CN1842830A - Interactive printed material and sensor apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

Apparatus consisting of a sensor unit, preferably in the form of a sensor pen (20), and printed material (29) is described where the two interact in a wide variety of ways. In particular, the printing on the printed material is configured to have different properties, where the difference is not discernible to the naked eye, for example differences in infrared absorption. A variety of arrangements are described, for example for use in early learning activities, and for testing and revision activities using multi-choice question papers. By using good design engineering, the number of different types of reaction from the printed material that the sensor unit can discriminate between may be as many as several tens, or even more than 100.

Description

Interactive printed materials and sensor devices

technical field

The invention relates to interactive printed materials and sensor devices.

Background technique

Printed materials have traditionally been used for a variety of purposes including, inter alia, educational and entertainment purposes. The conventional way of understanding printed material is to simply look at it and analyze the image formed on the retina. The brain then senses what it sees and eg identifies whether the image is a pure picture or eg comprises symbols, and if the latter case, the brain tries to decipher and comprehend these symbols through words or mathematical expressions. Through the use of printed materials, sighted persons broadly discriminate vast amounts of information for a myriad of purposes. However, this information conversion mechanism is limited to information that can be established on the image and discerned by the human eye.

In recent decades, it has been known that printed materials can carry additional information that is not apparent to the human eye. Various proposals have been made to print information that needs to be recognized by an auxiliary device. Thus, for example, a standard way of preventing an article from being counterfeited (or at least being able to detect a counterfeit if it occurs) is to print a relevant imprinted mark which is only seen, for example, when the object is irradiated with ultraviolet light, such as on banknotes. superior. A different approach is to print something obscure, though visible, so that the viewer cannot understand it. The classic example is a printed barcode: a condition code is best seen as a legend of black and white bars whose size and arrangement (and often accompanied by alphanumerics) let the viewer know it is a barcode, but the viewer otherwise Don't know more. However, a barcode reader can extract the signal from these bars and, with appropriate programming, eg convert this signal into a signal identifying the particular product bearing the barcode.

From this it can be seen that printed material can be configured to provide more information than is visible to the viewer in two different ways: it can contain information that is invisible to the eye, or it can contain information that is visible but Information that the viewer does not understand or understand.

In the field of printed materials for educational or entertainment purposes, such printing techniques have been proposed and in some cases have resulted in successful commercial products being put on the market, as well as several references in the patent literature. For example, WO 93/17407, US-A-6089943 and GB-A-2359402 all disclose educational systems comprising printed material and some form of barcode reader which a user can use to interact with the printed material.

Another proposed method is to print a so-called "graphic indicator", which is visually small but can be picked up by an appropriate sensor unit. US-A-2003/0133164 discloses such a system. One property printed on a substrate that is invisible to the human eye is electrical conductivity. US-A-3,818,610, US-A-4,183,152 and US-A-4,868,374 all disclose educational or entertainment devices that rely on interaction between a "sensor pen" and printed material on a suitable substrate (usually paper), wherein the pen Gripped by the user and the printing is optionally in conductive ink. GB-A-2370349 and its equivalent WO 02/50802 disclose another variation in the form of a quiz game in which the user has a pen that includes a sensor that discriminates the fluorescent properties of the ink.

Systems relying on conductive inks and/or on inks containing special fluorescent components are not particularly flexible and in any case require special inks which in turn sometimes require special printing techniques which undesirably increase the cost of producing printed materials.

Published patent specification WO-A-83/02842 discloses an interactive printed material/sensor system which utilizes information printed not visible but detectable by sensors. Specifically, the specification discloses a system for invisibly encoding prints taking advantage of the inability of the human eye to work at infrared wavelengths. Distinguishing visually identical areas can be achieved by the fact that black prints (or four-color process prints) that appear to be the same reflect infrared light very differently depending on the type of "black material" used in the ink used.

In practice this technology can be used to provide various educational and entertainment systems comprising a sensor component and a printed paper or book, wherein the sensor component is usually configured as a "pen" or "pen" held in the user's hand. "Stick" shape. Other shapes of the sensor such as movable cursors or "mouses" have also been proposed. The sensor unit includes some form of infrared emitter, usually at one end if the sensor unit is a long "pen", and includes appropriate electronic circuitry and a power source in the form of a small battery.

To reduce cost and save space the electronic circuitry is usually configured as a monolithic chip designed to provide the necessary functionality of sensing the properties of the printed material involved (along with an appropriate sensor head) and producing some form of output This output is usually audible and/or visible, for example by driving one or more LEDs or an audio transducer. The electronic circuitry is usually in the form of an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) interfaced with the power supply, sensors and output devices. Additionally, the sensor component typically includes some type of switching mechanism, such as a ring around the tip of the "pen", which activates the electronic circuit when the tip is placed against a surface. Printed ink is printed on the surface area to be sensed, and then the electronic circuitry in the sensor component reacts by producing an audible or visible signal, eg depending on the infrared absorbing properties of the printed ink. The assembly of ASIC, sensor and power supply may be a "sensor module", which is contained within a suitable housing to form a complete sensor component.

One way to present the printed material that the sensor component is designed to work with is in the form of a question-and-answer sheet where the user is faced with a question and a set of possible answers, usually one answer is correct and the other The answer is wrong, and by printing a patch of printed ink with appropriate infrared absorbing properties adjacent to the printed answer, the user can tell whether the answer is right or wrong by placing the sensor element on the printed patch. These printed sheets are usually printed in different colors such as red, green, yellow and blue so that they look different and attractive, but one of them (corresponding to the correct answer) handles the ink in black (which as very perceived In the case of each sheet is printed by four-color process) contains some carbon black. Other sheets may contain no carbon black or a completely different grade of carbon black, enabling the sensor module to distinguish between correct and incorrect answers.

Modifications to the above are easily conceivable. For example, an early learning book may require the user to determine which fruit shown begins with some given letter of the alphabet, such as "a". An example of this could for instance show pictorial representations of apples and apricots (printed with inks with an IR absorption level above a given threshold) and other fruits such as dates, bananas, oranges, greengages and lemons but with an IR absorption level below this A picture printed with a printing ink of a given threshold. An alternative is to provide some form of multi-path representation of the maze, where one selected path is printed with an ink whose infrared absorption exceeds this threshold and the other paths are below this threshold. If sliding along this path, the sensor part could be indicated as being "on track", for example by utilizing a green light emitting diode, while if leaving this path the output could be in the form of a red light indicating that the user was off the correct path.

This specification, as well as WO-A-88/05951, which gives a development of the technology described in WO-A-83/02842, achieved some commercial success, but in practice it was found difficult to keep the manufacture of printed materials and sensor The sensor pen and any mating printed material achieve satisfactory results.

Although WO-A-88/05951 discloses a sensor unit with a programming mode and a small display screen, the degree of dexterity achievable with such a unit is relatively limited.

As described in WO-A-83/02842 and WO-A-88/05951, the number of different infrared absorption levels that can be dealt with is relatively small, which severely limits operational flexibility. In addition, it is not always as easy as possible to initially visualize the difference between an IR-absorbing ink flake and an IR-reflecting ink flake, which is completely invisible to the naked eye. This problem is identified in US-A-4627819, which suggests a method of overcoming this problem using a printed dot pattern in an attempt to provide a difference to the completely undetectable infrared reflection. It is worth noting that the specification proposes that the inventive technique described therein is applicable not only to educational and entertainment systems involving printed material and pens or sticks as described in WO-A-83/02842, but also to so-called "Invisible barcode".

US-A-4627819 proposes that the scanner can have multi-level sensitivity and also proposes five different bands of "dot density", but the exact structure and operation of such a scanner is not given in detail, and US-A-4627819 explains The degree of dexterity achieved by the technology is still relatively small.

