Interacting toys

Abstract

There is provided as toy adapted to have an interaction with at least one other such toy, comprising: a processor and a memory coupled to said processor; wherein said processor comprises: means for generating an output signal representative of an action to be performed; and means for generating a trigger signal, for reception at at least one other such toy, to trigger said other such toy to perform an action before the said toy has completed its own action. Furthermore, the trigger signal is generated at pre-determined time interval after said toy has initiated its own action, or the trigger signal is generated at a pre-determined time interval before said toy has completed its own action.

1 . An authoring tool for creating themed data for toys, comprising:
 means for receiving content relating to a particular theme; means for processing said content to generate a set of instructions for operating said toy within said particular theme; and   means for outputting said set of instructions,   wherein said receiving means is adapted to receive, in one operation, content that comprises an entire theme, or a substantial part of a theme, enabling a toy to have an interaction with at least one other such toy within that theme.   
     
     
         2 - 72 . (canceled) 
     
     
         73 . An authoring tool according to  claim 1 , wherein said content is in the form of a pre-formatted file. 
     
     
         74 . An authoring tool according to  claim 73 , wherein said pre-formatted file is a text file. 
     
     
         75 . An authoring tool according to  claim 74 , wherein the text file comprises an entire (preferably self-contained) conversation enabling a toy to have a conversation with at least one other such toy. 
     
     
         76 . An authoring tool according to  claim 74 , wherein the text file comprises content in a script format. 
     
     
         77 . An authoring tool according to  claim 76 , wherein the script format comprises at least one toy identifier followed by expression data, and preferably a statement. 
     
     
         78 . An authoring tool according to  claim 77 , wherein the means for processing comprises:
 means for identifying a toy identifier in the content;   means for creating a toy instance for expression data associated with the toy identifier; and   means for extracting expression data associated with the toy identifier from the content and assigning it to the toy instance.   
     
     
         79 . An authoring tool according to  claim 78 , wherein the processing means further comprises means for determining if, for a particular toy identifier, a toy instance already exists or not. 
     
     
         80 . An authoring tool according to  claim 79 , wherein if, for the particular toy identifier, a toy instance already exists then the extracted expression data associated with that toy identifier is assigned to the existing toy instance; and if no toy instance already exists then a new toy instance is generated for that toy identifier and the extracted expression data associated with that toy identifier is assigned to the new toy instance. 
     
     
         81 . An authoring tool according to  claim 73 , wherein said processing means generates said set of instructions using only the content of said pre-formatted file. 
     
     
         82 . An authoring tool according to  claim 77 , wherein said expression data comprises at least one of: a theme name, the toys' names and statements used by the toys to interact. 
     
     
         83 . An authoring tool according to  claim 1 , wherein said content further comprises scripting data comprising at least one of: the number of toys that can interact within the theme, a method of interaction, theme related parameters, and toy related parameters. 
     
     
         84 . An authoring tool according to  claim 83 , wherein said toy related parameters include information relating to pre-defined rules for selecting the next toy to interact. 
     
     
         85 . An authoring tool according to  claim 1 , wherein said receiving means is adapted to receive content that comprises scripting data relating to the particular theme, and the scripting data comprises a method of interaction, and the method of interaction comprises timing related parameters. 
     
     
         86 . An authoring tool according to  claim 85 , wherein said timing related parameters determine when the next toy interacts. 
     
     
         87 . An authoring tool according to  claim 86 , wherein said timing related parameters include at least one of: the time delay between the start of the current toy's interaction to the start of the next toy's interaction; and the time delay from the start of the next toy's interaction before the current toy's interaction ends.