Educational devices, systems and methods using optical character recognition

• US 20060188852A1
• Filed: 12/19/2005
• Published: 08/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Learning Resources, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Learning Resources, Inc.
• Inventors: Gordon, Gayle E., Plain, Barbara E., Yuen, Po Man, Ng, Victor Kwok-ho
• Granted Patent: US 7,351,062 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 434/159
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 1/32 comprising elements to be used without a special support
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 17/006 with audible presentation of the material to be studied audio and audio-visual teaching apparatus in general G09B5/04, G09B5/06
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/06 Foreign languages with audible presentation of material to be studied G09B5/04
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 21/007 using both tactile and audible presentation of the information
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/06 with both visual and audible presentation of the material to be studied

Abstract

Educational devices, educational systems, and methods of teaching and learning reading are provided. The devices, systems, and methods can include an indicium reader, such as an optical character recognition device, for reading indicium from objects. Such objects can be three-dimensional blocks and the indicium can be a letter, word, sentence, number, or some other type of readable character(s). The devices, systems, and methods can include a display for displaying the read indicium and an audio producing device for producing audio corresponding to the read indicium. The educational devices can be a self-contained, portable unit with the indicium reader, the display, and the audio producing device supported by a housing of the educational devices.

Claims

1. An educational device comprising:

a housing;

an optical character recognition device supported by the housing;

a display supported by the housing; and

a processor supported by the housing.

2. The educational device of claim 1, wherein at least one of the optical character recognition device, the display, and the processor are within the housing.

3. The educational device of claim 1, wherein the optical character recognition device and the processor are within the housing.

4. The educational device of claim 1, further comprising an audio producing device supported by the housing.

5. The educational device of claim 1, wherein the optical character recognition device optically recognizes an indicium on an object and the processor reproduces the optically recognized indicium on the display.

6. The educational device of claim 5, further comprising an audio producing device supported by the housing for producing audio corresponding to the indicium, the processor operable to communicate the audio to the audio producing device.

7. The educational device of claim 5, wherein the optical character recognition device optically recognizes the indicium when the indicium is in a reading position, the educational device further comprising a transporter for moving the object into and out of the reading position.

8. The educational device of claim 7, wherein the transporter is a conveyor.

9. The educational device of claim 5, wherein the indicium is a letter.

10. The educational device of claim 5, wherein the indicium is a word.

11. The educational device of claim 5, wherein the indicium is a number.

12. An educational system comprising:

an object bearing an indicium readable by a user;

a housing;

an optical character recognition device supported by the housing for optically recognizing the indicium on the object;

a display supported by the housing for displaying the indicium; and

a processor supported by the housing for reproducing the optically recognized indicium on the display.

13. The educational system of claim 12, further comprising a conveyor for positioning the object relative to the optical character recognition device to permit the indicium on the object to be recognized by the optical character recognition device.

14. The educational system of claim 12, wherein the indicium is a letter.

15. The educational system of claim 12, wherein the indicium is a word.

16. The educational system of claim 12, wherein the indicium is a number.

17. The educational system of claim 12, wherein the object is one of a plurality of objects, each of the plurality of objects including an indicium bearing surface bearing an indicium thereon readable by a user, and wherein the optical character recognition device is operable to optically recognize the indicium on each of the indicium bearing surfaces of the plurality of objects.

18. The educational system of claim 17, wherein the processor is operable to reproduce the optically recognized indicium of the plurality of objects on the display.

19. The educational system of claim 17, wherein a group of objects are selected from the plurality of objects and the selected group of objects are arranged relative to one another such that the selected indicium-bearing surfaces are simultaneously visible for optical recognition by the optical character recognition device.

20. The educational system of claim 19, wherein the indicium on each of the selected indicium bearing surfaces together form a word.

21. The educational system of claim 19, wherein the indicium on each of the selected indicium bearing surfaces together form a sentence.

22. The educational system of claim 17, wherein the selected group of objects are connectable to each other.

23. An educational device comprising:

a housing;

an indicium reader supported by the housing for reading an indicium on an object;

an audio producing device supported by the housing for producing audio corresponding to the indicium on the object; and

a processor supported by the housing for communicating the indicium to the audio producing device.

24. The educational device of claim 23, wherein the indicium reader is an optical character recognition device.

25. The educational device of claim 23, wherein at least one of the indicium reader, the audio producing device, and the processor are within the housing.

26. The educational device of claim 23, wherein the indicium reader, the audio producing device, and the processor are within the housing.

27. The educational device of claim 23, wherein the indicium reader reads the indicium in a reading position, the educational device further comprising a transporter for moving the object into and out of the reading position.

28. The educational device of claim 27, wherein the transporter is a conveyor.

29. An educational device comprising:

a housing;

an indicium reader supported by the housing for reading an indicium on an object when the object is in a reading position; and

a transporter supported by the housing for moving the object.

30. The educational device of claim 29, wherein the transporter moves the object into and out of the reading position.

31. The educational device of claim 29, wherein the indicium reader is an optical character recognition device.

32. The educational device of claim 29, wherein the transporter is a conveyor.

33. The educational device of claim 32, wherein the conveyor includes a conveyor belt and a motor coupled to the conveyor belt for driving the conveyor belt, the conveyor belt being engagable with the object to move the object toward the reading position.

34. The educational device of claim 29, wherein the housing has a feed channel along the transporter.

35. The educational device of claim 34, further comprising a cover at least partially covering the feed channel.

36. A method of teaching and learning reading, the method comprising:

providing an object bearing an indicium readable by a user;

providing an educational device including an indicium reader and a display;

feeding the object into the educational device;

reading the indicium of the object with the indicium reader; and

displaying the indicium on the display of the educational device.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the educational device further includes an audio producing device, the method further comprising producing audio corresponding to the indicium.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the audio corresponding to the indicium is a phoneme.

39. The method of claim 37, wherein the audio produced is a spoken rendition of the indicium.

40. The method of claim 37, wherein the audio produced is a pre-recorded voice rendition of the indicium.

41. The method of claim 37, wherein the audio produced is a synthesized voice rendition of the indicium.

42. The method of claim 36, wherein the indicium is a letter, and wherein reading includes reading the letter with the indicium reader and displaying includes displaying the letter on the display of the educational device.

43. The method of claim 36 wherein the indicium is a word, and wherein reading includes reading the word with the indicium reader and displaying includes displaying the word on the display of the educational device.

44. The method of claim 36, wherein the educational device further includes a conveyor, and wherein feeding includes feeding the object by the indicium reader with the conveyor.

45. The method of claim 36, wherein providing an object includes providing a plurality of objects each bearing an indicium readable by a user, the method further comprising

selecting a group of objects from the plurality of objects,

selecting an indicium-bearing surface of each of the objects in the selected group, and

arranging the selected group of objects such that the selected indicium bearing surfaces are simultaneously visible.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein feeding further includes feeding the selected group of objects into the educational device after arranging the selected group of objects.

47. The method of claim 45, wherein the indicium on each of the selected indicium bearing surfaces together form a word.

48. The method of claim 45, wherein the indicium on each of the selected indicium bearing surfaces together form a sentence.

49. The method of claim 45, further comprising connecting the selected group of objects together before feeding the selected group of objects into the educational device.