GB2475053A

GB2475053A - Programmable sound player and recorder

Info

Publication number: GB2475053A
Application number: GB0919257A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Melissa V Downes; Christopher Peters
Original assignee: Lucima Pty Ltd
Current assignee: Lucima Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2009-11-03
Filing date: 2009-11-03
Publication date: 2011-05-11
Also published as: GB0919257D0

Abstract

A programmable sound player 10 comprising a body member 12, which for a substantial part is of roughly spherical ellipsoid shape; a base member 14 joined to the body member, for resting on a planar surface; a plurality of function buttons 18 disposed on a bottom surface of the base member, wherein each function button is adapted to be illuminated by a light source under the function buttons; wherein one of the function buttons is configured to activate a sound playing mode and a sound recording mode. The player may also have a white light source and a button to turn the light on and off. A timer may stop the player after a set time interval. The device may be used as a night light that plays relaxing music.

Description

PROGRAMMABLE SOUND PLAYER

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to a programmable sound player for the nursery or hospitals. In particular, the present invention relates to a programmable sound player with a contour and a plurality of functions customised for the nursery or hospitals.

BACKGROUND ART

Music is a familiar part of British life. People of any age or ability may benefit prom music regardless of the individual musical skill or background.

o They are always exposed to recorded music on radio, television, compact discs and tapes. Music is played everywhere in shops, sporting events, fitness regimes, TV, radio and movies -and may be taken for granted. Most people also choose to have music for relaxation. Music may also address physical, psychological1 emotional, cognitive and social needs of individuals, It is not surprising that human beings have a special relationship to music. In our heartbeat, in our breathing and movement there is rhythm.

Both pitch and rhythm give the human voice vital and expressive characteristics for communicating meaning and intention.

Scientific research demonstrates that music can deliver positive effects 21) to certain people. Passive music can calm people down and induce sleepiness.

Hyperactive people will benefit if passive music is played softly in the background, encouraging them to sleep well, whilst increasing memory and concentration span. While active music can stimulate the human's brain, it will ensure that neither sleep nor stress is present in the brain.

In view of this theory, people may choose to more actively expose themselves to audio stimuli, in particular, in a relaxing or hypnagogic environment, using a sound device designed for this purpose.

Illustrative of such music devices are US 6,692,330 (Kulick) and US 5,027,457 (Sweet). Kulick discloses an infant toy having a sound record" and "piay functions, which can comfort an infant when necessary and turn itself off after the infant has fallen asleep. Sweet discloses a pillow that may include means of emitting sound such as a pull string or voice-activated tape player.

It would be desirable to provide a programmable sound player that ameliorates or overcomes one or more known disadvantages of existing techniques ci that may provide a useful alternative to them

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

These and other advantages are met with the present invention, which in :o one broad form concerns a programmable sound player that comprises; a body member, which for a substantial part is of rcughl spherical ellipsoid shape; a base member joined to the body member, or resting on a planar surface; a plurality of function buttons disposed on a bottom surface of the base member, wherein each function button is adapted to be illuminate by a light source under the function buttons; wherein one of the function buttons is configured to activate a sound playing mode and a sound recording mode.

Preferably, the programmable sound player further comprises a white light source for illumination, and a light button disposed on the bottom surface of the base member, wherein tne light button is configured to turn on and off the white light source Preferably, the programmable sound player further comprises: a timer for halting the programmable sound player after a stop time interval, a timer button disposed on the bottom surface of the base member, wherein the timer button is configured to set the stop time interval, one at more thsplays disposed on the bottom surface of the base member, wherein the dsplays are configured to indicate the length of the stop time interval.

Preferably, the programmable sound player further comprises an input interface for receiving signals from an external device, such that when the external device is connected to the input interface, the sound playing mode will stop and the signal from the external device will be played.

It is preferred that the sound playing mode includes playing the sound of tauna, heart beats, the womb, whte noise, ocean waves, fans, rain, ambient

background sounds or ambient music.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The invertion is now discussed with reference to drawings, where: Figure 1 is a schematic perspective front view of a preferred embodiment of a programmable sound player of the present invention; Figure 2 is a schematic perspective rear view of the programmable sound o player of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a schematic rear plan view of the programmable sound player of Figure 1; Figure 4 is a schematic Inverted plan view of the programmable sound player of Figure 1; Figure 5 is a schematic inverted perspective view of the programmable sound player of Figure 1; and Figure 6 is a schematic plan view of the function buttons of the programmable sound player of another preferred embodiment.

BEST MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

The present invention is a programmable sound player, which provides an aesthetic pleasing appearance and sound, particularly for a relaxing o hypnagogic environment This programmable sound player comprises a sound reproduction system incoiporated into a sleek receptacle wxh a user friendly interface adapted to facilitate the operation of the programmable sound player in a light deficient surrounthng.

