US3250037A - Automatic eye mechanism - Google Patents

Description

May 10, 1966 A. M. KATZ ETAL AUTOMATIC EYE MECHANISM 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 10, 1964 ay 10, 1966 M. KATZ ETAL 3,250,037

AUTOMATIC EYE MECHANISM Filed Feb. 10, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent 3,250,037 AUTOMATIC EYE MECHANISM Abraham M. Katz, Great Neck, and Helmuth Moormann, Elmont, N.Y., assignors to Ideal Toy Corporation, Hollis, N.Y.

Filed Feb. 10, 1964, Ser. No. 343,601 1 Claim. (Cl. 46-135) The present invention relates generally to dolls and specifically to a mechanism for automatically and periodically closing a dolls eyes.

Recent commercial advances in the doll industry have produced a number of improvements in the design and production of dolls aimed towards providing greater animation and increased realism. Among the advances has been the development of dolls which incorporate internal drive means to move the head of the doll with respect to the body, through a generally conical path, such that the doll, when it is lying down on a substantially horizontal surface, will move in a manner generally simulating the movements of an infant.

It is well known in the doll industry to provide moving eyes whereby the dolls eyes are opened when the doll is in an upright position but which close when the doll is moved 'into a reclining or horizontal position. The general structure of the mechanism providing this animated feature comprises a use of an eyeball which is pivotally mounted on a transverse axis, i.e., an axis parallel to a line drawn from one side of the dolls head to the other side, and which is further provided with a pendulum weight tending to make the eyeball point forwardly when the doll is held upright and point downwardly (with respect to the dolls head) when the head is tilted rearwardly. A reproduction of an eyelid is formed on the surface of the moving eyeball member immediately above the reproduction of the iris, such that when the eyeball tilts downwardly the eyelid moves across the eye socket opening.

To increase the realism of dolls having such closable eyes, it is desirable to provide an internal mechanism which, in addition to the normal closing operation in g response to tilting of the doll head, will open and close the dolls eyes in a manner similar to the opening and closing of a babys eyes as the baby falls asleep. Although a number of proposals have been made to construct various mechanisms for automatically moving a dolls eyes, none have had the attributes of dependability and simplicity necessary to prove successful in commerce.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an internal and automatically operating eye closing mechanism for a doll. Specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide means whereby a dolls eyes may be automatically and intermittently closed in response to the action of a power source within the doll itself.

It is further within the contemplation of the present invention to provide in a doll having means for relative movement between the doll head and the doll body a mechanism, keyed to the doll head movement mechanism, which will automatically close and open the dolls eyes.

It is further one of the objects of the present invention to provide such a mechanism which does not interfere with the normal behavior of the standard pendulum actuated closing eye. It is further an object of the invention to provide such a structure whereby the individual eyes remain separately mounted and are not joined together such that temporary deformations of the dolls head producing relative movement between a pair of eyes, will not harm the activating mechanisms.

In accordance with one illustrative embodiment of the Patented May 10, 1966 present invention there is provided a doll construction comprising a head and a body. The head is appropriately formed with a pair of independent eye sockets and a pair of eye units is mounted within the head in the appropriate sockets. Each of the eye units has an eyeball having an eyelid formed thereon and is pivotally mounted within the eye unit for movement about a horizontal or transverse axis between an open position wherein the iris of the eye faces forwardly of the 'doll and a closed position wherein the iris faces downwardly and the eyelid covers the eye socket opening. A pendulum weight is operatively engaged with each of the eyeballs to maintain the eyeballs in the open position when the doll is in an upright attitude and a closed position when the doll is tilted rearwardly. A cam member is movably mounted within the head and is operatively engaged with contact arms which extend rearwardly from each of the dolls eyeballs. A cam driver is mounted within the head for movement with respect to the cam and is in operative engagement therewith for periodically swinging the cam member thereby to periodically close the dolls eyes. A spring driven motor is connected to the cam driver for moving the same through a cyclical pattern to intermittently open and close the dolls eyes.

