Oh, patents! Purrble™

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Precipitated by a concern for the increased stress that children were experiencing during long lockdown periods, within the context of the COVID 19 pandemic, Purrble™, masterminded by Sproutel Inc., in collaboration with the Committee for Children®, is an animatronic toy, designed to teach children how to self-regulate their emotions. As for the previous Sproutel Inc., toys, such as Jerry the Bear®, targeting children with Type 1 diabetes, and My Special Aflac Duck®, designed for children undergoing cancer treatment, the researched idea, informing the design of the toys, is that, if children are able to care for their special toys, they will not only learn about the ailments that they share with their toys, they will better understand their own treatments, and be able to better cope, with less fear, and anxiety.

With Purrble™, this means learning how to soothe-down-to-a-purr the racing heartbeat of a small, plush, koala-looking toy, called the Purrble™. The assumption is that the experience of soothing Purrble™ will assist children in calming their own emotions. Different from Jerry the Bear® and My Special Aflac Duck®, Purrble™ was designed to be used mostly at home, or at school, outside of medical and hospital contexts. The “live animal” boxes in which Purrbles™ are packaged were even conceived for possible use as little play beds or houses for the plush toy. Made of cardboard, the boxes can also be decorated.  But Purrble™ is much more than a battery-operated plush toy.

With sensors responsive to both calming caress, or fidgeting, coupled to internal controllers for vibration of the accelerating or decelerating heartbeat, and a speaker to produce purring sounds, and simple grunts, sighs and giggles, Purrble™ falls well within the scope of the far more complex animatronic toys, designed and patented by Sproutel Inc., in collaboration with companies such as The American Family Life Assurance Company (AFLAC). In any event, much like its predecessors in the medical domain, Purrble™ took the market by storm, enchanting the 3+ crowd, cooped up in lockdowns with emotions on edge, while promising that potential gains in emotional regulation are “a determinant of lifelong success, being linked to improved graduation rates […]”. (About Purrble™)

Below, an image is included of the cute marketed Purrble™ products, no two of which are completely alike. Also included, a short YouTube video, featuring Sproutel Inc., founder and CEO, Aaron Horowitz, and Kate Gallo, Consultant for Product Management at the Committee for Children®. 

Time Magazine selected the Purrble™ as one of the 100 best inventions of 2021.

 

References 

Committee for Children® https://www.cfchildren.org/

Purrble™ https://www.purrble.com
https://www.purrble.com/about.html

Sproutel Inc. https://www.sproutel.com/

Time Magazine – The 100 best inventions of 2021. Keeping Kids calm: Sproutel Purrble™.

https://time.com/collection/best-inventions-2021/6113137/purrble/

Oh patents! My Special Aflac Duck® (2)

Copyright© Françoise Herrmann 

In addition to utility patents, Sproutel’s My Special Aflac Duck® was also awarded a US design patent. The American Family Life Assurance Company (AFLAC) filed an application for a US design patent on January 5^th 2018. The US design patent, USD846040S1, was granted on April 16^th 2019, awarded to a team of seven inventors, and assigned to AFLAC, for a duration of 15 years.

As a reminder, a design patent covers the ornamental aspects of an invention, or how an invention looks. In contrast, a US utility patent covers the functional aspects of an invention, how the invention works, and/or is fabricated.  Per the USPTO Manual of Patent Examination Procedure:

 “a utility patent” protects the way an article is used and works (35 U.S.C. 101), while a “design patent” protects the way an article looks (35 U.S.C. 171) [MPEP Chapt. 1502.01; [R-07.2015]].

Below, the patent Figure 1 of 11 drawings, showing a perspective view of the duck with beak open. The eyes, feet, and sensor, on the duck’s chest, are drawn with broken lines to indicate that they are excluded from the claimed design. Such components of the duck are covered in utility patens related to the animatronic and user interface aspects of the invention. A YouTube video of My Special Aflac Duck®, helping kids cope with a cancer diagnosis, is also included below. 

References

My Special Aflac Duck®  https://aflacchildhoodcancer.org/myduck.cfm

Sproutel Inc.  https://www.sproutel.com/

USPTO MPEP – Chapt. 1502-01 – Distinction between design and utility patent.
https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s1502.html

Oh, patents! My Special Aflac Duck® (1)

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

My Special Aflac Duck®, a plush, Bluetooth®-connected social robot, masterminded by Sproutel Inc., was designed to help small children express their feelings, when they are undergoing cancer treatment. Children simply select one of several emoji cards that best matches the way they are feeling (sad, calm, scared, sick, silly…), and hold it up for the Aflac Duck® to see (and scan). The Aflac Duck® then responds to the feeling (in duck language), also moving its beak and head.

