Soft body toy with pressure sensing

Abstract

A system and method for detecting pressure within a soft toy is presented. A soft toy has a soft toy body and an air bladder inside the soft toy body. A pressure sensing logic internal to the soft toy body measures a pressure of air inside the air bladder. When the pressure sensing logic measures air inside the air bladder is within a predetermined pressure range, control logic in the soft toy generates at least one output to at least one output device mounted in or on the soft toy.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A soft toy comprising:
 a soft toy body;   a pressure sensing logic internal to the soft toy body configured to measure a pressure exerted on the soft toy body;   at least one output device; and   control logic configured to generate at least one output at the at least one output device when the pressure sensing logic measures that a pressure exerted on the soft toy body is within a predetermined pressure range.   
     
     
         2 . The soft toy of  claim 1  further comprising:
 a spring, and wherein the pressure sensing logic is configured to measure the pressure exerted on the soft boy toy based, at least in part, a compression of the spring. 
 
     
     
         3 . The soft toy of  claim 1  further comprising:
 an air bladder inside the soft toy body, and wherein the pressure sensing logic is configured to measure a pressure of air in the air bladder. 
 
     
     
         4 . The soft toy of  claim 3  wherein the pressure sensing logic is configured to be activated by air movement from the air bladder into the pressure sensing logic. 
     
     
         5 . The soft toy of  claim 1  wherein the at least one output device further comprises:
 a display configured to display images. 
 
     
     
         6 . The soft toy of  claim 5  wherein the soft toy body further comprises:
 flexible fabric forming an outside surface of the soft toy body, wherein the display is configured to be mounted in an opening in the flexible fabric. 
 
     
     
         7 . The soft toy of  claim 5  wherein the display further comprises:
 a display screen in a same plain of flexible fabric surrounding the display screen. 
 
     
     
         8 . The soft toy of  claim 5  wherein the display is a liquid crystal display (LCD). 
     
     
         9 . The soft toy of  claim 5  wherein the display is further configured to display at least one of the group of: graphical images and text messages 
     
     
         10 . The soft toy of  claim 1  further comprising:
 a battery internal inside the soft toy body configured to power the control logic and the pressure sensing logic. 
 
     
     
         11 . The soft toy of  claim 1  wherein the at least on output device further comprises:
 a speaker configured to generate sounds. 
 
     
     
         12 . The soft toy of  claim 10  further comprising:
 a speaker, wherein the control logic is configured activate the speaker to generate sounds proportional to pressure measured by the pressure sensing logic. 
 
     
     
         13 . The soft toy of  claim 1  wherein the soft toy is sized to be squeezed by at least one of the group of: one human hand, two human hands, one human arm, two human arms, a combination of a human hand and a human body, and a combination of a human arm and a human body. 
     
     
         14 . A method for generating outputs at a soft toy comprising:
 measuring a toy pressure within the soft toy;   determining if the pressure exceeds a threshold pressure;   
       when the toy pressure exceeds the threshold pressure, generating at least one output from the soft toy. 
     
     
         15 . The method for generating outputs at a soft toy of  claim 14  wherein the measuring further comprises:
 measuring the toy pressure within an air bladder that is located inside the soft toy. 
 
     
     
         16 . The method for generating outputs at a soft toy of  claim 14  wherein the measuring further comprises:
 measuring the pressure using an electronic measuring sensor located inside the soft toy 
 
     
     
         17 . The method for generating outputs at a soft toy of  claim 14  where the air pressure is a first pressure, the threshold pressure is a first threshold pressure and the at least one output is a first output and further comprising:
 measuring a second pressure within the soft toy; 
 determining if the second pressure exceeds a second threshold pressure; and 
 when the second pressure exceeds the second threshold pressure, generating at least one second output from the soft toy that is different than the first output. 
 
     
     
         18 . The method for generating outputs at a soft toy of  claim 14  further comprising
 waiting a predetermined amount of time; and 
 turning off the at least one output after the predetermined time. 
 
     
     
         19 . The method for generating outputs at a soft toy of  claim 14  further comprising
 when no change in pressure has been detected for a timer period, placing electronic components in the soft toy in a sleep state to save power. 
 
     
     
         20 . The method for generating outputs at a soft toy of  claim 14  further comprising at least one of the group of:
 generating an image on a display of the soft toy and generating sounds on a speaker of the soft toy.