The above briefdescription, as well as further objects, features and advantages of the present invention, will be best appreciated by reference to the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments of the invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of approximately the upper half of a doll with portions broken away for the sake of clarity indicating the enviroment in which the present invention may be employed;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the head of the doll illustrated in FIG. 1 illustrating one illustrative embodiment of the present invention and showing the mechanisms with the doll eyes in the opened position;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2 showing the mechanism with the dolls eyes in the closed position;

FIG. 4 is a partial sectional view taken along the line 4-4 of FIG. 2 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line 55 of FIG. 2 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 6 is a perspective and diagrammatical view showing the mechanism of FIG. 5 illustrating same in solid line form as when the eyes are in their opened position and in dotted line as when the eyes are in the closed position;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view similar to FIG. 2 showing a second embodiment of a present invention and illustrating the device with the eyes in the opened position;

FIG. 8 is a view similar to that of FIG. 7 showing the eyes in the closed position;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the mechanism illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8;

FIG. 10 is a partial sectional view of a variation and construction of the device shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 showing the mechanism in the .opened eye position in solid line and the closed eye position in dotted line; and,

FIG. 11 is a sectional view taken along the line 1111 v of FIG. 10 and looking in thedirection of the arrows.

Referring to the drawings, there is shown in FIG. 1, a doll, generally designated by the numeral 10, having a head 12 formed of material such as vinyl simulating an idealized infants head, a soft body 14 which may be conveniently constructed of a stuffed cloth or pillow type construction, and appropriate arms and legs (not shown). The head 12 is mounted on the body 14 at a neck opening 18. The soft body construction permits the head to be moved with respect to the body through a twisting 3 motion and also through a side to side and back to front motion. A neck block 20 is rigidly attached to the head and serves as a bearing block for the head-moving mechanism incorporated within the doll. A mechanism for producing relative movement between the head 12 and the body 14 is incorporated within the doll and is generally designated by the numeral 22. This mechanism is more completely described in US. Patent No. 3,029,- 552 of April 17, 1962, and entitled, Animated Doll. Generally, the mechanism 22 includes a spring motor 24 which is conveniently wound through a knob 26 which extends rearwardly out of the body 14. Extending upwardly from the motor 24 is a drive shaft 28 which has a bend formed therein at 30 and which subsequently extends upwardly through the block 20. Appropriate hearing means 32 are provided within the block and positioning collars 34 are secured to the shaft 28 on either side of the bearing block to maintain axial orientation. It will be appreciated that upon rotation of the shaft 28, the portion of the shaft which is upwardly of the bend 30 will be driven through a conical path. The bearing block 20 through the bear-ing means 32, is compelled to maintain its axis coincident with the axis of the inclined portion of the shaft 28. Thereby, the block 20 is similarly moved through a conical motion and, thereby, the entire doll head 12 is moved through a generally conical motion with respect to the dolls body. Dolls incorporating this construction have been marketed in the last several years and have met with an extremely high order of commercial success.

In the environment of this construction, and in other doll constructions as well, there is incorporated in accordance with the present invention a moving eye mechanism generally designated by the numeral 40. The mechanism 40 includes a pair of eye units 42, 44 each of which has a case or body 46 which is mounted within the respective eye socket portions 48 of the dolls head 12. An eyeball 50, having a forwardly directed iris 52 and a eyelid portion 54, is mounted within the case 46 for movement about a transverse axis by means of the pivot 56. Specitfically, the pivots 56 extend outwardly from both sides of the eyeball 50 and are received within complementary sockets within the case 46, thus creating a transverse axis of rotation for the eyeball 50. By transverse axis, it is meant that the axis about which the eyeball pivots is parallel to a line drawn bet-ween the two ears of the doll. In accordance with well known principles, the eyeball 50 is constructed with a weighted portion below the pivots 56 such that the axis of the iris of the eye-ball generally maintains a horizontal orientation. Therefore, when the doll is tilted rearwardly such that the face looks up, the pendulum effects movement of the eyeball With respect to the head such that the eyelid portion 54 covers the eye socket opening of the doll with the'eyeball 50 moving to a closed or sleeping position.