We have now found it possible to significantly improve upon the basic methods identified in these patent specifications and, inter alia, to provide improved sensor components which can be used with printed materials in a manner which enables a very wide variety of educational and recreational activities as well as user determined satisfaction.

Contents of the invention

According to the present invention, the base printed material and the sensor component can be enhanced in various ways and these enhancements can be used alone or in combination with other enhancements to accommodate a myriad of possible applications.

Methods in which the above-defined basic technology can be enhanced according to the present invention include:

configuring the sensor module to discriminate between at least five and preferably at least ten different levels of infrared absorption;

configuring the sensor module and printed material with the interaction means to self-calibrate the sensor module prior to use with the printed material or during such use;

Means arranged to sense two or more properties of a printed ink sheet, distinguishing each such sensed response in a discrete signal and combining the responses thus produced, thereby distinguishing a plurality of different states; for example, if The first property is infrared absorption, the second property can be optical such as color, fluorescence or non-optical such as conductivity;

providing within the sensor module memory means capable of at least temporarily maintaining a record of successive states sensed by the sensor module, and altering the future behavior of the sensor module accordingly;

Provision of a push switch in the sensor assembly and provision in the sensor module for storing and analyzing data from successive switch operations and responding thereto to produce a preselected output (visible or audible) and/or to modify the operation of the sensor module model;

An output display in the form of a screen and icon set is provided for the sensor unit, wherein the screen and icon set includes at least one icon recognizably reflecting an emotion, and is arranged within the sensor module to analyze a series of successive inputs and software that adjusts the perceived effect represented by the screen icon accordingly;

An audio output transducer is provided to the sensor component and the sensor module is programmed or configured to drive the transducer to produce an audio output selected from the range possible based on the nature of the area of the printed material in which the sensor component is located. The range may include recognizable words or phrases or recognizable sounds such as cheering, whimpering or laughter;

Means are provided in the sensor unit to project a color on an area of the printed material adjacent to the area of the sheet against which the sensor head is pressed, for example green for correct answers and red for incorrect answers;

Means are provided in the sensor unit for illuminating an area on the printed material adjacent to the area pressed by the sensor head, under such illumination the printed material can visibly reveal to the human eye that it cannot be seen under normal lighting or One or more printed features that are substantially invisible;

configuring the sensor assembly in the form of an elongated body with the sensor tip at one end and a screen adjacent or substantially adjacent the other end, the screen extending along the side of the elongated body and programming the sensor module to display letters based on input received by the sensor Numeric information in which the direction of the row or group of rows of alphanumeric information read from left to right is transverse to the longitudinal axis of the sensor part;

The sensor component is configured as a sensor, such as an infrared light emitter/detector assembly. an elongated human or animal shape at one end, wherein the sensor is covered with a cover of footwear configured in the human or animal shape when the sensor component is not in use;

Constructing the sensor part as an elongated unit with the sensor at one end with a removable cap to protect the sensor from dust etc., the side of the sensor part having a shape and size to press fit the removable end cap into groove, and wherein the removable end cap is latched and can be positioned to press fit into the groove or cover the sensor if desired;

A pre-programmable microprocessor or configurable ASIC or equivalent means and means provided in the sensor module and connected thereto so as to be able to send and receive data through the microprocessor or ASIC via a coded infrared link, and wherein the The printed material is associated with a data storage component that can be interrogated using an encoded infrared signal to provide as an output an encoded infrared signal that the sensor module can decode and use to program or reprogram the microprocessor or to configure or Reconfigure the ASIC in it.

The features taken from the above table and/or used alone or in combination may vary widely depending on the particular use envisaged. In other words, different features can be combined in different ways to provide different interactive sensor component/printed material combinations for use in different environments.

Thus, according to a particular aspect of the present invention, various combinations of interactive printed materials and sensor components can be provided, which include printed materials with printed information applied to a substrate that cannot be understood by a human viewer, wherein the sensor components adapted to sense properties of the printed material and to discriminate individual printed areas thereon, the sensor unit comprising a display screen and adapted to display on the screen a set of stylized faces displaying different states to a viewer, and wherein The sensor component is configured to resemble an animal or human shape with the screen positioned to correspond to the artistic face, and wherein the sensor component includes sensor heads located at endpoints of the human or animal shape.

Such a product would be attractive to younger children, especially if the pen or stick style resembles a well-known shape such as a character merchandise shape and if the screen and internal programming are adapted to provide a variety of displays. Specifically, the faces on this screen can be cartoon so that the lips and voice output are synchronized and the eyes can be made to move or blink randomly, thereby providing the illusion that the faces are "alive".

At a completely different level in the target market for interactive printed material/sensor pen combinations, the technique according to the invention is adapted to provide substantially more complex instructional or review material in various combinations, or for example to provide multiple options Question-and-answer material, which can be used to implement self-administered quizzes from the viewpoint of learning and checking what has been learned or from the viewpoint of entertainment. Thus, in another broad aspect, the present invention provides an interactive printed material and sensor component combination comprising printed material with information printed on a substrate incomprehensible to a human observer, wherein the sensor component adapted to sense a property of the printed material and to discriminate individual printed areas thereon, and wherein the sensor component is configured to distinguish each area by measuring a property of the printed material under at least five categories and to provide information on that property. A measurement and/or a human-understandable output that varies with the results of such a measurement.

As generally available in the prior art and as discussed above, known forms of instructional and entertainment material are printed materials and sensor pens or sticks designed to be held by the user and brought into contact with the printed material, thereby enabling the pen or stick to sense a parameter or property of the portion of the printed material it contacts, wherein the actual sensing process is triggered by a switching device actuated by contact between the printed material and the pen or stick, and wherein the pen Or the wand contains an output device such as a visual display or an audible output that is driven according to rules pre-programmed in the sensor module.

According to a broad aspect of the present invention, in response to the switching of the switching device, when the switching device is energized, the value of the parameter or property sensed by the sensor is activated, the switching device switching timing and the sensed value of the parameter or property change. Combining with another value, changes the programmed nature of the response displayed on the visual display or reflected on the audio output. Time switching and the value of a parameter or property sensed can be thought of as three inputs to a complex program stored, for example, on microchips in pens and wands, all three inputs being considered in real time to determine from the programming which specific output, such as whether it is specific material shown on a visual display, specific words emitted by an appropriate audio transducer, a melody or other audible output, or a combination of both. A very delicate interaction between the printed material and the sensor part can be achieved through clever programming to give the part an "intelligent" atmosphere. This is especially the case where the printed material contains pictorial and/or verbal instructions for the system user to perform certain operations using the sensor components. If the user ignores these picture or word commands, the sensor unit can produce an output to indicate this, for example it can offer the user "re-read the command" or "No! follow the path with the tip of the pen" via an appropriate speech synthesis chip.

All of this can be achieved through appropriate programming, where a programmed microchip inside the sensor unit can essentially see an extracted meaning from a sequential sequence of inputs, then work on that extracted meaning as well as provide incentives for the user to operate the sensor unit in the appropriate manner. itself. Quite simply, the pen and wand can be programmed to tell you what to do next when you start using it on a printed page.

With regard to both types of material, "workbooks" for younger readers and more serious exam or revision aids, it should be noted that within the various improvements to the prior art described above, a number of discernible Grade is the most important. When using a sensor component/printed material combination, if the component can only discriminate a small number of grades, this may be sufficient for a "single operation" on text, such as picking the correct answer out of four. However, when the anticipated interaction becomes more of a task, such as sensing consecutive jumbled Arabic numerals in the correct order, the requirement to be able to discriminate more grades becomes much greater and self-calibrating The requirements to guarantee consistent performance have also become much greater.