The sound player according to the present invention is indicated in Figures 1 to 5 by reference numeral 10. The sound player 10 comprises a sleek body 12 which for a substantial part is of a prolate and toughly spherical ellipsoid shape A base member 14 is joined to the body 12, which allows the sound player to rest stably on a planar surface such as the top of

the bedside table

The base member 14 is substantially circular, As shown in Figures 3 and 4, the bottom surface 16 of the base member 14 comprises a pluraUty of function buttons 18 along the circumference of the bottom surface. In addition, there is a round button 20 located at the centre of the bottom zo surface 16, such that it is surrounded by the function buttons 18.

These buttons are the user interface for the user to control the functions of the sound player 10 Typically they are in the form of momentary buttons These momentary buttons can be latched but they do not latch into the up or down pnciton permanently Each button has a backlight, so that s they can be recognized easily in a dark place.

Preferably, the round button 20 is programmed to control the power on and power off of the sound player 10 The round button 20 is often designed to be comparatively bigger than the function buttons 18 around it. The position and the size of the round button 20 therefore make it easy for the user to locate it in a dark environment, even without the backlight illumination.

Also located at the bottom surface 1$, there is a plurality of displays 17 to indicate the state of the sound player 10 These displays 17 can be LED or LCD displays In one embodiment, three LED displays 17 are installed near the function button 18 as shown in Figures 4 and S The functions of each of the displays 17 can be programmed to indicate different states of the sound player 10.

On the side of the base member 14, there is at least one input interface s 22 for receiving signals from an external device. In one embodiment, as shown in Figures 2, 3 and 5, the interface is in the form of a TRS connector.

Other kinds of connector, such as midi connectors or USB connectors, can also be installed.

In one preferred embodiment, a front aisplay 24, such as an LED or LCD display, is installed next to the input interface 22 The fiont display 24 ts also configured to indicate the state of the sound player In a preferred embodiment, this LED oisplay is programmed to indicate the on and off state of the sound player In another embod'ment, it is adapteo to indicate that the sound player is currently in the play mode or record mode, It can also display the current time or alarm time in another embodiment The sound player 10 comprises at least one speaker, preferably a high quality 2 5" full range magnetically shielded speaker with 100 20 KFIz or 50 KHz output, whicn is designed to provide optimal sound performance with the ovoid contour of the sound player 10, and an internal microphone for recording the sunounding sound or voice The sound player 10 also has a light source such as illumination LED to illuminate the environment It is preferred that the illumination LED is in white colour, The power input unit of the sound player is preferably a DC power input unit. Optionally, a rechargeable power unit can be installed. if a rechargeable ao power unit is utilized, the power input unit can also have an AC power input unit for supplying constant power to the sound player 10 and recharging the rechargeable power unit.

The sound player 10 also comprises a signal processing module, memory storage and an amplifiei The signal processing module controls the functions of the sound player These functions can be altered thtough the signal processing module.

In this preferied embodiment, the functions include playing the music stored in the memory storage, recording music to the memory, increasing or decreasing the sound volume of the sound output, providing a timer to start or top the function of the sound player.

Figure 6 shows one embodiment of the present invention, which has all the functions 18 assigned, each to a different function The night light button 30 controls the night light of the sound player The night light button 30 is configured to turn the night light on if the 3) previous state of the night light is off The night light button 30 is configured to turn off the night light if the previous state of the night light is on The night light is programmed to be turned on and off by the sound player.

When the sound player is turned on, it will turn the night light on. However, the night light can also manually be turned off or programmed to turn off ao after a period of time set by the timer. When the sound player is turned off, it will turn off the night light as well.

When the sound player is turned on and the night light s already on, the night light wll stay on When the sound player is off the state of the night light will be clear.

Sound buttons 31 to 36 behave the same They ate configured to play a pre-recorded sound sample which is stored in the memory storage of the sound player 10 by the factory In one embodiment, the factory provides the music samples, such as the sound of ocean waves. Typically, only one sound can be played at one time. The sound player 10 will continue playing a selected sound sample until the sound player is turned off manually or by the timer. It is possible to switch sound playing modes at any time when the sound player 10 is on and the interface input 22 is not plugged in.

Referring to Figure 6 sound button 30 controls the on and off buttons of the light source for illuminating the environment, sound button 31 is configured to actiQate the sound player to play the sound of heart beat/womb, sound button 32 is configured to actwate the sound playei to play the sound of serenity; sound button 33 is configured to activate the sound player to play white noise; sound button 34 is conflgured to activate ic the sound player to play the sound of ocean waves; sound button 35 is configured to activate the sound player to play the sound of a fan; sound button 36 is configured to activate the sound player to play the sound of rain.