In addition to facilitating communication in families, coping with the new normal of a cancer diagnosis, the Aflac Duck® also has a series of medical play accessories for simulated activities. For example, medical play accessories include: a pulse oximeter, a syringe, a stethoscope, and a connected IV play set, enabling children to attach a port-o-cath accessory, in order to treat the duck with chemotherapy. As for previous Sproutel pediatric toys, such as Jerry the Bear™, which offers pediatric patients an opportunity to practice mastering the simulated medical procedures associated with the treatment of Type 1 diabetes, the assumption informing the design of the company’s toys is that, in caring for their toy, children also learn to understand their own disease and treatment. Thus, Sproutel toys offer an educational experience, delivered without a curriculum. An educational experience intended to be fun, designed to comfort, and to reduce fear and anxiety.

Beyond facilitating communication, and offering simulated medical play experiences, related to the treatment of cancer, the Aflac Duck® comprises the following additional features and functions:

• Removable fur, so that the Aflac Duck®’s coat is machine-washable. 
• Sensitivity to surroundings, such as for example, sensitivity to dark, which prompts the Aflac Duck® to quieten down; or sensitivity to music, which prompts the Aflac Duck® to dance. 
• Sensitivity to touch, which prompts the Aflac Duck® to respond to tickling. The Aflac Duck® also has a heartbeat that children can feel.
• Additional food accessory cards, with which children can also prepare a meal for their special toy. In this case, the accessory food cards are held up to the Aflac Duck®’s beak for pretend feeding (and scanning). 
• Soothing Soundscape™ card accessories, enabling to transport children, with music, to places like the forest, or the ocean. 
• Finally, a wake-up function, considering that when the Aflac Duck® is tired, it naps, and is awakened when children squeeze its tail.

The various aspects of the Aflac Duck® invention are recited in three concurrent US utility patent applications. For example the US utility patent application US20190209933A1, titled Child's Toy with Removable Skin recites the machine-washable aspect as the duck's coat, whereas the US utility patent application US20190209935A1, titled Animatronic toy recites the movement of the robotic toy, and the US utility patent application US20190209932A1, titled User Interface for an Animatronic Toy, recites interactions between the toy, its users, another Aflac Duck®,  and/or a Bluetooth®-connected mobile device. 

Below, the patent Figures 1 and 2, extracted from the user interface patent application, US20190209932A1, together with an image of the embodied toy, marketed as My Special Aflac Duck®. Specifically, the Figures 1 and 2 respectively depict the duck, with and without its skin. The Figure 1 drawing shows the animatronic toy embodied as a duck 100, comprising eyes 110, a beak 115, wings 120 and feet 125, as well as a sensor 130, which may be of various sorts, causing the duck to respond in a variety of ways. 

The Figure 2 drawing of the toy 100, with skin removed, further depicts the various sorts of sensors, comprising in particular five capacitive sensors 200, located on the duck's wings, side of the head, and back. Once activated the capacitive sensors 200 are designed to cause the duck to vibrate, using one of more vibration motors located within the duck, and/or to make nuzzling sounds like a pet. Two button sensors 210 are also depicted, which are used respectively to wake the duck from sleep or nap, and to trigger or detect a Bluetooth® connection, or interaction, with another toy. The vibrational speaker 230, on top of the duck's head, also enables the duck to vibrate, and to respond to the emoji cards. A radio frequency ID (RFiD) sensor 225, located on the chest of the toy, enables the duck to read and detect the RFiD tagged emoji cards 400, brought in contact with the sensor. Once detected, the RFiD sensor 225 triggers a program, which will cause the duck to respond. For example, the duck might giggle, when contacted with a tagged happy emoji card. Alternatively, the duck might cry, when contacted with a sad emoji card.

The abstract for the user interface patent application US20190209932A1, is included below. 

An animatronic doll is disclosed. The doll, includes multiple sensors, one or more of which receives input which causes the doll to perform various functions such as moving, vibrating, playing music, eating, interacting with a mobile app or interacting with another doll. The doll also includes various modes which may be effected or selected based on input from one or more sensors. One of the sensors may include an rfid reader which reads cards that instruct the doll to emulate a particular emotion.

My Special Aflac Duck® was selected by Time Magazine as one of the 50 best inventions in 2018. The toy also received numerous additional accolades (1). Most importantly, the insurance company Aflac distributes My Special Aflac Duck®, free-of-charge, to children diagnosed with cancer.

