Technical Aspects

Stand-Alone Version Overview

Technical Overview-

Product is microprocessor-based, has Bluetooth radio interface to be used with a remote for control and feedback of the design.

Local control of design is provided by Mode input switches (either rotary or slide) to put design into one of two modes; “Cooing” or “Babbling” and one of two sub-modes; “Interactive” or “Passive”.  These modes are defined elsewhere in this document.  To Enable or Disable the device, the user will use the remote.

System is powered by a re-chargeable Lithium-Ion battery pack and can be re-charged by a standard Mini-USB port on the device.  The rate of charge is microprocessor-controlled and monitored by current and temperature to avoid any excessive heat generated.

There is also a “programming” interface for setup and use in manufacturing.  This same port will be used to test design while in manufacturing.

The digital recording and playback is accomplished by any number of silicon chips and can be a single- or multi-segment sound chip. The IC can record and/or play sound segments. Design will store sounds in external memory chips with virtually no limitation on space available for this or future applications. The IC will employ the Continuously Variable Slope Delta (CVSD) compression technique and can have variable sampling rates from 24 to 128 Kbps. Sampling clock can be generated internally with a simple R/C network, or an external clock can be used.  Local input recording is accomplished by a microphone and playback is through a small but powerful audio amplifier and speaker.

To aid in stimulus, the device has two lighting arrays.  These will be red Leds for use at night and blue Leds for use in the morning.  The Leds will be modulated by the pre-set peak audio limits and as such will offer visual stimulus of the utterances.

Use, function, and appealing features:

“Babble Buddy” will fulfill the need for a baby/toddler companion toy that would encourage early language play.

The appealing features of “Babble Buddy” would be its comfort as well as its ability to help with early language acquisition practice.  The “My Babble Buddy” has been designed by a Speech-Language Pathologist who observed babbling patterns of a gifted language toddler versus one delayed in language development, just before falling asleep and upon waking. Noting these patterns and comparing with a range of clients with language delays and their language skills and deficits from early childhood through high school, she noted phonological difficulties involving words, syllables, and phonemes.  She designed the “My Babble Buddy” as a beautiful soft toy that would be naturally comforting to little ones especially just before falling asleep and upon waking.  Research shows that children attend more to children’s voices than adult voices, so the toy would have a peer’s voice.  The interactive vocal play provided by the “My Babble Buddy” would build auditory input and jump start language development.

 “Babble Buddy” could be activated by a caregiver when an infant is being rocked, going to sleep, or waking up.  For older infants and toddlers, the child could activate it themselves.  The remote control also would allow parents to activate the device without being seen, providing a child with autonomous practice time. The remote control would have an on/off feature, a volume feature, and features for choosing modes of cooing or babbling and sub-modes of passive or interactive The volume control would be changeable at any time.

“Babble Buddy” would be a high-quality toy that would enhance language development for children with or without delayed language milestones.  The extremely soft fur covered part would provide tactile comfort and would be removable/washable, an important feature for a toy that contains electronic elements and is intended for direct handling by infants and toddlers.  The “My Babble Buddy” could be purchased by parents and grandparents.  It could also be purchased by Speech-Language Pathologists and Early Childhood interventionists or Specialists.

Packaging by a manufacturer would contain the plush toy housing, the plastic mechanism, the charger and the remote.  The parent will take out the mechanism and charger and charge the battery.  Once charged, the parents can choose their modes, place the mechanism in the plush toy secured by Velcro, and begin using.  For infants, the toy should be placed beside, not in the crib. For older toddlers, when it is safe, the toy can be placed in the crib/bed with the child. The toy can be used in other locations and at other times besides waking and going to sleep. Depending on the level and language skills of the child, the parents/caregivers may see only quietening or movement or cessation of movement indicating attention.  For others some vocalizations may occur. For the infant making no verbal utterances, the “cooing”/“passive” modes might be the best beginning choices.  For the child making limited verbal utterances, the parent can experiment with choosing different modes and note responses to them. For the child making many utterances the parent can choose the interactive mode and choose “cooing” (when the infant is making only vowelized utterances) or “babbling” (when the child is making patterns such as baba, nana, etc.).  The parents/caregivers can experiment to see what gets the best responses from the child.