Patents on the soles of your shoes...: Oh, patents! My Special Aflac Duck® (1)

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.