The printed material or printed article forming part of the interactive system of the present invention can be produced in various ways, however, due to the requirement that the printed material and the sensor module work rationally and cooperatively, there must be some constraints on the printing process used. Exercise due care. As in the case of the publications mentioned above, the preferred printing method for producing printed materials is four-color process printing, i.e. the material is printed with the so-called four process colors and with the The different formulations provide invisible or incomprehensible differences between different parts of the printed material, or more specifically, the use of two types of black ink, one of which contains highly infrared absorbing carbon black and the other does not.

Standard industrial black inks contain large amounts of carbon black and are therefore highly absorbing of infrared radiation. However, printing inks can be obtained without difficulty using other "black" materials, such as the incorporation of dyes which, while not appreciably absorbing infrared radiation, are highly absorbing in the visible spectrum and thus appear black to the naked eye. Alternatively, the color chips may be printed in some cases without the industrial black ink and in other cases with the industrial black ink. By adjusting the screen density of the printing, a chip that does not contain industrial black ink can look as black as a chip that contains industrial black ink.

Using a single parameter to be sensed, such as infrared absorption, for each printed area on the printed material enables the sensor component to routinely discriminate between several different states with different levels of infrared absorption, but even with automatic settings on the printed material The number of different classes that a calibration facility (explained further below) can distinguish is still relatively small, eg a maximum of 5 to 10, and working at the high end of the range is required to ensure that the combination is reliable and error-free in practical use Operational requirements for quality control of sensor modules and process control for printing are more difficult to achieve. However, there are instances where it is required to be able to discriminate between more than 10 different states, and according to a particularly preferred feature of the invention this can be achieved by arranging the sensor unit to check not just a single property of the printed material but Two or even three of the properties above are achieved.

This can be achieved by choosing an appropriate property for printing and having something in the sensor module that detects or measures this property. Although the present invention is not limited thereto. A convenient example of this is color.

For example, if a printed sheet is printed on a relatively white paper or other substrate using industrial yellow, then the sheet absorbs very little if illuminated with yellow light. If, on the other hand, the same yellow light is irradiated on a piece containing industrial cyan or industrial magenta, the materials in these inks absorb the yellow light, so that the amount of reflected yellow light is significantly reduced. Similarly, other spectral colors may be selected. If, for example, the sensor part can distinguish five different colors and also contains a device capable of distinguishing six infrared absorption levels, then using the sensor part to simultaneously check the prints of the printed material can distinguish 6 x 5 or 30 different colors. status. With the ability to distinguish 30 different types of prints, complex or "smart" games using the 26 letters in various ways can be produced.

If the sensor module contains a suitable microprocessor or ASIC and the memory stores pre-programmed content, for example a combination of sensor components and printed material for playing a "spelling game" can be produced. In a simple form, the sensor module can be internally programmed to speak (via the speech synthesis chip and converter) a given word, and the object of the game is to spell that word correctly. By sequentially applying the sensor component to successive letters selected from a printed alphabet (wherein the combination properties of each letter are different from each other), the sensor module can detect whether the user selects the correct letters in the correct order to spell out previously uttered words. If the user picks up the letters in the correct order, upon detection of the order from successive detections, the sensor component can send an appropriate congratulatory message, such as "Well done! Try spelling now...", where the new phrase is read from the sensor Another word randomly selected from the large number of words stored in the module.

In a relatively straightforward development of the system just described, each time the sensor component is applied to a printed letter of the alphabet, the audio transducer can speak a "word" corresponding to that letter, e.g. "eh," "bee," "sea," and so on.

Variations of this method are conceivable and may be provided in a single "book", for example by providing different games on successive pages through a set of prints, for example where there are different games on each page discernible by the sensor module. A programming "code" that the sensor module recognizes when the sensor component senses successfully can be built from the IRIM accordingly, and this code enables the programmable electronics within the sensor module to work for a different "game".

As is readily appreciated, operating in this manner requires the sensor module to have relatively sophisticated memory storage that allows selection of various modes of operation. Such a sensor module could be fully pre-programmed during manufacture, but this is not preferred as this limits the use of the sensor components to operating with printed materials in a pre-programmed fashion. This doesn't actually work with pre-printed materials that operate according to new modes that aren't stored in the sensor module. For this reason, it is highly desirable to have a reprogrammable region within the sensor module that stores data and is reprogrammable in accordance with the printed material used with the memory component. This can be achieved, for example, by associating the printed material with a simple chip containing stored program instructions and containing some type of output component, for example in the form of an infrared emitter to which an encoded data stream can be fed. The infrared sensor forming part of the sensor module can capture this data stream and the electronic circuitry within the sensor module then converts the data stream into new properly programmed mode of operation.

As previously indicated, the present invention is of particular value in the field of learning or review systems. For example, it is conceivable that a review practice sheet includes an appropriate sensor assembly and displays printed questions and a selection of possible answers below the text, with each answer positioned against a colored print. The user places the sensor component, for example a sensor configured as a pen, against a print to indicate a selection by sensing a property of the print. Depending on the result, the sensor component can react in some appropriate way, for example indicating "true or false" to the answer just determined.

The individual answer pieces can actually be distinguished by normal eye vision, eg they differ in colour, but their important differences cannot be seen. However, even where there is a "correct" answer, it would be beneficial to provide the user of the sensor component/printed material combination of the present invention with more information than just whether the answer is true or false.

This can be achieved, if desired, by ensuring that the sensor module can discriminate a large number of different states corresponding to the sensed print of printed material so that very effective educational and/or entertainment material can be produced. Thus, for example in the case of a simple multiple-choice question, one correct answer and four incorrect answers can be encoded, for example, among five different answers and also the wrong answers differently, so that the sensor component can provide a tailored It not only points out the fact that the user's answer is wrong, but also gives a more direct response to the guidance of the target. For example, in the case of a simple number estimation question, there may be one immediately correct answer and the other answers may be close, not too close, or too far away, so that the user is surprised by the question and considers a possible reasonable answer for a while.

In such cases, according to the invention, the various visible colors together with the invisible carbon black/infrared non-absorbing black prints can be provided in a large number of different combinations, so that, for example, when pressing a certain color chip, it is possible, for example, from the sensor part. The speech synthesis chip and the converter form part of sending out an appropriate speech message, the specific message being selected from a wide range of stored messages.

Numerous attempts have been made to produce educational appliances, such as those sold under the LeapPad and Tomy TalkingBooks names, in which intelligence is added to the book and the user must tell the electronic circuit which unfolded page is still being played so that the electronic circuit can recognize which particular page. Give appropriate feedback. Usually this is accomplished by having an appropriately printed activation area uniquely positioned for each page, which activates circuitry in the electronic tablet underneath the book and which can tell the user to apply pressure with a finger or with a special stylus attached to the tablet s position. But this needs to be done every page is turned, and if there is no printed material it won't respond until the user realizes and presses the printed launch area.

The present invention can be used to make educational literature that overcomes this problem in two different ways. In one approach, the sensor components are programmed to act universally on all corresponding pages/books. All levels are pre-assigned, purely on the graphical content of each page to achieve change from one page to the next and by means of gaming techniques that slow down apparent repetition. When the user follows the instructions on the printed page, the hidden code causes the sensor component to change the way it reacts according to its internal programming.

In a more sophisticated approach, sensor components are programmed with games, which require coordinated responses to each new task. This can be done automatically by the sensor unit displaying a certain number or symbol corresponding to the appropriate printing job/activity. New numbers are only displayed when each task is completed. This new number can be the next successive task or a new assignment chosen based on previous performance. In this way, the task book used by the user every time can be different. Allows the user to override displayed tasks if the program allows it.