Note

(1) My Special Aflac Duck® won four awards at the 2018 Computer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas (CES 2018): Best of CES 2018 Award in the category of Best Unexpected Product; Best of CES 2018 in the Tech for a Better World category; Best of CES 2018 in the Best Accessibility Tech category; and Best of CES 2018 in the Robotics or Drone category. My Special Aflac Duck® also won a top 2019 SXSW Award in the Robotics and Hardware category. 

References

My Special Aflac Duck®.

https://aflacchildhoodcancer.org/myduck.cfm

My Special Aflac Duck® - User Manual.

https://fccid.io/2AN6HF7E2/User-Manual/User-manual-3928070.pdf (pdf version)

My Special Aflac Duck® Takes Home Best of CES 2018 Award. 

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/my-special-aflac-duck-takes-home-best-of-ces-2018-award-300581870.html

My Special Aflac Duck® wins 'Tech for a Better World Award'. (@CES 2018)

https://bunewsservice.com/special-aflac-duck-wins-tech-better-world-award/

My Special Aflac Duck® wins big at SXSW.

https://investors.aflac.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2019/My-Special-Aflac-Duck-Wins-Big-at-SXSW/default.aspx

Sproutel Inc. https://www.sproutel.com/

Ten best Robots of CES 2018.

https://www.roboticsbusinessreview.com/events/10-best-robots-of-ces-2018/ 

This robot therapy duck comforts kids with cancer. 

https://www.engadget.com/2018-01-08-robot-therapy-duck-comforts-kids-with-cancer.html

Time Magazine – A companion for kids with Cancer, 50 Best invention 2018. 
https://time.com/collection/best-inventions-2018/5454382/my-special-aflac-duck/

Oh, patents! Jerry the Bear™ (2)

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Sproutel’s original 2012 Jerry the Bear™ pediatric toy was awarded a US design patent.  As a reminder, a US design patent covers the ornamental properties of an invention. In other words, a design patent protects the way an invention looks, in contrast to how an invention works, which is protected in a utility patent. The US design patent, USD714884S1, titled Educational doll for children with chronic illness, was awarded on Oct. 7, 2014.

Below, the extracted patent Figure 1 drawing of the educational doll, embodied as a bear, together with an image of the earlier marketed Jerry the Bear™ toy. Both the patent Figure 1, and the image of the marketed bear, display the bear’s Glucopal, a small screen on the bear’s belly, through which children interact, to the play with Jerry the Bear™. 

Ten food cards are visible in front of the marketed image of the bear. Food cards, which the children hold up to the bear’s snout for feeding (i.e., scanning). Before feeding the bear, children organize the food cards into snacks and meals, counting “dot” carbs’. Each carb dot is equal to a dot of insulin, required before the bear snacks or has lunch. The bear’s insulin pen is also visible on the image of the marketed bear. Children use the insulin pen for supplying insulin at the bear’s marked injection sites, on arms and legs. Glucose testing is performed by squeezing the bear’s finger buttons. Glucose test results are then displayed on the Glucopal, for interpretation of blood sugar levels (i.e., hyper- or hypo- glycemic, plus variations). 

Jerry the Bear™ also has tickle spots on his ears, and secret tickle spots on his back. The Figure 1 patent drawing shows the ear tickle spots, the finger glucose testing buttons, the triangle leg injection sites, and foot pads, with "dotted lines' to indicate that the US design patent does not cover these aspects of the invention. Tickle spots, marked injection sites, together with the many functional aspects of the invention, briefly mentioned above, including the game storylines that provide coherence to playing with Jerry the Bear™, are all covered in US utility patents.

References

Sproutel Inc. https://www.sproutel.com/

Jerry the Bear™ Quick Start Guide

https://www.jerrythebear.com/assets/jerry-quick-guide.pdf 

Oh, patents! Jerry the Bear™ AR (1)

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Sproutel Inc., is a company that specializes in making toys to bring comfort to children, who are coping with crisis and illness. In particular, Jerry the Bear™ targets children with Type 1 Diabetes. A disease that requires lifelong monitoring of blood glucose levels with insulin therapy. The premise driving the company’s research and design of the Jerry the Bear™ pediatric toy, is that, if children can understand the Jerry the Bear™ Type 1 diabetes, and practice caring for him with proper feedback, then they will also understand, and learn how to self-manage their own Type 1 diabetes. As the children take care of their bear, they will become educated about Type 1 diabetes. As a result, they will also become less anxious and fearful of the rigors of their lifelong treatment. A treatment that involves complex decision-making. 

