Patents on the soles of your shoes...: Oh, patents! Creative Tonies® (1)

Copyirght © Françoise Herrmann

The cute little characters that bring the Toniebox® to life with playlists of songs, music and stories are not only sold separately, they are also patented separately, from the Toniebox® toy. Marketed as the Creative Tonies®, the invention of these little characters, technically designated identification carriers, is recited in the US utility patent US20190022546A1, titled Identification carrier for a toy for reproducing music or an audio story. Thus, each of the Creative Tonies®, found on the market, embodies a different identification carrier, specifically connected to the songs and story playlists of such well-known children’s classics as the Disney Pixar Toy Story, Peter Rabbit or Winnie the Pooh. Children’s playlists that promise hours of music and stories for funtime or bedtime. Alternatively, MP3-style playlists, cleverly re-invented, especially for children, to while away any future lockdown time, lurking in the still-raging COVID 19 pandemic.

Injection molded, or 3D printed, out of preferably 100% biodegradable materials, the Creative Tonies®, aka Identification carriers, are each equipped with one or several magnets, enabling the little characters to snap on and off the surface of a Toniebox®. Each of the characters is also equipped with an dentification (ID) tag, readable by a sensor located beneath the surface of the Toniebox®. Once the ID information is captured, the sensor then sends the character’s information to the Toniebox® central processing unit (CPU). In turn, the CPU retrieves the connected or locally stored content, allowing the Toniebox®, equipped with speakers and kid-friendly controls, to replay songs, stories and other music. Playlists, which are specific to each of the Creative Tonies®, per the character’s embodied ID tag.

Once connected to a playlist, actuation is also driven by various additional sensors. Sensors, such as for movement or acceleration, inclination, GPS, and/or gyroscopic, are used to generate commands upon detection of user control. For example, detection of a light tap on the left side, or the right side of the Toniebox®, is converted to a skip command on the playlist. Similarly, detection of shaking will generate replay in random order. Consequently, the foam-clad device is also able to recognize when it is being thrown around.

The abstract of the Tonie® identification carrier invention is included below, together with the Figure 4 patent drawing. The Figure 4 patent drawing shows an identification carrier embodied as Greg, the main character of the pre-teen, novel-in-cartoons Diary of a Wimpy Kid, with all of the significant identification carrier components, according to the invention.

Specifically, the Figure 4 drawing depicts the identification carrier 108, embodied as Wimpy Kid Greg, comprising two parts, a first upper body part 101 and a second lower body part 102. The second lower part 102 has a first cylindrical blind hole opening 103, at the base of which is a rod or disk magnet 110, enabling the Tonie® to snap onto the surface of the Toniebox®, forming a single plane E. The second lower part 102 has a second cylindrical bind hole opening 104, at the base of which is an identification 113, in the form of a tiny radiofrequency receiver and transmitter, termed a radiofrequency identification (RFID) transponder, or near-field communication (NFC) tag, enabling communication between devices in close proximity.

The identification carrier 108, in the form of Wimpy Kid Greg, has legs 109 and feet, without a pedestal, as it snaps directly on the Toniebox®, via the disk or rod magnet 110. The feet, and a sack next to them, form non-interconnected standing surfaces 111, 112, and 114. The magnet 110 is positioned at a distance closer to the standing surface than the identification 113, in such a way that there is at least one surface normal N1, relative to the standing surface, that does not interfere with the magnet 110 or the ID chip 113, and one surface normal N2, relative to a standing surface, that passes directly through the magnet 110, without passing through the RFID transponder 113. This configuration of non-interconnected standing surfaces is designed to prevent interference of the magnet 110 with the RFID transponder 113.

The first upper part 101, of the Wimpy Kid Greg, identification carrier 108, has a three-dimensional shape. The first upper part 101 also comprises a projection 115, with a cone-shaped tip 116, designed to engage with the opening 103, on the second lowere part of the identification carrier 108, in view of securing the rod or disk magnet 110, in place.

An identification carrier for a toy for replaying music or a spoken story, includes a standing surface, a magnet and an identification, wherein the identification changes a property of an external magnetic field when it enters the magnetic field, and the magnet is arranged closer than the identification to the standing surface and/or at least one surface normal to the standing surface passes only through the magnet or only through the identification. [Abstract US20190022546A1]

Below, just FYI, the Youtube video trailer for the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid storybook. Click here for the full, free, online version.