These two methods of redesigning the manner in which the program operates constitute another important feature of the invention.

As previously indicated, the sensor module preferably has a means of self-testing and self-calibrating for the particular printed material involved. In this way, for example, a series of differently printed areas or patches can be identified on the printed material and optionally also unprinted areas which can improve the sensor module identification mainly due to calibration. The ability to distinguish between different values of a sensed property such as infrared reflectivity.

As previously indicated, the sensor unit preferably includes a switch which makes it work, ie triggers a sensing process of a measuring nature. The internal programming of the sensor module could be such that the module goes into sleep mode if the switch is not actuated for a given time and enters calibration mode on power up, so that the first thing the user does when using materials produced according to the invention This is to calibrate the sensor components for the specific sheet of printed material that is then to be sensed. This is not always ideal, as users tend to ignore this "chore", but as explained later, it is also possible to recalibrate "on the fly", that is, when playing a game or checking a task as part of a printed material. When using this sensor part on sequential printing.

Self-calibration is important in order to produce a stable sensor component/printed material combination according to the invention, since the individual four-color process print areas, which react differently when observed with the sensor module, are subject to unavoidable variations in print quality, e.g. ink Variations in application rate, screen separation, base paper or other stock on which the material is printed. Depending on these variables, there is a range of variation in the exact response of any given printed area.

A method of achieving calibration of a sensor module consists in marking several areas on the printed material, one of which is simply an unprinted area of the base or substrate material and the other areas corresponding in number to the desired detection of a different response The number of levels. Thus, for example, if discrimination on the basis of six response levels for a single property is desired, the printed material may have one unprinted area and five printed areas.

By sequentially applying sensor components to the blank area and then to the five printed areas, the response, eg infrared reflection, of the six areas can be determined. The internal processing of the successively input data corresponding to the individual printed material areas interrogated by the sensor module can then be evaluated against these values, for example the infrared reflection or absorption read out by the sensor module during the calibration process. Although these values will undoubtedly vary slightly, it is easily arranged internally to assign the response to a particular level so that the sensor module senses the test strip resulting in a value within a pre-set tolerance band.

For example, if the amount of infrared radiation received by the infrared collector forming portion of a blank and five grade sensor pens is 96, 80, 63, 49, 38 and 21 on an arbitrary scale, respectively, then the sensor module can be internally programmed to Recognition was made corresponding to one of the following five ranges of response grades: 78-82, 61-65, 47-53, 38-41, 16-25. Note that these ranges are spaced from each other so that there is no overlap. The amount of spacing between these ranges can be suitably chosen according to the degree of complexity built into the sensor module on the one hand and the degree of variability of the printed material due to the particular printing process employed on the other hand. The higher the electronic complexity built into the pen the closer the response bands can be to each other, thereby reducing the likelihood that the sensor parameters will fall into the gap and cause "unrecognizable" levels when using the pen. If this occurs, the sensor component can be configured to prompt the user to "try again", as variations can occur within the printed zone, for example due to the exact angle at which the sensor component is held relative to the printed material, controlled by the user. measured changes. Reapplying the sensor component will very frequently result in a response that can be assigned to one of the levels involved. It is also possible to program the part to detect whether the number of such "try again" prompts or the proximity in time has crossed a certain level, and if so, prompt the user to recalibrate the sensor module, for example, by sequentially switching the sensor part as previously described. Put it on a set of printed sheets.

As noted above, it is also possible (and indeed preferred) to have the sensor module self-calibrate as the sensor unit is used on successive prints. This is especially important if the module is set up to discriminate between several different classes of a given property and each print is expected to have properties that correspond exactly to these classes. If the sensor module finds that the detected response for a series of prints is consistently above or below the ideal target response, the measured baseline may be internally offset by electronics within the sensor module to most closely match the theoretically expected response.

More generally, self-calibration or recalibration can compensate for some changes that affect the performance of the sensor components. Variations in the printing of the material the sensor component is designed to interact with were mentioned earlier, but they are not the only variations. The operating characteristics of the sensor head itself are among other noteworthy variations. The preferred sensor head used is a semiconductor based assembly, although variations can be made relatively small using modern manufacturing techniques, the variations are unavoidable, and being able to compensate for them also results in the use of relatively cheap components; performance tolerances of semiconductor assemblies The stricter they are the more expensive they are. Another variable is the distance from the sensor head to the surface of the printed material when sensing occurs. This will depend on the exact geometry of the sensor head and surrounding components. Also, if these requirements are only made within reasonable tolerances, the price of the sensor head assembly can be kept low. Finally, although with modern battery and accumulator technology the power supply characteristics vary very little with remaining stored electrical energy, e.g. power source weakening, there is inevitably a slight change in performance that is only approaching a depleted battery or accumulator. Big change.

With appropriate programming of the electronic circuitry within the sensor module, the component can also detect when self-calibration has to be done voluntarily by the user, e.g. The component prompts the user, for example, to replace the battery while maintaining satisfactory operation.

As indicated above, the device of the present invention essentially comprises printed material and sensor components. When a sensor module in the sensor component senses a certain property of an area of the printed material, there needs to be a detectable (though not always immediate) response.

In order to produce a detectable response that actually senses, the sensor component can be constructed to give an indication to do so each time it is used to sense a property of an area of the printed material. Applying the sensor component to the printed material preferably results in the activation of a switch which triggers the sensing step and this also triggers a visible signal such as a flash from a light emitting diode which is part of the sensor component or an audible signal such as a beep Or "click" sound. The latter approach is particularly useful in the case of configuring a device according to the invention as a pre-printed test sheet and associated marker sensor. The user may be required to take the entire quiz, such as selecting from a set of possible answers to each question what the user thinks is the correct answer, and the quiz score is not displayed until all questions are answered. In order to give the user feedback of the fact that a specific answer has been selected, an audible beep can be made each time the sensor device is pressed on the printed answer selection area, or a "click" sound can be made by pressing the sensor device in the tip. Feedback is included with a "click" switch that gives over-focused mechanical force feedback and an audible mechanical "click".

This automatic indication of the presence of sensing can be seen as a simple automatic output provided by the sensor assembly when in use. However, the sensor component may include other output components, with the specific output depending on the properties printed in the area for sensing. Thus, in the case of simple entertainment or early learning games of the type e.g. described in WO-A-83/02842, the output may take the form of an audible output and/or a visible output, with the above-mentioned facial expression effect being For example, a mouth pulled down if the wrong answer is selected and a smiling mouth if the correct answer is selected. This can be accompanied by an audio output and if desired the output can be in the form of a voice which is coordinated with a change in the shape of the mouth of the on-screen display representing the face, whereby the sensor component appears to be speaking to actually display Some kind of programmed intelligence. This is especially the case if the sensor module is configured to store data from previous sensing activity and then generate an output based not only on the most recently sensed area of printed material but also on previous actions of the user.

A third type of output can be seen as more complex and is of great value for a device according to the invention for use in multiple-choice quizzes where it is possible to establish only certain The output is displayed as a score on the display screen in one form. The display screen can also display other information, either alphanumerically or with appropriate icons.

In this regard, this is particularly valuable in the case of multiple-answer review or quiz papers in which the user must select a promising correct answer to give a numerical indication of the next question to be answered. This prevents the user from becoming confused and especially prevents the user from answering the same question twice or missing an answer.

It should be noted that in the case of quizzes or review papers with multiple choice answers, the degree of discrimination required by the sensor components may be relatively small. In fact, sometimes it is quite satisfactory simply to use a sensor component that discriminates only two classes of properties, but, for example, it is clearly advantageous to use five classes of properties and discriminate them, since this produces Self-store review books or test papers that don't have to be reprogrammed before starting a quiz or review practice.

