. In the drawings, Figure 1 is an external perspective view of the body, Figure 2 is a plan view showing the structural components arranged in the body, Figure 3 is a longitudinal cross sectional view of the body, Figure 4 is a longitudinal cross sectional view of the voice play back mechanism, Figure 5 is a view showing an arrangement of the circuits included in the present example, Figures 6 and 7 are flow charts showing the processing steps of the micro computer (CPU) as a control means.

Referring to Figure 1, the body or base 1 has a plurality of through holes 6 formed in its upper surface. A plurality of buttons 5a are arranged on a plate so as to be rigid with one another and to protrude through the holes 6 from the interior of the base 1. A receiver mount 2 projects from the side of the base and a receiver 3 is mounted thereon. Slots 4 are formed on the upper side of the base 1 to allow sound to emerge from the voice play back mechanism 13.

The base 1 includes an upper frame la and a lower frame lb. Figure 2 is a plan view of the lower frame ib omitting the upper frame la therefrom.

The plate-like key lever 5 is arranged on the upper part of the lower frame lb and carries the buttons 5a.

The key lever 5 has a shafts 10 formed on the edge portion thereof and serving as a fulcrum in the lower frame lb. The cradle lever 16 is arranged near the key lever 5 and has a shaft 17 as its support point. The cradle extends from the top end of the hook lever 16 and is arranged to project through the upper side of the receiver mount 2. The CPU (micro computer) 22 for controlling the simulated receive and send operations is provided on the printed circuit board 21 arranged in the lower frame lb. A depending bar 9 is provided in the lower part of the key lever 5 as shown in Figure 3.A compression spring 8 is provided between the bar 9 and the cylinder 7 projecting upwards from the lower frame lb. A bias in the clockwise direction is applied to the key lever 5 by the compression spring 8 so that all the key buttons 5a are arranged to project through the holes 6. Further, the hook lever 16 is also biased in the upward direction by a compression spring (not shown).

The voice play back mechanism 13 includes a motor 23, a disk 26, a pick-up arm 27 and a paper 28 and is fixed in the lower frame lb. From the upper side of casing of the voice play back mechanism 13 projects a button 14 engaged with a plate 15 on its upper end. The plate 15 engages the underside of the key lever 5 and the cradle lever 16. The button 14 is moved downwardly by the cradle lever 16 and the key lever 5 when the receiver 3 is put on the receiver mount 2 to depress the cradle 18, and the key button 5a is pushed down. The lower side of the cradle lever 16 serves to close a cradle switch 19 when the top end of the cradle lever 16 is moved up. The lower side of the key lever 5 serves to close a key switch 20 when the key lever 5 is moved down.A battery 12 is detachably arranged in the battery case 11 provided in the lower frame lb.

The voice play back mechanism 13 is in the form of a known unit in which a disk 26 having a sound groove is rotated by a belt 25 encircling the shaft of the disc and a shaft 24 of the motor 23. A needle 27a of the pick-up arm 27 has flexibility in the circumferential direction (start direction of sound groove) of the disk 26, and the pick-up arm 27 is rotatably supported between the movable lever 29 provided with a paper cone 28 and the disk 26.

The movable lever 29 is rotatably supported in relation to the button 14 so that when the button 14 is pushed, the lever 29 engaged with the top end of the button 14 and its top end having the cone paper 28 is moved up.

Therefore, when the button 14 is pushed, the top end of the movable lever 29 is moved up, and the needle 27a of the pick-up arm 27 returns to the circumferential direction of the disk 26. The battery 31 is the power source for driving the motor 23.

Next, the processing steps of the micro computer (CPU) for controlling the receive operation and the send operation will be explained with reference to Figures 6 and 7.

When the power switch (numeral 32 in Figure 5) provided in the body 1 is opened, the power is supplied to the micro computer (CPU) 22. At this moment, the receiver 3 is put on the cradle 18 and the cradle switch 19 is opened. As shown in Figure 6, waiting time (set in three seconds) is passed, the micro computer (CPU) 22 sends a signal to the sound mechanism 33 shown in Figure 5 to sound the call or ringing sound consisting of five "Ru" notes five times. If the receiver 3 is taken up while the call sound is sounding, the cradle switch 19 is closed to stop the call sound. Then, the motor 23 in the sound play back mechanism 13 is energised and the voice is played back for three seconds.Then, the condition moves to O4 of Figure 7, when the receiver 3 is put on the receiver mount 2, the condition moves from 08 of Figure 7 to O6 of Figure 6 after the waiting time of 5 to 60 seconds is passed. In this condition, the cradle switch 19 is opened and the button 14 of the voice play back 13 is pressed, and the needle 27a is returned to the circumferential direction of the disk 26. When the call sound is repeated and the receiver 3 is taken up, the above receive operation can be repeated.

During the waiting time shown in ~ of Figure 6, the condition moves to @ of Figure 7 on taking up the receiver 3, and the cradle switch 19 is closed. When the key button 5a is pressed, the key switch 20 is closed, then the micro computer (CPU) sends a signal to the sound mechanism 33 to emit a "PI PO PA" sound indicative of the depressing of the buttons. When the operation of the key button 5a is terminated, the ringing sound of "RU RU" notes is emitted, and when the call sound is stopped, the voice is played back from the voice play back mechanism 13 for three seconds. This is the send operation, when the call sound is sounded in the sound mechanism 33, the above operation can be performed to repeat the send operation.

When the power switch 32 is closed and the receiver 3 is left as it is, the toy enters a demo mode shown in the lower portion of Figure 6 to sound the call sound at three minute intervals for twenty times to prevent the user forgetting to turn off the power switch 32. When the receiver 3 is left in detached condition, the alarm is sounded as shown in the flow chart of Figure 7.

The present invention is arranged as mentioned above. The receive operation for playing back the voice can be automatically repeated on taking up the receiver when the call sound is sounded, the call sound can be sounded with the operation of the key button on taking up the receiver when the call sound is stopped, thereby the send operation for playing back the voice can be automatically repeated. Therefore, the present invention can provide an excellent telephone toy capable of simulating the operation of a real telephone.

Claims (2)

1. A toy telephone comprising: a body; a voice play back mechanism having a motor and a disc provided with a sound groove, and means for returning a sound needle of a pick-up arm to the beginning of the sound groove in a disk by pressing a button; a key lever having a key button projecting on the upper side of said body, a cradle lever projecting on a receiver mount, the key lever and the cradle levers being engagable with an operating means of the voice play back mechanism; a key switch closable by downward movement of said key lever and a cradle switch closable by upward movement of said-hook lever; ; a control means for performing a receive operation for sounding a call sound after a certain period of time in the power closed state and for playing back the sound on operating said sound play back mechanism in the closed state of said cradle switch in the receiver detached state and for performing a send operation for sending the voice by operating said voice play back mechanism on sending the call sound in the key switch closed state by operating said key button to open said cradle switch.

2. A toy telephone substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the drawings.