Tooth Tunes

Tooth Tunes is a children's toothbrush released by the Tiger Electronics division of Hasbro in 2007. A single toothbrush has a manufacturer's suggested price of USD$9.99. Each brush plays a two-minute song clip from a particular artist to encourage a child to brush their teeth for the dentist-recommended two minutes. A single toothbrush comes with one song.

Once activated, a small CPU in the handle plays the featured song on the chip by transferring vibrations through the bristles, which act as transducers, into the front teeth, through the jawbone, and into the inner ear. The user hears a mix between a natural vocal hum and the song being played.cite web| title = "I'm a punk toothbrush ... you're a blues toothbrush" | url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=403328&in_page_id=1770 | publisher = the Daily Mail | access date = 2007-01-31] [cite web| title = "Hasbro Tooth Tunes toothbrush makes you a loud mouth" | url = http://www.engadget.com/2005/02/25/hasbro-tooth-tunes-toothbrush-makes-you-a-loud-mouth/ | publisher = Engadget.com | access date = 2007-01-31] [cite web| title = "Hasbro's Tooth Tunes" | url = http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/004660.php | publisher = we make money not art | access date = 2007-01-31] The intended result was for the music only to be audible to its user, however the music emanating from the toothbrush can be heard by those nearby, with increasing volume as pressure is applied to the brush head.

Andrew Filo, one of the toothbrush's inventors, said that he worked on the project because of his childhood fascination with his ability to hear himself humming.

Artists and Songs Featured

*Aly & AJ - "Walking on Sunshine"
*The Beach Boys - "Fun, Fun, Fun"
*Black Eyed Peas - "Let's Get It Started"
*The Cheetah Girls - "The Party's Just Begun"
*The Cheetah Girls - "Shake a Tail Feather"
*Destiny's Child - "Survivor"
*Devo - "Brush It!" (Tooth Tunes (TM) version of "Whip It!")
*Drew Seeley and Zac Efron - "Get'cha Head In the Game"
*Hannah Montana - "The Best of Both Worlds"
*Hannah Montana - "Pumpin' Up the Party"
*High School Musical Cast - "We're All in this Together"
*High School Musical Cast - "What Time Is It?"
*Hilary Duff - "Wake Up"
*Jamiroquai - "Canned Heat"
*Jesse McCartney - "Beautiful Soul"
*Jonas Brothers - "Hold On"
*Kelly Clarkson - "Walk Away"
*Kiss - "Rock and Roll All Nite"
*Smash Mouth - "All Star"
*RBD - "Ser o Parecer"
*Queen - "We Will Rock You"
*The Village People - "YMCA"
*DeEtta Little and Nelson Pigford - "Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky)"

Future Toothbrushes

*Music from Inches In Falling
*Music from Ashley Tisdale
*Music from Vanessa Hudgens
*Music from Corbin Bleu
*Music from Jonas Brothers

Trivia

The advertisement, which can be seen [http://www.hasbro.com/toothtunes/default.cfm?page=commercial here] , has a striking resemblance to Apple's 1984 commercial.

Patents

Tooth Tunes claims Intellectual Property protection under Patent # 6,115,477 ("Denta-mandibular sound-transmitting system") and unspecified pending patents. This patent was filed on December 3, 1997 and granted on September 5, 2000.cite web| title = "United States Patent 6,115,477" | url = http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=3&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=6115477&OS=6115477&RS=6115477 | publisher = USPTO | access date = 2008-03-05]

References

ee also

*Hasbro
*Tiger Electronics

External links

* [http://www.hasbro.com/toothtunes/ Official Hasbro Tooth Tunes page]
* [http://nuxx.net/gallery/v/acquired_stuff/tooth_tunes/ Tooth Tunes Dissection / Disassembly]