For example, if the questionnaire included 20 questions each with multiple possible answers one of which was the correct answer, correct answer sheets could be printed with several different levels of, for example, infrared reflection, each correct sheet indicating that the part gave the correct answer , incorrect answers either all with prints that give responses to the same program or (preferably) with one of two levels where each question alternates the prints corresponding to the wrong answers at one of these two levels. This can be picked up by the internal logic of the microprocessor within the sensor device and assuming a set of questions is answered correctly, the microprocessor can then decode from that particular set of questions the number of questions on the roll and eg how much time it should take to answer all the questions target time. This can be done mathematically quite conveniently using non-repeating four-level sequences, for example 32 variables in length. If the sensor unit cannot sense the detected grade sequence because the user is not fully prepared, then a message that it is best to go back and do some review work before the next exam can be displayed or audibly given.

Due to the complexity of decoding what is not partly visible in any way, the user cannot conveniently determine the sequence of values of the latent code contained in the printed sheet, so that a properly programmed sensor component is used in reviewing exam papers or reviewing When used together with exam papers and textbooks, it will appear to display obvious intelligence.

As previously indicated, under the detection of certain input conditions, the sensor unit of the present invention may comprise a further output unit in the form of an illumination device adapted to illuminate the detector head adjacent to the sensor unit when the input is detected. Area. In particular, in an interesting and intriguing development according to the invention, the printed material comprises intelligible material printed adjacent to a plurality of answer sheets, which material is printed with an ink that is not visible under normal lighting, but when used It becomes visible when illuminated by near-ultraviolet light, and wherein the sensor component contains a near-ultraviolet emitting illuminating component. In this way, for example, when a successful answer is selected, the illuminated part of the sensor part is activated so that a user viewing the printed material magically sees the new inscription appear. Alternatively, the less visible markings can become particularly noticeable if illuminated, for example with red or green light.

Another possibility for the sensor component output is an audible output, specifically the sensor component is constructed to provide audio generation, which can provide musical output. In a simple embodiment, each level may correspond to each beat, so that a tune can be recorded on paper as a series of prints and reproduced by bringing the sensor unit into contact with each print in sequence. Alternatively, the tune could take the form of a printed strip, where the properties of the strip vary along its length, and then a sensor is moved along the strip, sensing the properties of the printed strip as it progresses and playing and the Print the corresponding tune. This can be very interesting because the speed at which the tune is played can thus be changed by the user. As far as audio output is concerned, the sensor component output can be relatively uncomplicated such as simply generating a musical beat of fairly neutral timbre, or of course it can be much more complex such as producing a beat at a given pitch but with a timbre corresponding to a piano , harpsichord, guitar, trumpet, tuba or whatever. In any such sensor unit, suitable means may be provided to select from a number of different "instruments", for example arranged so that the sensor unit is first moved in a mode of instrument selection using information encoded in the print sequence obtained by a sequential query , after which the part emits an audible tone (with the sound of the selected instrument) to indicate that it is ready to play.

This is of particular interest when utilizing the sensor element of the invention the property measured by the sensor element is arranged to correspond to pitch and this correspondence is substantially continuous. Sliding the sensor component along a pre-printed path produces a recognizable tune, while placing the sensor component on other areas, such as other substrates such as fabric or printed surfaces, produces a corresponding and interesting response.

As far as the general shape of the sensor part is concerned, it can vary very widely, but is usually most convenient in the form of some form of elongated body, often called a "sensor pen" or "stick", e.g. as quoted above as indicated in the published specification. Such an elongated pen may include an appropriate power source, typically one or more batteries housed in appropriate compartments, some form of switch and some form of sensor at one end. For example, it may take the form of an optoelectronic component adapted to emit a radiation sequence (for example infrared radiation) when energized accompanied by radiation adapted to measure the amount of radiation reflected from a printed material on which the sensor component's endpoints are placed. Detect parts. As noted earlier, this terminal typically includes some form of pressure switch to trigger the radiation train and sense the amount of reflection.

The sensor assembly also includes some type of processing electronics. This can vary from simple preprogrammed fixed program logic chips to complex reprogrammable microprocessor chips or reconfigurable ASICs. In the latter case, reprogramming or reconfiguration can be achieved by any convenient means, for example, direct electrical connection of inputs, inductive loop connections such as coded infrared inputs used in "wireless" connections between computer peripherals and a central PC / output unit or eg upload/download data between PC and PDA. The last is particularly preferred because it not only enables the sensor unit to interact with a PDA or PC but also utilizes a microchip that allows infrared communication eg attached to a page of a book or embedded in a card cover of a book. If only a small amount of data needs to be reprogrammed or reconfigured, this can even be provided using a printed strip or strip of printed material along which the sensor components are scanned to "read" the data and change the behavior of the sensor module.

Employing a programmable microprocessor chip or ASIC also allows the sensor component to pay much more attention to timing, such as the successive actuation of proximity switches suitable for triggering property measurements and/or the length of time to achieve such actuation (which can tell the sensor component its Whether the sensor head is moving on the variable properties of the printed material).

Another possible input to such a microprocessor is the angle of the held sensor component to the printed material, which can be detected with an appropriate design of the proximity switch adjacent the sensor head.

The various techniques described above for increasing the complexity of sensor components lead to the production of interactive sensor component/printed material combinations that interact in complex, user-incomprehensible ways, and that are highly complex educational and entertainment materials , especially the material in which the interaction mode between a certain page or sheet of material and the sensor component is different from that of different sheets or pages of the same printed material, providing the possibility. In one sense, it is as if the sensor component picks up intelligence from the printed page or sheet and uses that intelligence to modify its own behavior in ways that are not immediately clear to the user, but which correspond to intelligible information on each printed roll or page. The fact that the content of the content does mean something to the user, because the content can be observed and interpreted. What can be observed and interpreted can be words, images, or a combination of both, and the interaction between perceived and intelligible content on printed materials, imperceptible interactions between sensor components and printed pages, and interactions between users and displays. Intelligible interaction between the resulting images The three modes of interaction offer a richness of modes of operation that cannot be achieved with the various prior art techniques described in the specification cited above, or at least can only be achieved at very great expense. Also, of course, depending on the sophistication of the programming and with the so-called computing games that have appeared in the last few years, the education and entertainment markets have become very accustomed to the ingenuity and complexity reflected in the products currently offered in this field. Learning and learning using the medium of a computer with a display screen or monitor of a standard type and some type of input/output means such as a keyboard, joystick, mouse or a dedicated operating unit such as that sold under the trademark PLAY STATION(R). The gaming experience is highly satisfying, but obviously this requires the use of complex and thus expensive equipment and often a stationary device such as a PC that plugs into a regular power line in a domestic environment. The cost of a corresponding recordable device such as a laptop computer is very high, even if the actual price of a smaller handheld device such as a palmtop or a PDA programmed with appropriate game software is still expensive. On the contrary, by utilizing the techniques described in accordance with the present invention, the cost of the sensor components can be kept low and the cost of printed materials is likewise low especially if no special printing inks such as conductive fluorescent inks are required.

Another degree of ingenuity can be built into the component according to the invention if the programming in the sensor unit takes into account the sequence of the sensed fields as well as the variation over time. This means that there are various results if the sensor part can be physically moved differently relative to the printed material. In this way, the sensor component can be in contact and then disengaged from each specific area of the printed material as an independent sensing sequence, or, for example, the component can be placed on the material and then slid along its The signal from the sensor head varies as the printing beneath and seen by the part changes.

Combined with appropriate programming, this can be used to provide a variety of "special effects" that appear magically "intelligent" and this can lead to countless ways of designing entertainment or educational material.

