Background Art In general, an infant-stimulating mobile is a toy which stores six to seven melodies and whose rotatable part is rotated whenever the melodies are output, so an infant's concentrating ability can be cultivated and the infant's eyes can be attracted to aid the infant's eye movement.

Most infant-stimulating mobiles are operated in a spring manner.

Accordingly, when the springs of the infant-stimulating mobiles are wound, melodies stored in the infant-stimulating mobiles are sequentially output as the stimulating mobiles are rotated.

However, most of conventional infant-stimulating mobiles employ springs as power sources, so parents should wind the springs whenever the infant- stimulating mobiles are made to operate, thus causing inconvenience.

Additionally, the several melodies stored in the conventional infant-stimulating

mobiles are repeatedly output, so infants soon feel bored, and therefore the conventional infant-stimulating mobiles cannot continue to attract infants'eyes.

Disclosure of the Invention Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide an infant-stimulating mobile, in which a transmitting means connected to a jack of an audio output device, such as a compact player or tape player, to wirelessly transmit an audio signal of infant music, such as various music, infant <BR> stories, natural sound, parent's voice, etc. , output from the audio output device and a receiving means used to receive the audio signal transmitted from the transmitting means and output the received audio signal through a speaker, are positioned in the infant-stimulating mobile, so infant music wirelessly transmitted from the audio output device is output through the speaker positioned in the infant-stimulating mobile, and accordingly various music, parent's voice, music played during the prenatal care of an unborn child, etc. can be provided to the infant through the infant-stimulating mobile, thus helping cultivate the infant's emotional stability and intellectual ability.

In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides an infant-stimulating mobile including a mobile body; transmitting means comprising a connection terminal to be connected to a jack of an audio output device, such as compact disk player or tape player, an amplification unit for amplifying an audio signal of infant music, such as an infant song, fed through the connection terminal, a modulation unit for modulating the audio signal amplified through the

amplification unit to a certain frequency band, and a transmission unit for wirelessly transmitting the audio signal modulated through the modulation unit through an antenna ; and receiving means positioned in the mobile body, the receiving means comprising a reception unit for receiving the audio signal transmitted from the transmitting means, a demodulation unit for demodulating the received audio signal to an original signal, an amplification unit for amplifying the audio signal demodulated by the demodulation unit and outputting the demodulated audio signal through a speaker positioned in the infant-stimulating mobile, a squelch control unit for preventing the demodulated audio signals from being supplied to the amplification unit when the level of the demodulated audio signal is relatively high or the demodulated audio signal includes noise, a received signal detection unit for detecting reception of an audio signal through the reception unit and feeding a certain control signal, a motor drive unit for rotating a rotatable part of the infant-stimulating mobile by driving a motor when the control signal is input thereto from the received signal detection unit, a mode setting unit for setting an operation mode of the motor to an automatic mode, a manual mode and a shutoff mode, a control unit for controlling the motor drive unit in compliance with the operation mode set by the mode setting unit, and a wired terminal directly connectable to the audio output device to output sound through the speaker.

Brief Description of the Drawings The above and other objects, features and other advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of an infant- stimulating mobile in accordance with the present invention; FIG. 2 is a diagram of a transmitting means and a receiving means used in the infant-stimulating mobile of the present invention; and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a mobile body in which the receiving means is positioned.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGs. 1 through 3.

Referring to the drawings, an infant-stimulating mobile of the present invention includes a transmitting means 3 and a receiving means 4.

The transmitting means 3 can be connected to a jack 2 of an audio output device 1 that can reproduce and output audio signals, such as a compact disc player, an audio player, a cassette player, a personal computer or the like. The transmitting means 3 includes a connection terminal 31 used to connect with the jack 2, an amplification unit 32 for amplifying an audio signal fed through the connection terminal 31 to a certain level, a modulation unit 33 for modulating the audio signal amplified through the amplification unit 32 to be wirelessly transmitted, and a transmission unit 34 for wirelessly transmitting the audio signal modulated through the modulation unit 33 through an antenna.

The transmitting means 3 constructed as described above is fabricated in a modular form, and is used while being connected to the jack of the audio output device 1.

The receiving means 4 is positioned in the infant-stimulating mobile 5.

