Interactive educational electronic toy system

1 . A system for providing a drawing challenge comprising a plurality of challenge steps to a user, in a step-by-step manner, the system being associated with at least one challenge repository and a projection surface, the system comprising:

a housing;

a user interface disposed in said housing, said user interface including a plurality of physical buttons, the plurality of physical buttons including a next-step button;

at least one projecting device accommodated within said housing and adapted to project each of said plurality of challenge steps onto the projection surface according to a sequence of said plurality of challenge steps;

a controller accommodated within said housing, said controller including:

a processor functionally associated with the at least one challenge repository and with said at least one projecting device; and

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing software modules including instructions to be executed by said processor, said non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored:

instructions to interpret input provided via said user interface;

instructions to receive a selection of said challenge including a said plurality of challenge steps to be projected by said projecting device, wherein said challenge is a drawing challenge or a writing challenge, and each of said plurality of challenge steps includes one or more individual lines and/or curves; and

instructions to process said selected challenge in accordance with characteristics of at least one of said projecting device, said projection surface, and ambient conditions, to form, for each challenge step of the challenge, a projectable challenge step for projection by said at least one projecting device;

instructions to provide a first projectable challenge step corresponding to a first of said plurality of challenge steps to said projecting device for projecting thereof; and

instructions, to be carried out in response to receipt of a next-step input indicating depression of the next-step button of the user interface, to provide a next projectable challenge step, corresponding to a next step according to said sequence of said plurality of challenge steps, to said projecting device for projecting thereof.

2 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a transceiver for enabling communication between said controller and a network, and wherein said at least one challenge repository includes a remote challenge repository remote from said system, and in communication with said controller via said transceiver.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said at least one challenge repository includes an integral challenge repository forming part of said system and is accommodated within said housing.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said housing includes a port adapted for receipt of a computer memory including a removable challenge repository, and said at least one challenge repository includes said removable challenge repository associated with said system by insertion of said computer memory into said port.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said plurality of physical buttons of said user interface further includes a selection button, and wherein said instructions to receive said selection include instructions to receive a selection input indicating depression of said selection button of said user interface.

6 . The system of claim 5 , wherein at least one of said plurality of physical buttons has a first function when depressed briefly and a second function when depressed for an extended duration, the second function being different from the first function.

7 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising:

a transceiver disposed within said housing and adapted to communicate with a network; and

an additional computing device, adapted to be in communication with said, said additional computing device including an additional

user interface for providing instructions to said controller.

8 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising at least one speaker, wherein said challenge further includes an audio component, and said controller is adapted to provide said audio component to said user via said speaker.

9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said instructions to process comprise instructions to process each challenge step to form a said projectable challenge step prior to initiating projection of any of said plurality of challenge steps.

10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein said instructions to process comprise instructions to process each challenge step during the projection of the previous challenge step.

11 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions to provide the first projectable challenge step corresponding to a first of said plurality of challenge steps to said projecting device for projecting thereof comprise instructions to wait for receipt of the next-step input before providing another challenge step to the projecting device.

12 . A system for providing a challenge to a user, the system comprising:

an image capturing device adapted to capture an image in the real world, wherein the challenge to be completed is based on said image; and

a toy system associated with a projection surface, comprising:

a housing;

at least one projecting device, accommodated within said housing and adapted to project said challenge onto the projection surface;

a transceiver enabling communication with said image capturing device;

a controller accommodated within said housing, said controller being functionally associated with said at least one projecting device and with said transceiver, said controller including:

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing software modules including instructions to be executed by said processor, said non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored:

instructions to obtain an outline image, based on said image captured by said image capturing device, as said challenge;

instructions to process said challenge in accordance with characteristics of at least one of said projecting device, a projection surface, and ambient conditions, to form a projectable challenge for projection by said at least one projecting device; and

instructions to provide said projectable challenge to said projecting device for projecting thereof.

13 . The system of claim 12 , further comprising an additional computing device including said image capturing device, and wherein said instructions to obtain said outline image comprises instructions to receive said outline image from said additional computing device.

14 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the instructions to obtain said outline image comprise:

instructions to receive image from said image capturing device; and

instructions to convert said image into said outline image.

15 . The system of claim 12 , wherein:

said instructions to obtain said challenge further include instructions to divide said outline image into a plurality of image subsets, each image subset including one or more individual lines or curves of the outline image, each image subsets forming a challenge step, such that said image challenge is broken into a plurality of challenge steps;

said instructions to process said challenge comprise instructions to process each said image subset in accordance with said characteristics, to form, for each said challenge step, a projectable challenge step for projection by said at least one projecting device;

said instructions to provide said projectable challenge to said projecting device comprise instructions to provide each said projectable challenge step to said projecting device, in a sequential step-by-step manner.

16 . The system of claim 15 , wherein:

the toy system further includes a user interface disposed in said housing, said user interface including a plurality of physical buttons, the plurality of physical buttons including a next-step button;

said controller further includes instructions to interpret input provided via said user interface; and

said instructions to provide each said projectable challenge step comprise:

instructions to automatically provide a first projectable challenge step corresponding to a first of said plurality of challenge steps to said projecting device for projecting thereof; and

instructions, to be carried out in response to receipt of a next-step input indicating depression of the next-step button of the user interface, to provide a next projectable challenge step, corresponding to a next step according to said sequence of said plurality of challenge step, to said projecting device for projecting thereof.

17 . The system of claim 15 , wherein said instructions to process said challenge comprise instructions to process each said image subset to form said projectable challenge step prior to initiating projection of any of said plurality of challenge steps.

18 . The system of claim 15 , wherein said instructions to process said image challenge comprise instructions to process each said image subset to form said projectable challenge step during the projection of the previous challenge step.