Background Art In general, a sound-producing toy is equipped with a memory for storing a certain amount of data of audio fairy tales or music for infants therein and outputs audio signals output from the memory through a speaker, so that the sound-producing toy appears to be telling a fairy tale or music for infants, thereby providing an infant with a feeling of intimacy.

However, conventional sound-producing toys are designed to store certain amounts of data in memories of limited capacities, so that they are disadvantageous in that a variety of audio information cannot be provided to infants. Additionally, there is provided an apparatus that downloads audio data to be stored in a memory using a Personal Computer (PC) via the Internet and updates previously stored audio data with the downloaded audio data. However,

this apparatus can download audio data while a PC is turned on and must be equipped with a communications device for allowing the PC to access the Internet. Thus, it is difficult to update audio data and it is difficult for illiterate infants to operate the apparatus, thus requiring adult assistance. Additionally, users can download audio data on the condition that the users register on the Web site of a provider and pay user fees. Therefore, cost efficiency and convenience deteriorate.

Disclosure of the Invention Accordingly, in order to overcome the above-described disadvantages of the prior art, an object of the present invention is to provide a sound-producing toy for infants, in which a transmitting means, which is connected to an earphone jack of an audio output device, such as a compact disc player or tape player, to wirelessly transmit the audio signals of an audio fairy tale or music for infants output from the audio output device, and a receiving means, which is used to receive the audio signals transmitted from the transmitting means and output the received audio signals through a speaker, are installed in the body of the toy whose mouth and neck can be moved, so that the audio fairy tale or music for infants can be output from the toy (for example, a bear toy) other than the audio output device using a compact disc or audio tape provided together with a publication, such as a fairy tale book, thus providing an infant with an impression that the toy other than the audio output device is telling the infant the infant fairy tale or sing the music for infants and, therefore, inducing intimacy and interests in the infant, and so that the toy can use a separate audio output device, thus providing a variety of audio fairy tales and music for infants to infants, which contributes to the improvement of sentiment and intellectual ability for the infant.

The present invention provides a sound-producing toy for infants, constructed to allow a mouth or eyes to be moved by a motor, which includes a transmitting means including a connection terminal to be connected to an earphone jack of an audio output device, an amplification unit for amplifying audio signals of an audio fairy tale or music for infants supplied from the audio output device through the connection terminal, a modulation unit for modulating the audio signals amplified through the amplification unit to a certain frequency band, and a transmission unit for wirelessly transmitting the audio signals modulated through the modulation unit through an antenna; and a receiving means positioned in the sound-producing toy, the receiving means including a reception unit for receiving the audio signals transmitted from the transmitting means, a demodulation unit for demodulating the received audio signals to original signals, an amplification unit for amplifying the audio signals demodulated by the demodulation unit and outputting the demodulated audio signals through a speaker positioned in the sound-producing toy, a squelch control unit for preventing the demodulated audio signals from being supplied to the amplification unit when the demodulated audio signals have a relatively high level or include noise to prevent a bad influence on an infant, a received signal detection unit for detecting reception of audio signals through the reception unit and supplying a certain control signal to a motor drive unit and a lamp control unit, a motor drive unit for driving a motor when the control signal is input thereto from the received signal detection unit so that the mouth or neck of the sound-producing toy is moved, a mode setting unit for setting an operation mode of the motor to an automatic mode, a manual mode or a shutoff mode, a control unit for controlling the motor drive unit according to 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 FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing the construction of a sound- producing toy in accordance with the present invention; FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a transmitting means and a receiving means of the present invention; FIG. 3 is a view showing the sound-producing toy by which the present invention is implemented; and FIG. 4 is a view showing the internal construction of the sound- producing toy by which the present invention is implemented.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4 as follows.

Referring to the drawings, a sound-producing toy for infants of the present invention is divided into a transmitting means 3 and a receiving means 4.

The transmitting means 3 can be connected to an earphone 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 earphone jack 2, an amplification unit 32 for amplifying audio signals supplied through the connection terminal 31 to a certain level, a modulation unit 33 for modulating the audio signals amplified through the amplification unit 32 to be wirelessly transmitted, and a transmission unit 34 for

wirelessly transmitting the audio signals modulated through the modulation unit 33 through an antenna.

The transmitting means 3 constructed as described above is used while being connected to the earphone jack of the audio output device 1.

The transmitting means 3 is fabricated in the form of a toy such as a miniature car so that it provides an infant with an intimacy.

The receiving means 4 is positioned in the sound-producing toy 5. The receiving means 4 includes a reception unit 41 for receiving audio signals transmitted from the transmitting means 3, a demodulation unit 42 for demodulating the received audio signals to original signals, an amplification unit 43 for amplifying the audio signals demodulated by the demodulation unit 42 and outputting the demodulated audio signals through a speaker 44 positioned in the sound-producing toy 5, a squelch control unit 50 for preventing the audio signals from being supplied to the amplification unit 43 when the audio signals demodulated by the demodulation unit 42 are relatively high or the demodulated audio signals include noise, a received signal detection unit 45 for detecting the reception of audio signals through the reception unit 41 and feeding a certain control signal to a motor drive unit and a lamp control unit, a motor drive unit 46 for rotating a rotatable part 6 of the sound-producing toy 5 by driving a motor 47 when the control signal is input thereto from the received signal detection unit 45, a lamp control unit 47 for lighting a lamp 49 installed in the eyes of the sound- producing toy 5 when the control signal is input 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.