Extending rearwardly from the eyeball 50 is a contact arm 58 rigidly secured to the lower portion of the eyeball 50 and, in accordance with the present invention, adapted to provide means to pivot the eyeball 50 within the eyeball case 46 to move the eyeball 50 to its closed position irrespective of the attitude of the doll 10. Positioned in operative relationship to the contact arm 58 is a cam member 60 which is pivotally mounted at 62 for relative movement within the dolls head 12 on a cam support bracket 64. The cam support bracket 64 is secured to the neck block 20 by anyconv'enient means such as the screw 66 illustrated in the drawings and extends upwardly from the block 20 to a position beneath and intermediate the respective eye sockets 48. The cam 60, in the illustrative embodiment shown in FIGS. 2 through 6, comprises a bent Wire element having a pair of forwardly extending arms 68, which terminate at the pivot point 62. An inwardly directed pivot portion 70, at a right angle to the legs 68, is engaged within an appropriate pivot opening at the cam support bracket 64 there- 4 by to form the pivot point 62. At the other end of the arms 68, the wire is bent to form a pair of flats 72 which are positioned below and are effective to engage the contact arms 58 as will be described below. The wire material of the cam member 60 is further bent to form a pair of inclined cam legs 74 providing appropriate cam surfaces. As may be best seen by comparing FIGS. 2 and 3, the cam member 60 is pivotable about the pivot point 62 from its inactive position as shown in FIG. 2 to an active position wherein it is raised upwardly about the pivot 62, in engagement with the contact arms 58,

. to pivot the eyeballs 50 for motion about the pivots 56 to move same to the closed positions. As may be seen in FIG. 6, a stop 76 is formed on the rear portion of one of the arms 68 and engages the body of the bracket 64 to prevent downward movement of the cam member 60 below the position illustrated in FIG. 2.

Movement of the cam member 60 from its inactive position to its active position to cause closing of the eyes 42, 44 is accomplished by means of a cam driver, generally designated by the numeral 78, which is mounted within the head 12 and is formed on an operative extension 28a of the shaft 28. The cam driver 78 includes a radial extending cam engagement arm 80 which is rigidly secured to the shaft extension 28a by means of the fitting 82 such that the cam extension arm 80 sweeps out a generally circular path with each rotation of the shaft extension 28a. The relative movement of the cam driver 78 with respect to the cam member 60 and the eye units 42, 44 may be best appreciated by inspecting FIGS. 4, 5 and 6. It will be seen that as the shaft extension 28 rotates, the cam engagement arm 80 moves into engagement with the lower surface of the first of the cam legs 74 of the cam member 60. As rotation of the cam driver 78 continues, the cam member 60 will be cammed upwardly about the pivot point 62 such that the flats 72 of the cam member 60 move the contact arms 58 of the eyeballs upwardly. This upward movement of the contact arms 58 causes a pivotal motion of the eyeballs 50 about their pivot points 56 to tilt the eyeballs 50 within the eye unit cases 46 thereby to move the eyes from their opened to their closed positions. Further continued rotation of the shaft extension 28 moves the cam engagement arm 80 to the second of the two engagement legs and allows the cam member 60 to move downwardly toward its inactive position and, accordingly, allows the eyes to return to their opened position. Still further continued rotation of the shaft extension 28 moves the cam engagement arm through the inactive portion of its cycle completely out of engagement with any portion of the mechanism 40 and thus producing no effect on the normal-functions of the pendulum eyes 42, 44.

The foregoing description of the first illustrative embodiment in accordance with the present invention will be best understood by considering the following description of a typical sequence of operations of the device as incorporated within a doll. The mechanism in the doll is started by winding the motor 24 through the knob 26. The doll 10 may be placed on its side, or in any other position. Due to the rotation of the shaft 28 in the bearing 32, the head 12 of the doll moves with respect to the doll body 14. At the same time, the shaft extension rotates about its own axis to move the cam driver means 78 in order to activate the moving eye mechanism 40. Normally, if the typical pendulum eye doll is not tilted straight back to a horizontal position, the eyes remain open. However, in accordance with the present invention, the dolls eyes periodically close due to the action of the eye mechanism 40. As driven by the shaft 28, the cam driver 78 rotates about the axis of the shaft extension- 28 and the cam engagement arm sweeps out a circular path within the doll head 12. At a given point in its rotational movement, the arm 80 contacts the inclined cam surface of the cam member 60 as illustrated in FIGS. 4, 5 and 6. Continued rotation of the cam driver 78 causes the cam 60 to move upwardly about the pivot 62 and to push the contact arms 58 of the respective eye unit 42, 44 upwardly. The upward movement of the contact arms 58 causes a rotation of the eyeballs 50 about their transverse pivots 56 to move the eyes from the opened position shown in FIG. 2 to the closed position illustrated in FIG. 3. Still further rotation of the cam driver 78 moves the cam engagement arm 80 into contact with the second portion of the cam surface of the cam member 60 to allow the cam member 60 to return to its inactive position and thereby to allow the dolls eyes to return to their open position. The continuously acting motor 24 further rotates the shaft 28 and its extension 28a and moves the cam driver 78 through the rest of its rotational movement during which there is no activation of the eye operating mechanism 40. When the full 360 rotation has been completed, the cam engagement arm 80 once again is in the position shown in FIGS. 4, 5 and 6 and the operations as described above are repeated.

