The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 05, 2000
Filed:
Aug. 18, 1997
Gregory E Hyman, Boca Raton, FL (US);
Robert W Jeffway, Jr, Leeds, MA (US);
Mattel, Inc., El Segundo, US;
Abstract
A housing supports a plurality of user depressible buttons including a question and answer button, a repeat or skip button and optionally a category select button. The housing further supports a multisegment liquid crystal display arranged in a linear arrangement. Within the housing, a microprocessor based circuit utilizes an associated memory and supporting apparatus such as display drivers to respond to the user pressing of buttons on the face of the housing to perform a series of question and answer operation. When the user presses the question and answer button, the microprocessor circuit assembles the next question from a stored list of questions and scrolls the question across the liquid crystal display. Thereafter, the circuit waits a predetermined interval for either the next pressing of the question answer button or expiration of a timed interval. When either occurs, the system ceases to wait and if the question and answer button has been pushed during the interval, the system displays the correct answer associated with the question. If, however, the question and answer button has not been pressed during the timed interval, the system preferably performs a negative output such as a razz signal and thereafter displays the answer. Following answer display, the system waits for the next pressing of the question and answer button to repeat the cycle.