FIELD OF INVENTION
This invention relates to a systems and methods for using hand held device as a virtual companion of children. More particularly, the system and method allows a hand-held device to be used as an interacting-companion for kids.
BACKGROUND & PRIOR ART
Small children, by nature, like to imitate adults and as such, may pick up a telephone and begin dialing numbers at random. If the number is an actual number, an actual telephone call will be placed, which may result in accrued phone charges, minute usage, etc. In addition, it may create a nuisance call to an unknowing third-party recipient of the call. With technological advancements, many of the current phones have very user-friendly displays, such as touch screen displays, and easily accessible address books via one-touch dialing and voice command dialing. Therefore, the chances of a child inadvertently dialing an actual phone number while playing with the phone have greatly increased as the usability improves.
While parents may utilize phone-locking mechanism (e.g., via keypad lock, etc.), this may make the child unhappy and may possibly result in the child damaging the phone due to frustration and/or attempts to unlock the phone. On the other hand, a locked phone may encourage a curious child to seek the unlocking mechanism, thereby likely defeating the purpose of the lock. Another alternative is to provide the child with an imitation phone. In fact, there are many imitation phones in the market, However, it is difficult to deceive today's children with such imitations. Specifically, a child may realize that, the imitation phone is less sophisticated than an actual, usable phone. Thus, the child may naturally gravitate toward a more realistic phone and wish to play with the same phone that the parents are using.
Reference may be made to the following known arts:

US publication no 2009137284 describes a method, a communication device, and a system for enabling a toy mode on a telephone. The method includes operating a device in a first operating mode, the first operating mode being a full functional mode, receiving a selection for a second operating mode while the device is operating in the first operating mode, the second operating mode being a reduced function mode, and configuring the device to operate in the second operating mode, wherein the configuration includes altering an operation of a communication interface of the device.
Publication no CN201252578 relates to a novel cell-phone that has treasured object toy function, which is simple to use, easy to carry, collects GPS satellite fix, cellphone communication, pronunciation dialogue and pet appearance function.
Therefore there is no precedence of using mobile phone as a companion to keep the children occupied. The methods not using mobile phone are broadly classified in two categories (i) with human involvement (ii) without human involvement.
(i) With human involvement- Methods involving a person, it tends to keep the child engaged and occupied by providing constant cognitive stimulation to his/her sensory apparatus. This can be done by means of auditory stimulation i.e. producing different type of sounds to distract/engage child. Visual simulation by making facial gestures, eye moment, directing/ guiding attention of kid by means of an object, kin-esthetic simulation by rocking the cradle, moving around with kid in the lap, patting of back and abdominal area etc. Basic purpose of these stimulations are to engage the cognitive and sensory apparatus of a kid so that he /she remains occupied. This approach relies heavily on human input. This approach assumes that kid is always attended by someone.
(ii) Without human intervention- The other approach includes providing a special purpose instrument/device for providing the same sensory stimulation which was being supplied by a human agent in approach discussed above. Subset of this method include providing auditory stimulation with a toy which is tied to a moving instrument

cradle, fan etc and which produces sound on movement. Other method includes wind chime like instrument and various other toys. In addition to these constrains, digital devices like TV, audio recorder etc are not interactive. Further, they can't be accessed /invoked on need basis. They are either always on or need to be activated by a human agent when required. They also have a limitation due to their over reliance on input mechanism which assume a certain level of familiarity for device control.
In order to overcome the above listed prior art, the present invention provides the systems and methods for using hand held device as a virtual companion of children. The present invention allows a user of the device to convert the device from operating in a standard mode to operating in toy mode, wherein it can act as a companion to keep kids amused.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for using hand held device as a virtual companion of children.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method which allows a user of a hand held device to convert the device from a operating in a standard operational mode to operating in toy operational mode.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for using hand held device as a virtual companion of children in which the setting and functionality of various device components may depend on a profile selected by the user.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for using hand held device as a virtual companion of children in which sings a lullaby, tries to make the child laugh by making funny faces and jumping around on screen or start to cry in order to make kid wonder and give him company.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for using hand held device as a virtual companion of children which keeps the children engaged if they are getting bored and start making noise.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for using hand held device as a virtual companion of children which can read and interpret his/her facial gesture.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for using hand held device as a virtual companion of children which can playback pre-recorded responses.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for using hand held device as a virtual companion which teaches good habit to kid by means of various audio video messages played at appropriate times, for example a message to "brush teeth" in the morning, go to bed in the nigh etc.
STATEMENT OF INVENTION
According to this invention, there is provided a hand held device comprising of a processor, a memory, a display screen, a key pad, a microphone, a speaker, an antenna and a timer connected to each other wherein the processor comprising of a sound analysis module in connection with mood inference engine for outputting a response for avatar.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS
Further objects and advantages of this invention will be more apparent from the ensuing description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and wherein:
Fig. 1 shows : sound module of hand held device.

