Speech synthesizer timepiece with alarm function

• US 4,430,005 A
• Filed: 07/28/1981
• Issued: 02/07/1984
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/1980
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Nishimura, Kosuke
• Primary Examiner(s): Roskoski, Bernard
• Application Number:
  US06/287,559
• Time in Patent Office: 924 Days
• Field of Search: 368/63, 368/251, 364/710, 179/15 A, 179/15 M
• US Class Current: 368/67
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 13/00 Producing acoustic time signals

Abstract

An alarm timepiece is disclosed which is capable of setting a plurality of alarm settings and selecting which of a plurality of messages should be outputted in association with a respective alarm setting. Selected messages are output by a speech synthesis technique, and an exchangeable ROM cassette is provided for containing speech-synthesizing data characteristic of the content of the messages.

Claims

1. An alarm timepiece comprising:

means for setting a plurality of alarm times;

a removable and exchangeable read only memory device associated with said timepiece for storing data representing a plurality of messages;

speech synthesizer means associated with said exchangeable read only memory device for outputting verbal messages represented by said data at said alarm times; and

means for selecting which of said plurality of messages is outputted by said speech synthesizer means at each of said alarm times.

2. An alarm timepiece as in claim 1, wherein each of said plurality of messages is represented by a code, and said selecting means comprises means for inputting a selected code to said timepiece and means for retrieving data from said read only memory device representing a message corresponding to said selected code.