Reference is now made to FIGS. 7, 8 and 9 which illustrate a further embodiment of the present invention. Since the structures in the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 7, 8 and 9 are quite similar to those described above, similar numbers in the 100 series will be used to designate the similar members. Furthermore, the following description of the mechanism of this embodiment will be restricted only to those portions which are different from the mechanisms employed in the doll 10, it being understood that a more complete description of the entire mechanism may be obtained by referring back to the description of FIGS. 1 through 6 above.

In FIGS. 7, 8 and 9, the doll 110 and the doll head 112 is supplied with a rotating shaft 128a which extends upwardly from its neck portion and through the neck block 120. The eyes 142 and 144 are mounted within the appropriate eye socket and have extending rearwardly from their respective eyeballs 150 contact arms 158. As best seen in a perspective view of FIG. 9, the contact arms 158 are rigidly connected, through a pair of pins 184, to a cammember 186. The cam member 186 is formed, in this embodiment, in flat sheet form and has a first cam edge or surface 188 and a second cam edge or surface 190 which is at an angle to the first cam surface. A weighted extension 122 is formed on the cam member 186 which, in combination with the rest of the cam member 186, forms the pendulum weight for the eyeballs 150 of the respective eye units 142, 144. It will be appreciated that, depending upon the attitude of the doll head 112, the eyes of the doll will be either in their forwardly facing opened position or their downwardly facing closed position under the control of the effective pendulum produced by the weight imbalance of the eyeballs 150. The cam driver mechanism 178, including the camcontacting arm 180 is secured to the shaft extension 128a by the fitting 1'82 and rotates therewith about the axis of the shaft extension 128a. As the cam driver 78 rotates, the cam engagement arm 180 comes into contact with the first cam surface 188 and cams the member 186 upwardly to tilt the eyeballs 150 about their transverse pivot pins 156 from their opened position to their closed position. After the cam contacting arm 180 has passed the intersection point of the cam surfaces 188, 190, the cam member 186 is allowed to move downwardly into the position as shown in FIG. 7 and the eyeballs 150 are allowed to return to the opened position. Continued rotation of the cam driver 178 swings the cam contacting arm 180 completely out of engagement with the remainder of the eye moving mechanism 140 and through an inactive stage of the repetitive eye closing motion. When a 360 cycle of rotation of the shaft 128a has been completed, the cam engagement arm 180 again contacts the cam member 186 to move same upwardly for a repeat of the eye closing movement. It will be appreciated that the eye closing mechanism 140 described herein is basically similar to the mechanism 40 illustrated in FIGS. 1 through 6. However, in the latter embodiment, the eyeballs 150 are directly connected together, through the cam member 186 and that rigid unit of the two eyeballs 150 and the cam member 186 rotate as a single assembly about the transverse pivot 156. Accordingly, the cam support bracket 64, employed in the dolls head 12 is unnecessary in the dolls head 112.