DETAIL DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION WITH REFERENCE TO THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS:
The present invention discloses a system for using hand held device comprising of a processor, a memory, a display screen, a keypad, a microphone, a speaker, an antenna and a timer connected to each other and working in a combination. The processor may regulate the operation of the device by facilitating communications between the various components such as the memory, the display screen, the keypad, etc. Certain portions of the content within the memory may continue to be available to the user of the hand held while the hand held device is operating in the toy mode.
The present invention provides a cell phone and other wireless communication/computation device(1) and their various capabilities(2) for the purpose of interpreting various input available to it and tailoring its response to creating virtual /quasi virtual entity /avatar to keep user occupied .
The present invention comprises of creation of digital avatar which appeals to kids. It can be inspired from a real life figure , some image of person around , some media , cartoon character or a digitally crafted avatar with no prior existence .
End user can customize the look and feel of character according to his /her taste and sensitivities. They can do so by choosing it from a gallery of avatar related stuff which comes pre bundled with the phone. So, if someone desires his kids to have a companion in the shape of penguin and other in the share of fish both will be able to do it as long as the option is available in gallery in first place . Listed below are some of the possible uses of this invention .
1. Creating a virtual character which mimic /reciprocate the voice of kid. This character will act as virtual companion for kid. It will read /interpret current mood /state of mind of kid by analyzing the sound /voice. If the kid is crying or laughing this virtual companion will respond to it by crying or laughing respectively.

 This can be implemented by means of an Hardware enhancement/modification in mobile phone. A Button (circuit switcher) is attached to mobile phone.
 When the button is in "OFF" mode, device behaves in its usual manner in default way.
 When the button is in "ON" mode, device acts like a Toy/ kids companion.
 When Button is "ON", Phone provides a special module which supersedes the default behavior of cellphone and makes it behave like a child companion.
 In Toy/companion mode it activate a software application which remain in "listen" mode throughout the companion mode of phone. It implies that periodically application looks for sounds coming on microphone.
 This software has a sound analysis module. Every incoming sound is analyzed against some fixed number of parameters like frequency , pitch , modulation , duration. This information is fed into a heuristic engine which determines what is the mood of kid.
 Based on the output of heuristic engine digital avtar perform a certain set of action to reciprocate the mood .
 Workflow for the same is given in fig. 1
2. Creating a virtual avatar /character which can be used for the purpose of supplying a prepackaged canned response to some common action of kids . for example if kid wake up in the middle of night and start crying this can start playing lullaby , pre recorded in mother's voice . or when kid is distracted or crying for attention. It can play out some pre recorded message in the voice of parents.
 Same Schematic as explained above can be used in this also. Only
difference is that this app will be intended to be used only in night
when kid is sleeping .

Annexure:
1 cell phone and other wireless device here: refer to any device which has
(i) capability to connect to any Communication network (closed, open, restrictive, invite only) independent of technology or form factor .
(ii) computational capability which can be general purpose or special purpose , programmable or non programmable .
(iii)may or may not be portable .
2 Capabilities here referred to any characteristic of cell phone and other wireless
device which has a potential to receive and interpret any input information and
communicate a specific information, in response to or independent of the input
provided, to its user or any third party, machine or human.
These capabilities in this case are including but not limited to the following
• vibration,
• Capability to display, store and playback content in multimedia format like MUSIC, Video, picture, animation, text, symbols.
• Location awareness,
• motion sensitivity,