The sound-producing toy 5 equipped with the receiving means 4 is preferably fabricated to allow the mouth and neck thereof to be moved by the operation of the motor 48. Additionally, lamps 49 may be installed in the eyes of the sound-producing toy 5, or the eyes of the sound-producing toy 5 may be blinked.

For the sound-producing toy 5, a bear doll or other character dolls that infants feel friendly toward and like are preferably used. In FIG. 3, a toy resembling a human being is exemplified.

The operation of the sound-producing toy of the present invention is described below.

A user installs a recording medium on which audio fairy tales or music for infants are recorded, such as a compact disk, tape or the like, in the audio output device 1, and then connects the connection terminal 31 of the transmitting means 3 to the earphone jack 2 of the audio output device 1.

When the audio output device 1 is operated in the above-described state, 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 signals to a certain level, and feeds the amplified audio signals to the modulation unit 33. The modulation unit 33 modulates the input audio signals and wirelessly transmits the modulated audio signals through the transmission unit 34.

The audio signals wirelessly transmitted from the transmission unit 34 are received by the reception unit 41 positioned in the infant-stimulating module 5, and are fed to the demodulation unit 42. The demodulation unit 42 demodulates the received audio signals to original audio signals and feeds the demodulated audio signals to the amplification unit 43. The amplification unit 43 outputs the demodulated audio signals through the speaker 44 positioned in the sound-

producing toy 5 so that an infant can hear a audio fairy tale or music for infants.

During the above-described operation, the squelch control unit 50 prevents output signals of the demodulation unit 42 from being fed to the amplification unit 43 in the case where the level of the audio signals output from the demodulation unit 42 is equal to or higher than a predetennined level or the output audio signals includes noise, so that an infant is not disturbed by the high level audio signals or noise.

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

Meanwhile, the motor drive unit 46 drives the motor 48 to move the mouth and or neck of the sound-producing toy 5 according to the fairy tale or music for infants output from the speaker 44, and the lamp control unit 47 lights the lamps 49 installed in the eyes of the sound-producing toy 5, so that an infant can is caused to concentrate on listening to the fairy tale or music for infants.

Additionally, in the present invention, the user can select an automatic mode, a manual mode or a shutoff mode using the mode setting unit 52.

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 not. When the user selects the shutoff mode, the motor drive unit 46 is not operated regardless of any signal.

As described above, in the present invention, the transmitting means 3 is connected to the audio output device 1 capable of outputting audio signals, such as a compact disc player, an audio device, a tape player and a PC, the audio signals wirelessly transmitted through the transmission unit are reproduced by the

receiving means 4 installed in the sound-producing toy 5 to allow an infant to hear, and an audio fairy tale is output from a toy other than the audio output device through the medium of a fairy tale compact disc or tape provided together with a publication, such as a fairy tale book. Accordingly, the sound-producing toy provides an impression that a parent is telling the infant the fairy tale, thus playing a role to improve the sentiment of the infant. Additionally, an audio fairy tale constructed by the voice of a parent (an audio fairy tale liked by an infant and recorded by the parent of an infant) can be provided to the infant to provide the impression that the parent directly reads the fairy tale for his child, so that the infant is not bored with the fairy tale. Meanwhile, the sound-producing toy is fabricated into a shape that infants feel friendly toward, such as an animal shape or a human being shape. Further, the sound-producing toy is fabricated so that the mouth or eyes thereof can be moved, thus causing the sound-producing toy to be realistic or intimate. As a result, the sound-producing toy of the present invention provides infants with the impression that their parents are telling them fairy tales, and causes them to hear the audio fairy tales spontaneously.

Industrial Applicability As described above, the present invention provides a sound-producing toy for infants, in which a transmitting means, which is connected to an earphone jack of an audio output device, such as a compact disc player or tape player, to wirelessly transmit the audio signals of an audio fairy tale or music for infants output from the audio output device, and a receiving means, which is used to receive the audio signals transmitted from the transmitting means and output the received audio signals through a speaker, are installed in the body of the toy

whose mouth and neck can be moved, so that the audio fairy tale or music for infants can be output from the toy (for example, a bear toy) other than the audio output device using a compact disc or audio tape provided together with a publication, such as a fairy tale book, thus providing an infant with an impression that the toy other than the audio output device is telling the infant the infant fairy tale or sing the music for infants and, therefore, inducing intimacy and interests in the infant, and so that the toy can use a separate audio output device, thus providing a variety of audio fairy tales and music for infants to infants, which contributes to the improvement of sentiment and intellectual ability for the infant.