Aristotle's Baby Patent

The Aristotle Corporation (NASDAQ: ARTLP), founded in 1986 and headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, is a manufacturer and global distributor of educational, health, medical technology and agricultural products. Over 80,000 items are offered, primarily through catalogs carrying the brand of Nasco (founded in 1941), as well as those bearing the brands of Life/form®, Whirl-Pak®, Simulaids, Triarco, Summit Learning, Hubbard Scientific, Scott Resources, Spectrum Educational Supplies, Haan Crafts, To-Sew, CPR Prompt®, and Ginsberg Scientific.

The firm has a very interesting patent, U.S. Patent 6699045 from 3/2/2004 titled: Infant simulation device and method therefore--

A device and method is provided for simulating the activities of an infant. The invention includes a mannequin having a simulator position therein for generating a plurality of simulated activities by the mannequin at preprogrammed timed intervals. Simulated duties such as diaper change, feeding and burping, and attention are generated by the simulator. A user must respond by inserting a proper response element into the simulator in order to terminate the simulated activity. Indicators are provided to inform of the user's abuse or tampering with the simulator.




The inventors are:

1. Daniel Christianson (Jefferson, WI)
2. Judith Johnson (Deerfield, WI)
3. Roger Lidicker (Fort Atkinson, WI)

The first claim is revealing:

We claim:

1. An infant simulation system, comprising: a mannequin; a control module associated with the mannequin and including an output arrangement for simulating one or more infant activities; a response arrangement operatively interconnected with the control module for terminating the one or more infant activities without terminating subsequent infant activities; and an operating arrangement associated with the control module, wherein the operating arrangement includes a series of programs, each of which corresponds to a predetermined schedule of the one or more infant activities, and a program selection arrangement for selecting at least one of the programs so as to operate the control module and simulate one or more infant activities according to the predetermined schedule of at least one of the programs.

And further, referencing the drawing above:

In a preferred construction, microcontroller 82 may be programmed for running four distinct event programs. Each event program consists of three types of programmed events: diaper change, feeding and burping, and attention. In the preferred construction, there are three programs that can be selected by an instructor plus a demonstration option.

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