• photo/light sensitivity /awareness,
• acoustic sensitivity,
• touch sensitivity,
• capability of interpreting visual information by artificial /assisted computer vision.
These capability can reside within the device or can be outside of device or can be a combination of both.
The present invention is directed to a system and method for using hand held device as a virtual companion of children. The present invention allows a user of the device to convert the device from operating in a standard mode to operating in toy mode,

thereby disabling or reducing specific functionalities of the standard mode. It also keeps the child engaged, occupied, diverted and possibly use it as a medium for teaching /training kids with various educational, recreational, and cognitive skills. This invention intends to use voice, touch, accelerometer, wireless, Call, messages and visual capabilities of a mobile phone to communicate with children. The present invention is simple in design so that the children can use it.
The device comprises multiple profiles. The settings and the functionality of various device components may depend on a profile selected by the user. The toy profile for the device may disable or reduce the function of specific components of the device, while the standard profile allows for normal, unrestricted operation of the device. The device may be utilized to perform various specific functions using the existing user interface software components and small modifications to a radio driver software layer.
The present invention utilizes the multimedia input/ output capability of a hand held device a method where an onscreen virtual animated character can be used to respond to various inputs provided by children. These inputs can be provided by a kid consciously or unconsciously. Response to those inputs will be decided by the algorithm which can be heuristic or deterministic in nature. Choice of rule governing the response can be decided by the objective of the exercise. This objective can be automatically intelligently decided by algorithm itself or it can be configured:
In an aspect, if a child is crying, the device can distract the child by singing a lullaby during nigh time, making the child laugh by making funny faces and jumping around on screen during day time or starting to cry in order to make kid wonder and given him company.
In another aspect, if a child is getting bored and starts making noise than in order to keep him/her engaged the present device reads and interpret his/her facial gesture and respond to it in ways such as but not limited to the, mimic-ing the child if he/she sticks his/her tongue, follow the action of the child like rolling eyes, or try to pacify

him/her if the child crying or make faces or gestures to the child in order to invoke some response from him/her and there by keeping him/her engaged.
At appropriate moments defined by various parameter including but not limited to the time of day, date of year, rate transition in motion, variation in light, variation in geo-spatial co ordinates, inputs from proximity sensors etc virtual companion can playback pre-recorded response. These responses can be both audio and/or video such as but not limited to playing a pre-recorded message in the voice of parents to warn him/her if child goes beyond a certain distance, playing a pre-recorded message asking him/her to go back home or sending hi/her current location to parent's hand held device via SMS or initiating a call to parents cell phone if the child stays away from premises beyond a certain time, playing a pre-recorded message in the voice of parents to make him/her stop if child is walking/running too fast.
The hand held device according to the present invention, instructs the child to go back at safe distance if he/she gets anywhere near to hazardous stuff such as without limitation electricity, microwave, gas stove, road etc. This is done in the voice of parents or any other voice known to kid. The device keeps the child engaged by helping him to decorate the avtar using various props such as without limitation dress, shoes, hats etc. Thus this device is used as a proxy by parents to teach good habit to kid by means of various audio video messages playing at appropriate times such as but not limited to playing an instruction to brush teeth in morning, to have proper breakfast, to be nice to peers and share lunch in school or not to watch TV.
The device would have the following, but not limited to, methods to activate the toy/virtual companion mode.
1) A dedicated, short-cut button which when pressed can activate/de-active the toy mode.
2) Activation/de-activation of toy mode by pressing a pre-configured combination of multiple keys so that the toy mode is not accidentally activated/de-activate.

lt is to be noted that the present invention is susceptible to modifications, adaptations and changes by those skilled in the art. Such variant embodiments employing the concepts and features of this invention are intended to be within the scope of the present invention, which is further set forth under the following claims:-

WE CLAIM:
1. A hand held device comprising of a processor, a memory, a display screen, a key pad, a microphone, a speaker, an antenna and a timer connected to each other wherein the processor comprising of a sound analysis module in connection with mood inference engine for outputting a response for avatar.
2. A hand held device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the hand held device comprising of circuit switcher.
3. A hand held device as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein the device remains in listen mode in toy/companion mode.
4. A hand held device as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the sound analysis module analyzes each incoming sound -against several parameters like frequency, pitch, modulation, duration.
5. A hand held device as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the engine determines the mood of kid, according to which digital avatar performs a set of actions to reciprocate the mood.
6. A hand held device as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the hand held device is cell phone/other wireless device such as herein described.
7. A hand held device substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawing.