Remote-controlled toy with bumper sensor

Abstract

A remote-controlled toy is controllable by an application executing on a wireless communications device. The toy includes a wireless receiver for receiving a wireless control signal from the wireless communications device, a motor for moving the toy in response to receiving the wireless control signal, and a contact sensor disposed on an outer portion of the toy, the contact sensor generating a contact signal in response to physical contact on the contact sensor. The toy may be a wheeled vehicle such as a car, truck, etc. or a spinning top. The spinning top may include a detachable droid-shaped upper portion. The device may be used not only to control the toy and display contact data, but also to view and reconfigure performance characteristics of the toy. In one implementation, the toy includes an elastomeric bumper extending around the toy for accommodating a plurality of contact sensors.

1 . A remote-controlled toy comprising:
 a movable toy body comprising a bumper having one or more contact sensors disposed on the bumper;   a motor for moving the toy body; and   a wireless receiver for receiving a wireless control signal from a wireless controller to control motion of the toy body.   
     
     
         2 . The toy as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the wireless controller is a wireless communications device. 
     
     
         3 . The toy as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the toy body is a wheeled vehicle wherein the motor drives the vehicle forward and wherein the vehicle further comprises a servo for steering the vehicle. 
     
     
         4 . The toy as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the toy body is a spinning top and wherein the motor steers the top. 
     
     
         5 . The toy as claimed in  claim 4  wherein the spinning top comprises a detachable upper portion shaped like a droid or robot. 
     
     
         6 . The toy as claimed in  claim 5  wherein the detachable upper portion of the spinning top has character-like elements that resemble a head, arms and a torso. 
     
     
         7 . The toy as claimed in  claim 1  comprising a wireless transmitter for transmitting contact signals received by the contact sensors in the bumper to the wireless controller. 
     
     
         8 . The toy as claimed in  claim 7  wherein the wireless controller is a wireless communications device having a processor operatively coupled to a memory for executing an application that displays contact data based on the contact signals received from the wireless transmitter. 
     
     
         9 . The toy as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the bumper comprises a plurality of contact sensors, and wherein the contact signals transmitted to the wireless controller indicate which contact sensor was contacted. 
     
     
         10 . A remote-controlled toy controllable by an application executing on a wireless communications device, the toy comprising:
 a wireless receiver for receiving a wireless control signal from the wireless communications device;   a motor for moving the toy in response to receiving the wireless control signal; and   a contact sensor disposed on an outer portion of the toy, the contact sensor generating a contact signal in response to physical contact on the contact sensor.   
     
     
         11 . The toy as claimed in  claim 10  comprising a bumper disposed on the outer portion of the toy. 
     
     
         12 . The toy as claimed in  claim 11  wherein the bumper is an elastomeric bumper comprising a plurality of contact sensors embedded within the bumper. 
     
     
         13 . The toy as claimed in  claim 12  wherein the bumper extends around an entire perimeter of the toy. 
     
     
         14 . The toy as claimed in an  claim 12  wherein the bumper extends around only a portion of the toy. 
     
     
         15 . The toy as claimed in  claim 10  comprising a wheeled vehicle body. 
     
     
         16 . The toy as claimed in  claim 10  comprising a spinning top shaped like a droid. 
     
     
         17 . The toy as claimed in  claim 16  wherein the spinning top is a transformable spinning top having a detachable upper droid body that may be detached from the spinning top. 
     
     
         18 . The toy as claimed in  claim 10  comprising an onboard programmable logic circuit that may be remotely programmed using the application executing on the wireless communications device to reconfigure one or more performance characteristics of the toy. 
     
     
         19 . The toy as claimed in  claim 10  comprising an onboard programmable logic circuit that may be remotely and automatically programmed by the application executing on the wireless communications device to automatically reconfigure one or more performance characteristics of the toy in response to receiving contact data from the toy. 
     
     
         20 . The toy as claimed in  claim 10  comprising an onboard programmable logic circuit that is programmed to activate a toy feature if a number of contact signals exceeds a predetermined threshold. 
     
     
         21 . A computer-readable medium comprising instructions in code which, when loaded into a memory and executed by a processor of a wireless communications device, causes the wireless communications device to:
 receive contact signals from contact sensors of a remote-controlled toy that are transmitted wirelessly from the remote-controlled toy to the wireless communications device; and   display contact data based on the contact signals.   
     
     
         22 . The computer-readable medium as claimed in  claim 21  further comprising computing and displaying a real-time score based on the contact data wherein different points are awarded based on different locations of the contact sensors. 
     
     
         23 . The computer-readable medium as claimed in  claim 21  further comprising displaying motion cues on a display of the wireless communications device, receiving user input via the user interface of the wireless communications device, and transmitting control signals from the wireless communications device to the remote-controlled toy using a Bluetooth® transceiver. 
     
     
         24 . The computer-readable medium as claimed in  claim 21  further comprising generating modified control signals in response to the contact data to thereby modify the performance characteristics of the toy in response to the contact signals received by the wireless communications device.