Thus, using interactive, augmented reality play with the Beyond Type I app, children practice such diabetes management tasks as how to count carbs, correlated to insulin needs, using the bear’s pantry; how to use the bear’s virtual glucometer, how to perform a virtual glucose test and interpret the results, how to monitor blood glucose levels in real-time, scanning a patch on the bear, and how to dose the bear’s virtual insulin pump and use it at different sites on the bear. Finally, the Jerry the Bear™ cuddly plush toy and augmented reality educational app also create a social network of children users with Type 1 diabetes, and their parents. Such a network not only breaks the isolation of Type 1 diabetes children and their parents, it also enables children to show and tell other children what diabetes is about, perhaps also destigmatizing the lifelong disease.

Jerry the Bear™ is a patented invention. The version of the toy with the augmented reality app is recited in the US utility patent US11056022B1 titled System, apparatus, and method for creating an interactive augmented reality experience to simulate medical procedures for pediatric disease education, granted July 6, 2021. Accordingly, the invention recites a system, comprising apparatus and method, for superimposing simulated virtual medical procedures on a plush toy, thereby creating an educational interactive experience for children, that facilitates cost-effective pediatric disease education. Specifically, the invention relates to Type I diabetes.

The extracted patent Figure 1A is included below, together with an image of the marketed Jerry the Bear™. The patent Figure 1A depicts the components of the augmented reality system 100, designed to provide an interactive augmented reality experience, simulating medical procedures for pediatric disease education. The system 100  comprises: 1. a plush toy 105, in this case Jerry the Bear™, with uniquely identifiable patches 125,  2. a mobile device 110, in this case a smartphone, equipped with a camera 120, designed to collect uniquely identifiable information from the patches 125, on the plush toy 105 and, 3. an interactive medical procedure simulation logic section (app) 130, designed to recognize the uniquely identifiable information, captured with the camera 120, from the plush toy patches 125 and, in turn, to launch one of several simulated treatment procedures on the mobile device screen 115. An interactive simulation of various procedures that the child will practice, alternatively monitoring, treating, testing, planning, or deciding on how to care for the bear’s Type 1 diabetes, using the virtual disease care tools. The logic section 130 might also include a simulation of the disease, so that feedback might be provided to the child, who is learning to make decisions about the bear’s treatment.

Incidentally, Sproutel Inc., has garnered accolades as a company doing Good­¹. Indeed, the company not only brings comfort to children experiencing illness, Sproutel Inc., also donates a Jerry the  Bear™ pediatric toy to a diabetic family who cannot afford one, for some of the Jerry the Bear™ plush toys sold.

Note

1Mashable listed Sproutel Inc., as one of "5 Startups to Use Tech To Do Good" in 2012.
Sproutel Inc., received "People's Choice Award" at Health 2.0 SF in 2012.

References

Committee for Children®  https://www.cfchildren.org/

Jerry the Bear™ https://www.jerrythebear.com/

Sproutel Inc.  https://www.sproutel.com/

Human Rights Day 2021

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Today, the world celebrated the seventy-third anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, on December 10th, 1948, in the aftermath of the atrocities of World War II. The document is crucially important as it is considered at the foundation of International Human Rights Law.

In the post-World War II context, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights spelled out "the value of a human being by virtue of existence, in abstraction of worldly powers" (History of the Declaration). A value that comprises many inalienable rights, including, for example, the right to live free from fear, want and oppression, as well as the right to develop one’s potential.

In 1989, the world recognized that children were also human beings with inalienable rights, separate from their parents, and from the adult world, which begins at 18 years of age. This commitment, to protect and fulfill the child’s human rights, was set forth within the legal framework of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by the UN General Assembly, on November 20th, 1989.

Similarly, at the United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, on September 4th to 15th, 1995, the relevance of human rights to women’s rights was specifically set forth in Article 9 of the Conference Platform Declaration for Action, as follows. 

“Ensure the full implementation of the human rights of women and of the girl child as an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.” 

A platform that ushered in a new era of human rights action, specifically on behalf of women and the girl child. 

In December 2021, the Human Rights Watch organization reported on a plethora of human rights violations. Below, a sample list of some of the crises in focus.