The receiving means 4 includes a reception unit 41 for receiving an audio signal transmitted from the transmitting means 3, a demodulation unit 42 for demodulating the received audio signal to an original signal, an amplification unit 43 for amplifying the audio signal demodulated by the demodulation unit 42 and outputting the demodulated audio signal through a speaker 44 positioned in the infant-stimulating mobile 5, a squelch control unit 50 for preventing the audio signals from being supplied to the amplification unit 43 when the level of the demodulated audio signal is relatively high or the demodulated audio signal includes noise, a received signal detection unit 45 for detecting the reception of an audio signal through the reception unit 41 and feeding a certain control signal, a motor drive unit 46 for rotating a rotatable part 6 of the infant-stimulating mobile 5 by driving a motor 47 when the control signal is input thereto from the received signal detection unit 45, a mode setting unit 53 for setting an operation mode of the motor 47 to an automatic mode, a manual mode and a shutoff mode, a control unit 53 for controlling the motor drive unit 46 according to the operation mode set by the mode setting unit 53, and a wired terminal 51 directly connectable to the audio output device 1 to output sound through the speaker 44.

In the infant-stimulating mobile 5 equipped with the receiving means 4, a rotating shaft connected to the center of weight of the rotatable part 6 is connected to a shaft of the motor 47 so that the rotatable part 6 is rotated by the driving of the motor 47.

The operation of the infant-stimulating mobile of the present invention is described below.

After a user installs a recording medium on which infant music, such as

infant songs, is recorded, e. g. , compact disks or tapes, in the audio output device 1, the connection terminal 31 of the transmitting means 3 is connected to the jack 2 of the audio output device 1.

When the audio output device 1 is operated, audio signals recorded on the recording medium are reproduced and fed to the amplification unit 32 of the transmitting means 3. The amplification unit 32 amplifies an input audio signal to a certain level, and feeds the amplified audio signal to the modulation unit 33.

The modulation unit 33 modulates the input audio signal and wirelessly transmits the modulated audio signal through the transmission unit 34.

The audio signal wirelessly transmitted from the transmission unit 34 is received by the reception unit 41 positioned in the infant-stimulating module 5, and is fed to the demodulation unit 42. The demodulation unit 42 demodulates the received audio signal to an original audio signal and feeds the demodulated audio signal to the amplification unit 43. The amplification unit 43 outputs the demodulated audio signal through the speaker 44 positioned in the infant- stimulating module 5 so that an infant can hear the music or other sounds.

During the above-described operation, the squelch control unit 50 prevents an output signal of the demodulation unit 42 from being fed to the amplification unit 43 in the case where the level of the audio signal output from the demodulation unit 42 is equal to or higher than a predetermined level or the output audio signal includes noise, so an infant is disturbed by the high level audio signal or noise.

In this case, the received signal detection unit 45 detects the reception of the audio signal from the reception unit 41 and outputs a certain control signal to the motor drive unit 46.

Accordingly, the motor drive unit 46 causes the rotatable part 6 of the

infant-stimulating mobile 5 to be continuously rotated, and therefore the infant's eyes can be attracted by the infant-stimulating mobile.

Further, the user can select an automatic mode, a manual mode and a shutoff mode.

That is, when the user selects the automatic mode, the control unit 53 allows the motor drive unit 46 to be operated in response to a control signal output from the received signal detection unit 45. When the user selects the manual mode, the motor drive unit 46 is controlled by the manipulation of a separate operation switch shown in FIG. 3. When the user selects the shutoff mode, the motor drive unit 46 is not operated regardless of any signal.

In accordance with the infant-stimulating mobile of the present invention, while music is transmitted from the audio output device 1, the infant-stimulating mobile 5 is continuously rotated, so the infant can concentrate his eyes on the mobile for a long time, thus promoting the infant's eye movement.

If the transmission of music from the audio output device 1 is stopped, the received signal detection unit 45 cannot detect the reception of a signal, and at this time the motor 47 is stopped, so the infant-stimulating mobile is stopped.

As described above, the infant-stimulating module of the present invention allows an infant to hear music by reproducing the audio signal through the receiving means 4 positioned in the infant-stimulating mobile 5 when the transmitting means 3 fabricated in a modular form is connected to the audio output device 1 capable of outputting audio signals, such as a compact disk, an audio device, a tape player or a personal computer.

In the meantime, a spring instead of the motor 47 can be used as a power source for rotating the rotatable part 6.

Industrial Applicability As described above, the present invention provides an infant-stimulating mobile, in which a transmitting means connected to a jack of an audio output device, such as a compact player or tape player, to wirelessly transmit an audio signal of infant music, such as various music, infant stories, natural sound, parent's <BR> voice, etc. , output from the audio output device and a receiving means used to receive the audio signal transmitted from the transmitting means and output the received audio signal through a speaker, are positioned in the infant-stimulating mobile, so infant music wirelessly transmitted from the audio output device is output through the speaker positioned in the infant-stimulating mobile, and accordingly various music, parent's voice, music played during the prenatal care of an unborn child, etc. can be provided to the infant through the infant-stimulating mobile, thus helping cultivate the infant's emotional stability and intellectual ability.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.