Oh, patents! Jooki®

Copyright Françoise Herrmann

Too little or too old to manipulate mobile phone or tablet playlists? Strong desire to play and listen to music or favorite songs? Muuselabs Ltd., a Belgian startup has invented a screenless and connected smart music player with linked playlists that even toddlers can play. This music player, marketed exclusively for little kids, is called Jooki®, short for “jukebox”.  A WIFI and Bluetooth connected jukebox speaker for small kids, invented by former Google, Huawei, and Barco, “tender-hearted geek daddies” with plenty of hands-on-at-home experience, in collaboration with a combined total of six very small beta-version testing children. 

Toddlers choose a toy character linked to playlists, and just position it on the speaker player. It is as simple as that. Parents do the leg work by creating the playlists and connecting them to the anchoring toy characters and player. The fact that Jooki® is designed without a screen pleases many parents, as screens are perceived as devices that isolate. Jooki® is also specially designed to give parents a break from responding to ever-pressing requests for playing favorite songs and music from an adult tablet or mobile phone, while offering complete control on the content. The player speaker includes a headset jack, rechargeable battery lasting 8 hours, an SD card slot, and an app for programming the playlists, and setting up the WIFI connection. Jooki® is robust and interactive, allowing even the smallest child to play favorite songs and music wirelessly, inside or outdoors, simply placing toy characters linked to playlists onto a player that dubs as a high-quality sound speaker.

The below YouTube video shows children at play with Jooki®, the jukebox for kids.

The Jooki® invention is recited in the PCT WIPO patent application WO2015078923 (A1) titled Interactive Media System. The invention arises out of the observation that MP3 players and other conventional media players require skills unsuitable for small children and perhaps no longer suitable for the elderly or disabled. Skills such as reading tiny screen information and fine motor coordination for scrolling and selecting information using pushbuttons and click wheels. Thus, the Jooki® invention is an improvement on prior media players. It is designed without a screen, and easy to manipulate playlist-linked characters, in the shape of-easy-to-grasp objects that the user can simply place onto the music player. 

While the scope of the invention extends to various user populations, the marketed Jooki® targets young children. Similarly, while the scope of the invention extends to books, music, images and video, the marketed Jooki® is an audio jukebox – without excluding future more diversified manufacturing.

The patent describes the various components of the invention and their operation. The components comprise such items as the anchors, sensors and the player speaker; the computer chip suitable for media decoding, playing and for controlling the media player, also for decrypting unique anchor identifiers received by the device sensor using an anchor association database with a look-up table that associates a unique anchor identifier with media files or sets of file; the media storage device for storing media files; the audio amplifier, speaker, microphone, and the user controls for on/off, volume and forward/backward functions; as well as the media management software executed by the player, enabling storage of playlists onto the device.

The abstract of the invention is included below together with the patent Figure 5 drawing, showing the Jooki® Interactive Media System 100 with two linked figurative anchors, depicting a cello 105A and a drum 105B. The linked anchors are placed on the player, where a sensor 120 is designed to detect the unique anchor identifier linked to a particular playlist, enabling to play the music files. An image of the marketed Jooki® player with its lined-up play toy anchors is also included next to the patent figure drawing. For this invention, the below juxtaposition of images highlights differences between prototype design and the final marketed product. 

The present disclosure provides an interactive media system. The system includes a set of anchors. Each anchor in the set of anchors is associated with an interactive audio/video composition. Each anchor includes an anchor identifier device includes an anchor identifier. The system also includes an anchor sensor configured to: detect the anchor identifier device of one anchor; read the anchor identifier device of the detected anchor to obtain the unique anchor identifier from the detected anchor identifier device; and transmit the unique anchor identifier. The system also includes a media player configured to: receive the unique anchor identifier from the sensor;  identify a media file that is associated with the unique anchor identifier, the media file being part of a playlist that forms the interactive audio/video composition; obtain the media file; and play the media file.  [Abstract WO2015078923 (A1)]

             

Bottom line… Jooki® was voted best ever music player for kids! It received the Best Family Tech Award at CES 2017; the Most Innovative Product Award at Distree Connect 3^rd Edition, in Paris, in April 2017, after convincing judges in less than 60 seconds; and one of 8 awards at the Copenhagen Most Creative Business Competition, in 2016.

References

Muuselabs Ltd.

www.muuselabs.com

Jooki® rocks

https://jooki.rocks/