Description of drawings

The invention is explained by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing, which shows in schematic form two basic types of sensor components according to the invention.

In the accompanying drawings, Figures 1 to 4 show a sensor assembly configured for use with a children's activity book, Figure 5 shows some of the ways in which instructions are represented in such a book, and Figures 6 to 14 show a sensor unit configured for use with a children's activity book. An example of a sensor pen used with printed materials for review aids or tests, an example of the pen is shown in FIG. 15, and FIGS. 14 to 17 are detailed examples of the structure of the operating end of the sensor pen.

More specifically:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a sensor unit for use in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view of the sensor unit and end cap of FIG. 1 .

Figure 3 is a view of the sensor unit of Figure 1 with the end cap added.

Figure 4 shows how the sensor unit of Figure 1 may be held in use.

Figure 5 is an illustration of a set of illustrations that may be printed on the pages of the activity book.

Figure 6 illustrates different ways in which the sensor unit of Figures 1 to 4 can be used with different printed materials.

Figures 7 to 10 illustrate four alternative sensor unit designs for use with quiz papers or review aids.

Figure 11 shows how the end cap of the sensor pen unit may be fitted.

Figure 12 shows a review aid sensor pen for use with printed material.

Figure 13 shows how a pair of hands holds the pen.

Figure 14 shows the pen in use on an enlarged scale.

Figure 15 shows the type of display that any of the sensor pens of Figures 7 to 14 may contain.

Figure 16 is a schematic diagram of the first part of the review paper.

FIG. 17 is a partially exploded view of the sensor pen shown in FIG. 11 .

Figure 18 is an exploded view of the sensor tip structure.

Figure 19 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a tip structure, and

Figure 20 shows how the pointed structure works when placed on printed material.

Detailed ways

Referring initially to Figures 1 to 4 of the drawings, it can be seen that the sensor unit shown therein is configured in the form of a generally circular human figure with a predominantly face 2 . The face is actually formed by an LCD screen mounted under the bezel 3 .

As can be seen from Figure 1, the face is novel and includes two pairs of eyes, two nostrils and a smiling mouth. At the lower end of the body is a ring 5 onto which a cap 6 is press fit. Appropriate sensors, such as combined infrared emitting LEDs and infrared receiving semiconductor detectors, are installed within the ring 5 . The cap 6 is configured to look like two feet when placed on the body. The cap can be fastened by the strap 7 so that it cannot be lost.

The interior of the sensor unit houses appropriate power supplies, electronic circuit assemblies and other components, the detailed working structure of which can vary widely. The electronic circuit can be programmed, for example, to ensure that the expression of the face on the screen 2 can be changed to express disappointment, for example as shown in FIG. The display area marked with 8 representing the mouth on 2 is now downwards.

When the part is to be used, the cap 6 is disengaged from the tip and the detection of incoming light can be mounted very simply to return to the display shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 .

In use the unit can be grasped with the user's hand as shown in Figure 4 and the character then "stands" on top of the printed area, eg a children's activity book.

Various interactions can be envisioned depending on the sensitivity of the sensor unit and the printing of the book. As a very simple example, the book could be a simple multiple answer identification book, for example showing a picture of an animal with four names printed underneath, only one of which corresponds to the animal depicted. There may be a printed sheet next to each name, and the user tries to determine the correct name printed, ie reads it. If the name is correct, the face can continue to smile, and at the same time as shown in Figure 4 a smiling face can be projected onto the surrounding paper from the masked LEDs placed in the body of the sensor unit. This is shown at 12 in FIG. 4 . If a wrong answer is selected, the projected face may not appear and the expression on the screen 2 may be changed appropriately. Varying and interesting interactions can be provided by using different prints and sensor components that can discriminate several different responses from each print. For example, in a more complex self-study system there may be a single question with eg ten answers and corresponding printed sheets. Of course, one or possibly two correct answers cause the screen to display 2 a smile and the image 12 to appear. The next set of ten answers may be approached, which would result in a curious or confused look on the face of screen 2, other answers may be the ones that lead to the complete error shown in Figure 3, and one of the answers may represent a complete "big mistake" "This resulted in an open mouth on screen 2 instead of a closed mouth. At the same time, the sensor unit can be set to emit an appropriate noise, or indeed words of congratulations, sympathy or encouragement if the unit contains a speech synthesis chip.

FIG. 5 shows some typical ways in which illustrations may be published on printed pages of an activity book for use with the sensor components shown in FIGS. 1-4. The illustration in this particular example is an copperplate print 14 showing a dog, either in black and white or more generally in colour. In order to focus the user's attention on where to place and press the components of Figures 1 to 4 to achieve the desired effect, the illustration has several printed "buttons" that may appear on the illustration itself as at 15 or appear on one side as indicated by 16.

FIG. 5 is just one example of the type of utilization page, and very many other types of utilization page can be conceived. As pointed out earlier, the flexible page for example provides the path along which the pen should slide to produce the appropriate effect, or it may for example have a series of mixed numbers which need to be touched in turn with the tip of the sensor unit in order to produce the desired effect, Another type of illustration included in a workbook may be a hidden pattern, such as alternating degrees of absorption of the infrared spectrum superimposed on the illustration. The user can get a reaction from the illustration by placing the tip of the sensor unit on the illustration and sliding the pen back and forth in an oscillating sawtooth or stroking motion. This can be used, for example, to generate an appropriate speech from an illustrated storybook or a greeting from a drawn character, or to generate a caricature of a character shown on a display screen. Another possibility is a printed illustration sheet with pairs of items shown in left and right columns on either side of the central dividing line. The instructions may require the user to place the tip of the sensor unit on an item in the left column and then slide the tip of the unit on the paper and across the center line to "pair" in the right column. This can be done using illustrations or printed words.

Fig. 6 schematically illustrates how a sensor unit may be used over a period of time. Six types of games are marked on the left edge of each of the six illustrations constituting FIG. 6 and described as point, trace, join, dash, jump, and slide type interactions, respectively. A black dot on the end of the line indicates when the end point of the sensor unit is placed on the paper (where the line extending from the point is to the right instead of the left, or off the paper where the line extending from the point is to the left instead of the right) . Thus for point and jump type games, the sensor units successively come into contact with the printed pages and then move. An indication is made each time a property level is sensed by the unit, for example Figure 6 shows seven different levels. As can be seen, not all games of these types require the use of all levels.

In the pair-picking exercise described above, Figure 6 shows "joint" mode operation in the third paragraph, where, for example, the infrared absorption of the centerline in the middle of the page is assigned a rating of 100 and the figure shows On something with a sense value of 20 in the left column then cross the centerline with a sense value of 100 and then successfully pick the correct collocation point which similarly gives a sense level of 20. A particular advantage of this particular type is that it is exceptionally tolerant to typographical variations. All that is required to program the pen to operate successfully is to make it properly reflect, for example, display green when the pen touches an ink tablet whose sensed property has the same value as the ink tablet it was originally placed on. light or beeps in victory or says "well done". The absolute value of the properties is not important, but it is only necessary to ensure that the properties of the individual printed images in the same, the background paper itself and the central dividing line are different from each other.

Other methods of manipulating inputs to provide different outputs are envisioned, and those in Figure 6 are not exclusive.

Turning now to Figures 7 to 15, there are shown various sensor pen unit variants configured as revision aids for students.

Figures 7 to 10 show four possible body designs for the pen, each comprising an elongated housing with the sensor tip 21 at one end and the LCD display screen 22 near the other end. In addition, the unit has two buttons 23 , 24 , one positioned adjacent to the screen 22 and the other closer to the tip 21 . The end cap 25 can be press fit onto the end of the unit and is easily pulled off the actual sensor as shown in FIGS. Complementary recess 26 on the side generally opposite to screen 22.

