Voice puppet with manipulatable oral cavity to form widely varied vocal sounds

Abstract

A voice puppet for creating vocal sounds includes a puppet body; a sound creation assembly including an oral cavity having a cavity wall and a cavity mouth in the form of an opening in the cavity wall, the cavity wall being formed of flexible and resilient material such that the shape of the oral cavity and of the mouth can be manually manipulated to produce various vocal sounds and a sound box containing a sound producing device and opening into the oral cavity through a box port over which a baffle such as a user finger tip can be moved, placed and removed to act as a tongue and to control the timing and duration of released sound and an oscillator circuit including the sound producing device, a variable pitch control device, and a circuit power source.

1 . A voice puppet for creating vocal sounds, comprising:
 a puppet body;   a sound creation assembly comprising an oral cavity having a cavity wall and a cavity mouth in the form of an opening in said cavity wall, said cavity wall being formed of flexible and resilient material such that the shape of said oral cavity and of said mouth can be manually manipulated to produce various vocal sounds and a sound box containing sound producing means and opening into said oral cavity through a box port over which a baffle can be moved, placed and removed to act as a tongue and to control the timing and duration of released sound and an oscillator circuit comprising said sound producing means, variable pitch control means, and a circuit power source.   
   
   
       2 . The voice puppet of  claim 1 , wherein said puppet body comprises a puppet head with a puppet face, and wherein said oral cavity is contained within said puppet head, such that said cavity wall forms a portion of said puppet face. 
   
   
       3 . The voice puppet of  claim 2 , wherein said puppet body comprises a puppet torso, additionally comprising a cavity air opening in said oral cavity, wherein said puppet body comprises flexible and resilient material such that squeezing said puppet causes air to enter said oral cavity, increasing air pressure within said oral cavity for creating percussive sounds. 
   
   
       4 . The voice puppet of  claim 2 , wherein said oral cavity wall and said sound box are formed of sound blocking material for preventing sound leakage through said cavity wall. 
   
   
       5 . The voice puppet of  claim 1 , wherein said puppet body comprises a puppet torso and a puppet head and a puppet neck interconnecting said puppet torso and said puppet head. 
   
   
       6 . The voice puppet of  claim 5 , wherein said sound creation assembly comprises a reservoir. 
   
   
       7 . The voice puppet of  claim 6 , wherein said reservoir is contained within said puppet torso, and wherein said sound box is contained within said neck area. 
   
   
       8 . The voice puppet of  claim 1 , wherein said oscillator circuit additionally comprises a circuit activation switch. 
   
   
       9 . The voice puppet of  claim 8 , wherein said puppet body comprises a puppet torso and puppet head, and said puppet torso has a flexible and resilient torso wall, and said circuit activation switch is a push button switch with a switch button positioned within said puppet torso behind said torso wall, such that depressing said torso wall inwardly adjacent to said push button switch depresses said switch button and thereby activates and deactivates said oscillator circuit. 
   
   
       10 . The voice puppet of  claim 2 , wherein said puppet head comprises a finger port for passing a user finger into said oral cavity to reach and selectively cover said box port. 
   
   
       11 . The voice puppet of  claim 1 , wherein said sound creation assembly comprises a closed reservoir partly filled with a conductive liquid, said oscillator circuit comprising vertically extending and spaced apart first and second conductive probes extending downwardly into said reservoir and having first and second probe upper ends and first and second probe lower ends, said first and second probe lower ends extending into said conductive liquid to create sonic vibration for simulating the oscillation of human vocal cords;
 such that the extent to which said first and second probes are immersed in said conductive liquid controls the pitch of sound produced by said sound producing means and the extent to which said first and second probes are immersed in said conductive liquid can be varied by tilting said puppet and thereby tilting said reservoir.   
   
   
       12 . The voice puppet of  claim 11 , wherein said first and second probes are shaped such that they are wider and have more surface area at their respective probe upper ends. 
   
   
       13 . The voice puppet of  claim 11 , wherein said sound producing means comprises a speaker contained within said sound box. 
   
   
       14 . The voice puppet of  claim 11 , wherein said conductive liquid is water containing electrolytes. 
   
   
       15 . The voice puppet of  claim 1 , wherein said oscillator circuit additionally comprises a photocell which is one of: mounted on the puppet body outer surface, integrated into the torso wall, integrated into the cavity wall mounted behind the torso wall, and mounted behind said cavity wall, for lowering the vocal pitch range when the puppet is in low light. 
   
   
       16 . The voice puppet of  claim 11 , wherein said reservoir comprises an upper fill opening such that conductive liquid can be fed into said reservoir through fill means, and such that addition of conductive liquid to said reservoir raises the vocal sound pitch range. 
   
   
       17 . The voice puppet of  claim 11 , wherein said reservoir comprises conductive liquid drain means can be drained gradually from within said reservoir into a diaper fitted onto said puppet torso to simulate bodily function, thereby lowering the pitch range and simulating tiredness.