• Barriers to universal access to COVID-19 vaccinations, testing and treatment.
• Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on poverty and education.
• The increasing death toll among undocumented immigrants, attempting perilous journeys by sea in Europe, and under exploitative and inhuman conditions from Central America and Mexico to the Southwest border of the US.
• The movement to find alternatives to undocumented immigrant detention.
• The degrading treatment of immigrant children and adults in various host countries.
• Backlash against women’s rights, for example in Afghanistan, or as related to the surge of violence in homes, due to the COVID-19 pandemic (UN Women Joint Statement).
• Civil war crimes in the Northern Tigray and Amhara regions of Ethiopia.
• Repression in Afghanistan.
• The Myanmar military coup, resulting in brutal repression of peaceful anti-coup protesters, and the use of force, continuing to drive the Rohingya population into refugee camps.
• The “strike hard against violent terrorism” campaign in China’s Xinjiang region, to manage ethnically diverse populations.
• The “drug war” in the Philippines.
• Widespread famine in Ethiopia, Madagascar, Yemen and South Sudan, as well as on-going in the Central Republic of Africa, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
•  Apathy in the face of climate change, which has already caused a significant toll on lives, health and livelihoods, and the creation of a new class of climate refugees.
• Documentation of abuses carried out on international Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) populations.
• Investigations of disappearances in conflict zones.
• The impact of misinformation on human rights.

plus more…

References

Chomsky, A. (2014). Undocumented: How immigration became illegal. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. 

Youth for Human Rights  https://tinyurl.com/h2bryypj

Human Rights Watch  https://tinyurl.com/2p8hzhu2

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
https://www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention/convention-text (full text, English version)
https://www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention#learn (About)

UN Platform Declaration at the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women (1995)
https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/declar.htm (full text, English version)

UN Human Rights Day (Dec. 10, 2021)  https://tinyurl.com/2etca6dp

UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights (full text, English version)

https://www.un.org/en/about-us/udhr/history-of-the-declaration (History of the Declaration)

https://www.un.org/en/udhr-video/ (Multilingual video collection)

UN Women Joint Statement on Human Rights Day 2021 https://tinyurl.com/2p9yse3f

Terminology - Collins Dictionary WOTY 2021 runners up

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The Collins Dictionary list of terms competing for Word of the Year is no less interesting than the winning term.  Collins also offers fabulous gif and jpeg bonuses, illustrating both the champion term and, and all of the contenders. Below, a list of them all. 

climate anxiety

double vaxxed

metaverse

pingdemic

cheugy

neopronoun

crypto

hybrid working

regencycore

References

Collins Dictionary

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/

The Collins Word of the Year is...

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/woty 

Terminology - WOTTIES 2021 - NFT (non-fungible token) Collins' Word of the Year 2021

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Huh? According to Collins Dictionary, the rise of the term NFT, meaning “non-fungible token” was meteoric. Specifically, the term NFT was up 11,000% in the monitored 4.5 billion-word Collins corpus (Flood, 2021). So, what is an NFT?  The Collins Dictionary defines NFT as:

1. Abreviation for non-fungible token: a unique digital certificate, registered in a blockchain, that is used to record ownership of an asset such as an artwork or a collectible.

2. Noun: an asset whose ownership is recorded by means of a non-fungible token (e.g., the artist sold the work as an NFT).

Thus, an NFT is a form of cryptocurrency, a unique registered unit of data, serving both to authenticate ownership of a particular asset or collectible and, as a corollary, to identify an associated unique piece of art or collectible, whether original or copy. The NFT asset might be a video, a photo, a song, a domain name, a game character, a virtual accessory or, actually, anything else. 

Because the certificate is “non-fungible”, meaning that the unit of data cannot be replaced or interchanged with an identical part or parts, the associated collectible or artwork also becomes unique.  According to Collins, the interesting aspect of the term NFT is its use in the art world, bringing together art, technology, and commerce, to resolve issues of authenticity and reproduction, while breaking out of the dominant crowd of new COVID-related terminology (Shariatmadari, 2021).

Presentation of the Collins Word of the Year (WOTY) is also special, because of the animated Collins GIFs that are always created to illustrate the WOTY, (and its competitors). Below, the Collins GIF for NFT, the Collins Dictionary WOTY 2021. The GIF shows an auction scene for the sale of NFT art. Notice that the bidders are also holding up bitcoin, ethereum, and zcoin cryptocurrency symbols, in the bidding process for NFT art.

Reference

Collins Dictionary https://www.collinsdictionary.com/
Staff (Nov. 24, 2021). The Collins Word of the Year is…. Collins Dictionary.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/woty
Flood, A. (Nov. 24, 2021) NFT beats cheugy to be Collins Word of the Year. The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/nov/24/nft-is-collins-dictionary-word-of-the-year
Shariatmadari, D. (Nov. 24, 2021). Get your crypto at the ready: NFTs are big in 2021. Collins Dictionary Language Lovers Blog.
https://blog.collinsdictionary.com/language-lovers/get-your-crypto-at-the-ready-nfts-are-big-in-2021/