Such a pen is shown in Figure 2 for use with printed material 29, which may for example take the form of a review book, each page of which reproduces a number of questions, each with a printed possible answer adjacent to it. Several sheets of printed material. An example of what a page of such a book looks like on the front is shown in Figure 16, which shows four questions numbered 1 to 4. Each question in turn is surrounded by a printed rectangle. Below each printed question is the outline of a set of four ovals, each oval containing a possible printed answer and having a colored print 32 at its left end on which the sensor tip 21 can rest . The individual patches 32 may be different in color and also eg in infrared reflection, to enable the sensor assembly to distinguish whether the user has placed the sensor tip on a "wrong" answer or a "correct" answer.

As can be seen from Figures 13a and 13b, the housing 20 is configured to be conveniently held by hand as shown in Figure 13a or by the right hand as shown in Figure 13b. In both cases, the button 24 can be operated with the thumb and the button itself can act as a switch, eg then causing the pen to sense the nature of the sheet of printed material it is occupying at the moment. This is useful in review situations where the student has control over the recording of each answer, i.e. the recording does not happen automatically and possibly inadvertently; instead, the learned answer is only recorded when the user thumb presses the button 24 .

As can be seen from FIGS. 12 to 14, the liquid crystal display screen 22 is configured with several icons. Figure 15 shows these icons more clearly (and possibly as a complete set of contrast regions). As can be seen from this figure, the two buttons 23 and 24 are designated as the mode button and the start button respectively, and that pressing the start button for the first time (after powering up the part) can be used to start the clock running, for example on the first display of the display. Instructions on line.

The printed page of book 29 may include, for example, a "quiz over" area in the lower right corner which causes the sensor pen to display a percentile score on the first line when the pen is placed over the printed area and button 24 is pressed.

The next row of the display shown in Figure 15 includes four areas which can be selectively actuated to show a "cross" if a wrong answer is indicated and a "tick" if a correct answer is indicated. This may eg be the only active part of the display (besides the learning mode icon and the appropriate button) if the sensor unit is used in learning mode. Thus, in study mode rather than review or quiz mode, the learner can select a possible answer, put the pen over it, press a button and immediately learn whether the correct or incorrect answer was selected.

As shown in FIG. 14, the pen may be provided with a projecting element which projects a cone of illumination onto the area marked 31 in FIG. If the illuminated light is ultraviolet light from a suitable LED and if the illuminated area 31 on the printed page of the book contains a legend printed with fluorescent (but usually invisible) ink, the UV ink fluoresces when the button 24 is pressed so that the user Supplementary intelligible messages may be seen.

Figures 17 to 20 show structural details of the unit, and in particular the overall housing 20 has at one end a round hole 33 in which the switchable head 32 is housed. FIG. 17 shows the various components of the head 32 and one end of the printed circuit board 35 with the main electronic circuitry for analyzing the sensing results and driving the liquid crystal display 22 . As shown in Figure 17, the sensor head 32 includes an outer metal shell 36, a metal cylindrical inner sleeve with four arches 38 extending from one end thereof, a ring 39 with a part spherical surface, with an outward Flared frustoconical end 45 and mounting tube 42 for an optoelectronic device 42 such as a semiconductor emitter/receiver component. Four connection leads 41 extend from the device 42 and these leads connect to appropriate traces on the printed circuit board 35 when the piece is assembled together. Flared frustoconical end 45 surrounds the polished emitting and receiving surfaces of device 42 with leads 41 and, together with web set 38, functions to captive part-spherical annulus 39 . It can also be seen from FIG. 19 that in the shown position, the arch 38 does not contact the lower edge of the metal shell 36 , especially when the arch 38 faces the gap 34 of the lower circumference of the shell 36 .

When the tip of the sensor pen approaches the surface of a printed book or test paper marked with 50 in FIG. Perpendicular to the surface 50 of the printed material, the ring 39 lies flat against the surface 50 of the printed material. This also acts to keep stray light out, thereby helping the optoelectronic device 42 to accurately sense the properties of the printed image beneath it. This is the position shown on the right side of FIG. 20 . The actual sensing is triggered by pressing the sensor pen further down against the surface of the printed material causing the flaps 38 to open and bring the lower end of the metal shell 36 into contact with the ring 39 . At the same time, the tube 40 moves downward and the end 45 is no longer in contact with the ring 39 as the ring 39 is held in place by the paper 50 . This causes contact between members 36 and 39 and breaks contact between members 39 and 45, thereby triggering the electronic circuitry mounted on printed circuit board 35 to activate optoelectronic device 42 to irradiate this area 50 of the printed material with infrared light, causing The amount of infrared light emitted and absorbed therefrom can be estimated. This trigger is released once the sensor pen leaves the paper 50 .

By operating the mode button 23 a learning mode can be entered by the electronic circuit, for example enabling it to receive complex reprogramming through the optoelectronic device 42 which now acts as a receiving sensor for the encoded infrared signal. Various means are known for sending encoded infrared signals, it is especially possible to use PCs, palmtops or laptops, suitably equipped with infrared emitting technology and with appropriate programming as source of such encoded infrared signal streams.

It is clear from the above detailed description and the preceding general description that, through careful design, a wide variety of sensor units can be developed in conjunction with a wide variety of printed materials to produce an interactive system according to the invention. At least the printed material itself, most preferably producing it by printing in a four-color process and the basic method of distinguishing the various non-visible areas is to use different grades of IR absorbing "black" materials in the inks, as in the prior art description cited above as described. However, different printing methods can be used if desired.

As explained above in the description with reference to the accompanying drawings, the parameter of the printed material to be tested may be more than simply the level of infrared absorption. For example, by employing a more complex photoelectric head, the visible color of the print can be estimated from this component, and can also act as a discriminative factor, either by itself or with less visible differences such as variable IR absorbing "black" components system in combination.

Claims (32)

