Interactive talking book and audio player assembly
First Claim
1. A talking book and audio player assembly comprising:
- A a book having a hard back cover and a plurality of pages, each carrying a printed text and a bar code printed along the end margin of the page formed by a series of light reflective and non-reflective elements that identify the page;
B a ROM module secured to the end margin of the back cover and having exposed terminals, said module having stored therein a like plurality of digitized spoken messages, each message corresponding to the printed text on a respective page of the book; and
C an audio player having a base inlet adapted to receive the end margin of the back cover, whereby when the pages thereof, when turned, overlie the inlet, the inlet being provided with inlet contacts that engage the terminals of the ROM module, and electronic means connected to the module through said inlet contacts to read out the digitized messages from the module and convert these messages into audio signals which are reproduced by a loudspeaker and heard by a reader as spoken messages, said audio player including a light sensor array which is laterally displaced from the bar code so as not to interfere with the pages overlying the inlet and is in operative optical relation to the bar code on the page then open to view to produce a page-identifying signal which effects selection for readout from the module of the digitized message corresponding to the printed text on the open page, the audio player being common to talking books of the same type but having different texts.
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Abstract
An interactive talking book and audio player assembly, the back cover of the book having an ROM module attached to its end margin in which is stored digitally recorded spoken texts corresponding to texts printed on pages of the book. Printed on the end margin of each book page that carries a printed text is a page-identifying binary bar code formed by reflective and non-reflective elements. Associated with the book is an audio player having a base inlet adapted to receive the end margin of the back cover and to bring the terminals of the ROM module into engagement with inlet contacts connecting the module to a speech unit for converting the digitally-recorded texts into audio signals which are amplified and reproduced. When the pages of the book are turned, they overlie the base inlet of the player, the bar code on the open page being then exposed to ambient light. The code elements in the code which are reflective direct the light toward an array of light sensors mounted above the inlet and those which are non-reflective do not, to produce binary signals indentifying the open page. The page-identifying signals are applied to a sensor interface and are transferred thereby to the speech unit which then acts to read-out from the ROM module the spoken text corresponding to the printed text on the open page whereby the reader of this text hears what he is reading.
185 Citations
14 Claims
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1. A talking book and audio player assembly comprising:
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A a book having a hard back cover and a plurality of pages, each carrying a printed text and a bar code printed along the end margin of the page formed by a series of light reflective and non-reflective elements that identify the page; B a ROM module secured to the end margin of the back cover and having exposed terminals, said module having stored therein a like plurality of digitized spoken messages, each message corresponding to the printed text on a respective page of the book; and C an audio player having a base inlet adapted to receive the end margin of the back cover, whereby when the pages thereof, when turned, overlie the inlet, the inlet being provided with inlet contacts that engage the terminals of the ROM module, and electronic means connected to the module through said inlet contacts to read out the digitized messages from the module and convert these messages into audio signals which are reproduced by a loudspeaker and heard by a reader as spoken messages, said audio player including a light sensor array which is laterally displaced from the bar code so as not to interfere with the pages overlying the inlet and is in operative optical relation to the bar code on the page then open to view to produce a page-identifying signal which effects selection for readout from the module of the digitized message corresponding to the printed text on the open page, the audio player being common to talking books of the same type but having different texts. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. An interactive talking book and audio player assembly comprising:
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A a book having a hard back cover and a plurality of pages, each carrying a printed text, a bar code printed along the end margin of the page to identify the page, a printed question relating to the text, and at least two printed answers to the question, one of which is the right answer; B a ROM module secured to the end margin of the back cover and having exposed terminals, said module having stored therein a like plurality of digitized spoken text messages, each test message corresponding to the printed text on a respective page and digitized spoken question messages, each question message corresponding to the printed question on a respective page; C an audio player having a base inlet adapted to receive the end margin of the back cover whereby the pages thereof when turned overlie the inlet, the inlet being provided with inlet contacts that engage the terminals of the module, and electronic means connected to the module through said inlet contact to read out the digitized text and question messages from the ROM module and convert these messages into audio signals which are produced by a loudspeaker and heard by a reader as spoken messages, said audio player including means laterally displaced from the bar code so as not to interfere with the pages overlying the inlet and is in operative relation to the bar code to sense the code printed on the page then open to view to produce a page-identifying signal which effects selection for readout from the module of the message corresponding to the printed text on the open page, said player being provided with question and answer switches coupled to said electronic means whereby when the question switch is actuated, the question message stored by said module which corresponds to the printed question on the open page is then read out from the module, and when an answer switch is actuated, the audio player gives an indication whether the answer is the right answer, the audio player being common to interactive talking books of the same type but having different texts and questions and answers. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14)
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Specification