Reference will be now be made to FIGS. 10 and 11 which show a slightly different form of the cam member employed in the doll 12. In FIGS. 10 and 11, the various members are denoted by the identical numerals which appear in FIGS. 1 through 7 and only the cam member, designated by the numeral 260, and its associated components, are shown with difierent numbers. FIGS. 10 and 11 illustrate that a sheet metal form of the cam member may be employed in the doll 10 and further illustrate a positive acting mechanism by which the dolls eyes are not only closed by action of the automatic eye movement mechanism but are also positively opened by operation of that mechanism. Specifically, a cam member 260 is pivotally mounted on the cam support bracket 64 for pivotal motion about the pivot point 62 in response to the action of a cam driver 78. The cam member 260 has one or more rearwardly extending mounting arms 268 which are engaged within an appropriate pivot connection, at 62, on the cam support bracket 64. The body of the cam member 260 is generally perpendicular to the arms 268 and has formed therein a transverse slot 272 which receives each of the contact arms 58 of the respective eyeballs 50. A tension coil spring 284 is provided interconnecting the cam member 260 and a point on the support bracket 64 spaced from the pivot 62. The function of the spring 284 is to bias the cam member 260 into its downward position in order to normally maintain the eyeballs 50 facing forwardly in their opened position. By use of the positive coupling of the cam member 260 with the eyeballs 50, through the slot 272, it will be appreciated that movement of the cam member 260 into position as shown in full line of FIG. 10 will compel movement of the eyeballs 50 from their closed to their opened positions. In a manner similar to the cam members 60 and 160, the cam member 260 is provided with a first cam surface 288 and a second cam surface 290 at an angle with respect to the first cam surface. It will be appreciated from considering the description of the mechanisms 40 and 140 above, that as the cam engagement arm of the cam driver mechanisms 78 engages the cam member 260, the cam member 260 will be moved upwardly to tilt the eyes into their closed position and, as rotation of the shaft extension 28a proceeds, the cam member 260 will be allowed to return to its original position as the cam engagement arm 80 moves along the second cam surface 290. The action of the tension spring 284 will assure a return of the cam member 260 to its original position and a return of the eyeballs 50 to'their opened portion.

The various mechanisms described above may be employed in a number of different combinations and, by no means, should the invention be deemed to be restricted to exactly those constructions illustrated and described herein. Furthermore, the devices in accordance with this invention may be combined with further devices e.g. noise making devices, to further enhance the realism of the resultant doll. Still furthermore, although the eye mechanism in accordance with the present invention provides advantageous use in a doll having a head which moves through a conical path with respect to the dolls body, the mechanism may be equally well employed in other types of dolls.

A designer skilled in the art will recognize that the mechanism in accordance with the present invention includes the advantageous features of simplicity of design and operation, low cost and dependable operation which.

are requirements for success in the doll industry. Since the advantages of the constructions according to the present invention may be employed in a variety of different embodiments which may vary from the specific constructions shown herein, the following claims defining the scope ofthe invention should be construed broadly in a manner consistent with the spirit and scope of the invention.

What we claim is:

In a doll, an eye mechanism for periodically closing the dolls eyes in response to an internal drive and for closing the dolls eyes in response to changes in the attitude of the doll comprising a pair of eye units mounted within respective eye sockets of the doll and immediately rearwardly of respective eye openings, each of said eye units having an eyeball pivotally mounted within said unit having. an integral eyelid formed thereon, said eyeballs being movable about a transverse axis from an open position with the eyeballs pointed forwardly and a closed position with the eyeballs pointed downwardly and the eyelids closing the respective eye opening, means for moving said eyeballs in response to and also independently of the force of gravity, said means including, a pendulum weight secured to each of said eyeballs for maintaining said eyeballs in the open position when the dolls head is in an upright attitude and for moving the eyeballs to the closed position in response to movement of the dolls head to a reclined attitude, engagement means extending rearwardly from each of said eyeballs, a cam member having a V-shaped cam surface means, said cam member being movably within said head and operatively engaged with said eyeballs through contact with said engagement means, an eye-operating driver means engageable with said cam member surface means for deflecting same upwardly and for moving said eyes into the closed position, said driver means comprising a rotating shaft having a camcontact extending radially outwardly therefrom, and a motor mounted within said doll and connected to said rotating shaft for periodically raising said cam member and closing said eyes.

References Cited'by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS Re. 19,657 7/1935 Bowers 46-169 X 242,590 6/1881 Bowen 1 46-118 1,325,013 12/ 1919 Giebeler-Wanke 46118 1,662,691 3/1928 White 46169 1,831,602 11/1931 Maby 46--168 2,022,286 11/1935 Henry 46-169 2,648,161 8/1953 Stewart 46169 X RICHARD C; PINKHAM, Primary Exdminer.

F. BARRY SHAY, Examiner.

Images