1. A combination of an interactive printed material and a sensor component comprising the printed material with information incomprehensible to a viewer printed applied to a substrate, wherein the sensor component is adapted to sense a property of the printed material and Discriminating each printed area thereon, the sensor unit comprising a display screen and means adapted to display on the screen a set of stylized faces showing different states to a viewer, and wherein the sensor unit is configured for use in a manner resembling an animal or The shape of a person, with the screen positioned to correspond to the location of the face, and wherein the sensor component includes sensor heads located at the endpoints of the person or animal shape. 2. A combination according to claim 1, wherein the printing on the substrate contains information discernible by the amount of infrared absorbing material in the ink used to effectuate the printing. 3. The combination according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the means for displaying artistic faces is configured to display screen areas representing eyes, nose and mouth, these screen areas representing at least eyes and mouth can display different styles to reflect different moods. 4. A combination according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the sensor component has a housing configured in the shape of an elongated artistic human or animal, and wherein the housing includes a sensor head with a sensor head adjacent one end thereof sensor module. 5. The combination according to claim 4, wherein adjacent the sensor head is a pressure-operated opening, the switch being adapted to Sensing of a property of the printed material is triggered. 6. A combination according to any one of claims 1 to 5, comprising a sound generating circuit and a sound transducer. 7. A combination according to claim 6, wherein the circuit is adapted to provide an intelligible speech output. 8. A combination according to claim 7, wherein the sensor means includes means for changing at least the appearance of the mouth on the screen corresponding to and synchronized with the speech output. 9. A combination according to any one of claims 1 to 8, including within the sensor element means for illuminating an area of printed material adjacent to the location where the sensor element is pressed against the printed material. 10. A combination according to claim 9, wherein the means for illuminating is activated in response to a specific value of a property of the printed material sensed by the sensor unit and in accordance with preset conditions inside the sensor unit. 11. A combination according to any one of claims 1 to 10, comprising within the sensor element means for sensing the value of at least two properties of an area of printed material against which the sensor element is pressed. 12. A combination according to claim 11, wherein the sensor means comprises a sensor module adapted to produce an output which varies in response to a sensed combination of two or more properties of the printed material. 13. A combination according to claim 11 or 12, wherein the property sensed is the infrared absorption of the printed material and its colour. 14. A combination according to any one of claims 1 to 13, wherein the sensor component comprises means within the sensor module comprising a microprocessor or ASIC adapted to store and store information on the printed material data relating to a series of sensing operations performed on it and adapted to generate an output based on said data and the sensed property or properties of the printed material. 15. An interactive printed material and sensor component combination comprising printed material with printed information applied to a substrate that cannot be understood by a human viewer, wherein the sensor component is adapted to sense a property of the printed material and to discriminate each printed zone thereon, wherein the sensor component is configured to distinguish each zone under at least five categories by measuring a property of the printed material, and to provide a human intelligible output that varies according to the measured property and/or series of measurements . 16. A combination according to claim 15, wherein the printed material is configured as a multiple choice question/answer roll with a set of readable questions, each question having a set of questions associated with it at respective spaced cooperating positions. The printed answers, and wherein the printed answers each include a field printed with printing ink, a property of the field can be sensed by the sensor means. 17. A combination according to claim 15 or 16, wherein the printed material comprises five or more differently printed printed areas corresponding to groups of five or more and five or more categories, to which the sensor can be assigned The property of the area measured by the component, and the sensor component includes means for adjusting the measurement of the property involved after a series of measurements of a set of printed areas. 18. A combination according to any one of claims 15 to 17, wherein the sensor member is in the form of an elongated housing containing the sensor head at one end thereof and a display screen at or near the other end, The screen is positioned so as to be viewed in a direction generally transverse to the longitudinal direction of the housing. 19. The combination according to claim 18, wherein the sensor head is associated with a pressure switch adapted to trigger the sensing of a property of the printed material when an end point of the housing is placed on the substrate surface. 20. A combination according to any one of claims 15 to 19, wherein the sensor means is adapted to sense two or more different properties of the printed material and is adapted to map the region according to The combination of the two or more measures is assigned to one of the categories. 21. A combination according to any one of claims 15 to 20, wherein the human understandable output is in the form of an intelligible message displayed on a screen forming portion of the sensor unit. 22. A combination according to claim 21, wherein the information is displayed each time the sensor unit takes a property measurement. 23. The combination according to claim 21, wherein the information is displayed only after the user sequentially brings a portion of the sensor assembly close to a sequence of area measurements of properties, the displayed information being derived from the results of the sequence of measurements. 24. The combination according to claim 23, wherein the information is also displayed in terms of the total time taken to complete the series. 25. A combination according to any one of claims 15 to 24, wherein the sensor means comprises memory means enabling storage of a measurement sequence and logic means enabling the generation of a meaningful output as a result of logical analysis of the measurement sequence. 26. A combination according to any one of claims 1 to 25, wherein the sensor means is capable of distinguishing at least 5 levels of a property of the printed material. 27. A combination according to claim 26, wherein the sensor means can discriminate at least ten levels of a property of the printed material or at least 20 combinations of two properties of the printed material. 28. A combination according to claim 26 or 27, wherein the sensor unit is adapted to effect calibration or recalibration to assist in the discrimination of various levels or combinations of properties. 29. A combination according to any one of claims 1 to 28, wherein the sensor component comprises a programmable sensor using data stored in a chip or other device forming part of or attached to the printed material. or reprogrammed sensor modules. 30. The combination according to claim 29, wherein the memory module includes means for decoding an infrared radiation encoded stream corresponding to the stored data. 31. An interactive printed material and sensor device comprising one or more printed materials with a plurality of printed ink flakes and a sensor assembly including a sensor for identifying the properties of the printed ink flakes A sensor module enclosure and an output device capable of producing an audible or visible output based on the interaction between the print and the sensor module, characterized by one or more of the following improved properties: configuring the sensor module to discriminate between at least five and preferably ten different levels of infrared absorption; configuring the sensor module and printed material with the interaction means to self-calibrate the sensor module prior to use with the printed material or during such use; providing means for sensing two or more properties of the printed ink sheet, distinguishing each such sensed response as a discrete signal and combining the responses thus produced, thereby distinguishing a plurality of different states; for example, if the first One property is infrared absorption, the second property can be optical such as color, fluorescence or non-optical such as conductivity; providing within the sensor module memory means capable of at least temporarily maintaining a record of successive states sensed by the sensor module, and altering the future behavior of the sensor module accordingly; Provide a push switch in the sensor assembly and provide in the sensor module to store and analyze data resulting from subsequent switch operations and respond thereto to produce a preselected output - visible or audible - and/or to modify the operation of the sensor module model; providing an output display to the sensor unit in the form of a screen and icon set comprising at least one icon recognizably reflecting an effect, and providing within the sensor module for analyzing a series of successive inputs and correspondingly software that adjusts the perceived effect represented by this screen icon; providing an audio output transducer to the sensor component and programming or configuring the sensor module to drive the transducer to produce an audio output selected from the range possible based on the nature of the area of the printed material in which the sensor component is located, The range may include recognizable words or phrases or recognizable sounds such as cheering, whimpering or laughter; providing means in the sensor unit capable of projecting a color on an area of the printed material adjacent to the area of the sheet against which the sensor head is pressed, for example green for correct answers and red for incorrect answers; Means are provided in the sensor unit for illuminating an area on the printed material adjacent to the area pressed by the sensor head, under such illumination the printed material can visibly reveal to the human eye that it cannot be seen under conventional lighting or One or more printed features that are substantially invisible; configuring the sensor assembly in the form of an elongated body with the sensor tip at one end and a screen adjacent or substantially adjacent the other end, the screen extending along the side of the elongated body and programming the sensor module to display letters based on input received by the sensor Numeric information in which the direction of the row or group of rows of alphanumeric information read from left to right is transverse to the longitudinal axis of the sensor part; The sensor part is configured as a sensor, such as an infrared light emitter/detector member, in an elongated human or animal shape at one end, wherein when the sensor part is not in use, it is covered with a cover configured to represent the human or animal shape of footwear the sensor; Constructing the sensor part as an elongated unit with the sensor at one end with a removable cap to protect the sensor from dust etc., the side of the sensor part with a side of the sensor part shaped and sized to press fit the removable end cap into it and wherein the removable end cap is latched and can be positioned to press fit into the groove or cover the sensor if desired; Provide a preprogrammable microprocessor or configurable ASIC or equivalent components and means connected thereto in the sensor module so that data can be sent and received by the microprocessor or ASIC over a coded infrared link, and wherein the The printed material is associated with a data storage component that can be interrogated with an encoded infrared signal to provide as an output an encoded infrared signal that the sensor module can decode and use to program or reprogram the microprocessor or to configure or Reconfigure the ASIC in it. 32. An educational or entertainment device comprising printed material and a sensor pen or stick designed to be held by a user in contact with the printed material so that the pen or stick senses the movement of the portion of the printed material it contacts. parameter or property, wherein the actual sensing process is triggered by a switching device actuated by contact between the printed material and the pen or wand, and wherein the pen or wand contains output means such as a visual display or an audible output, the display Or the audible output is driven according to rules pre-programmed in the sensor module, characterized in that, in response to the switching of the switching device, the value of the parameter or property sensed by the sensor when the switching device is actuated, the switching device The combination of device switching timing and the sensed value of the parameter or property changing to another value changes the programmed nature of the response to be displayed on the visual display or reflected on the audio output.

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