When any one of the sound buttons 31 to 36 is actwated, and an external musical device is connected to the input interface 22, the sound playing will m stop and the sound player 10 ill start playing the signal from the interface input connecting or disconnecting the interface input 22 does not affect the timer When disconnecting the input interface 22, the previous sound will continue to play.

Custom sound button 37 is configured to provide the function of playing or recording custom sound. It allows users to record a custom sound to play back. When the custom sound button 37 is pressed momentarily (for less than 3 seconds), the sound player 10 will play the last recorded sound stored in the memory storage Initially, the sound player 10 has a default recorded sound stored in the memo storage When the recording function starts, the signal processing module w'll receive sgnal from the mictophone or the input interface 22.

In one embodiment, the default recorded sound is a message, such as:-To record a custom sound please press and hold the custom sound button for 3 seconds. A chime will sound when its ready to start recording." When the custom sound button 37 is pressed and held for longer than 3 seconds, the sound player will erase any previous recorded sound and start recording a new sound, To indicate that the sound player 10 is about to start recoi ding, the sound player will first make a chime It wiil then start recording until the memory storage is full ci the custom sound button 37 is pressed again When the memory storage is full, the sound player 10 will p1ay another chime to indicate that is has completed recording The custom sound button 37 will Uluminate and flash in red when recerding.

* When the custom sound is being played back, the sound player will only replay the recorded part of the memory. Empty parts in memory will not be played.

Timer button 38 controls the timei function of the sound player 10 In the preferred embodiment shown in Figure 6, the displays 17 are in the form of is LED5 45, 46 and 47 and they are configured to indicate the state of the timer The first LED 45 is configured to indicate the timer is set to 15 minutes The second LED 46 is configured to indicate the timer is set to 30 minutes The third LED 47 is configured to indicate the timer is set to 45 minutes.

The timer button 3 operates when the sound player 10 is on (playing sound, night light on or off) or when just the night light is on. When the timer is not set the sound player 10 wIll stay on continuously. When the timer is set, it will power off the sound player 10 or the night light after a certain time period.

The timer button 3$ cycles thwugh four settings with each time the timer button is pressed.

1. No timer (default setting, ALL timer LEDs off) 2. 15 mm timer (15 mm timer LED 45 on, 30 and 60 mm LED off) 3. 30 mm timer (30 mm timber LED 46 on, 15 and 50 mm LED off) 4. 60 mm timer (60 mm timber LED 47 on, 15 and 30 mm LED off) Other combination of time intervals can also he set, such as 45 minutes, minutes, 90 minutes and 105 minutes, etc. When the timer is set, the sound player 10 and the night light will turn off when the timer runs out When the night light is on, the sound player 10 is off and the timer has been set, the night light will turn off when the umei runs out.

The timer will turn off when the sound player 10 is turned off If the night light is on with the timer set, the mer will be cancelled when the night light button 30 is pressed and the light will turn off. Also if the sound player lois on(pl*aying sound, night light on/off) with the timer set,the timer will be cancelled when the sound player is turned off.

When the sound player 10 is switched on whue the night light is already on and the timer is set, the timer will continue counting down In all cases, when the tinier runs out the sound and the light should fade down gently over is a period of time, for example, 5 seconds Next to the timer LEDs 45, 46 and 47 are two volume control buttons 41 and 42. Volume control button 41 is configured to increase the sound volume of the sound player while volume control button 42 is configured to decrease the sound volume of the sound piayer Located at the centre of the abovementioned buttons 30 to 42 is the power button 43 Power button 43 is configured to turn the sound player 10 on and off depending on the current state of the sound player.

The buttons 30 to 42 will be rear illuminated by back lighting such as white LEDs When the sound player is turned on, the button back lighting will turn on. If no buttons have been pressed for more than 10 seconds, the back lighting should fade away to be completely off If the sound player 10 is on and the back lighting is off, the back lighting will turn on when any button is pressed and start the 10 second count again.

In another embodiment, the back Rghting of the buttons s on constantly when the sound player is on. The back lighting will fade to a low glow if no buttons are pressed for a period of time, for example 5 seconds When any button is pressed, the back lighting will revert to full brightness Unless the context indicates otherwise the words comprise' or comprising" and the like terms should be construed in an inclusive sense, as contrasted to an exclusive or exhaustive sense. These words normally mean "including but not limited to".

It will be apparent that obvious variations or modifications may be made c in accordance with the spirit of the invention that are intended to be part of the invention, and any such obvious variations or modification are therefore within the scope of the invention ii