Speak & Spell (toy)

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A later Speak & Spell model with membrane keyboard
A later Speak & Spell model with membrane keyboard

The Speak & Spell was an electronic toy consisting of a speech synthesizer and a keyboard. It was introduced at the summer Consumer Electronics Show in June 1978.[1]

Contents

[edit] Background

The Speak & Spell was created by Paul Breedlove, an engineer with Texas Instruments during the late 1970s. Speak & Spell was the first of a three-part talking educational toy series that also included Speak & Read and Speak & Math. The Speak & Spell was sold, with regional variations, in the United States, Canada, Australia, and in Europe.

The toy was originally advertised as a tool for helping young children to become literate, learn to spell and learn the alphabet. The early Speak & Spell units were sold in 1978. Variants included the Speak & Read, which was yellow with blue and green accents and focused on reading comprehension, and the Speak & Math, which was grey with blue and orange and centered on mathematics. A French Speak & Spell, La Dictée Magique, was sold primarily in Canada, while an Italian Grillo Parlante and German Buddy were sold in their respective countries. The German Buddy is particularly rare. The American version of Speak & Spell had an American accent and American spellings, and the British version used British spellings and had a British accent.

[edit] Electronics

The display was a vacuum fluorescent display (VFD). The original Speak & Spells had raised hard-plastic keys while later units had a membrane keyboard. The Speak & Spell used the first single-chip voice synthesizer, the TI TMC0280, which utilized a 10th-order linear predictive coding (LPC) model and the electronic DSP logic.[2]. A variant of this chip with a very similar voice would eventually be utilized in certain Chrysler vehicles in the 1980s as the Electronic Voice Alert.

Phoneme data was stored on a pair of 128 Kbit metal gate PMOS ROMs. 128 Kbit was a very large capacity ROM in the late 1970s. An additional memory module could be plugged into a slot in the battery compartment and selected via a button on the keyboard.

A later model, the Super Speak & Spell, had a much slimmer case and an LCD screen rather than a VFD screen.

The unit could use either 4 "C" batteries or 6 volt DC power adapter with positive tip polarity.

[edit] Games included

Speak & Spell had five built-in learning games: Spell, Say It, Secret Letter, Mystery Code, and Word. Spell is the classic word spelling game, wherein the participant must spell ten words after hearing them "spoken" by the unit. The Speak & Spell also had the ability to expand its vocabulary using expansion modules that plugged into a slot near the battery compartment. One such expansion module was a tie-in for the toy's notable appearance in the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and asked young spellers to try such words as "geranium" and "extraterrestrial."

The secret code works by matching up two sets of the alphabet, slightly askew. P and Q match up and run in opposite directions:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
F E D C B A Z Y X W V U T S R Q P O N M L K J I H G

[edit] In popular culture

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The Speak & Spell shows up from time to time as a pop-culture reference in various television shows and game shows. A Speak & Spell has a prominent role as a key component of the alien creature's homebuilt interstellar communicator in the Steven Spielberg motion picture E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

Some musicians have used the Speak & Spell in their compositions, sometimes through the use of Circuit Bending. Examples include TLC (Fanmail), Family Force Five (Cadillac Phunque), Limp Bizkit (Behind Blue Eyes), COIL, LFO, 808 State, Experimental Audio Research, Gym Class Heroes, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Polysics, Leftfield, Beck, Aphex Twin, Venetian Snares, Doormouse, Moog Cookbook, Meat Beat Manifesto, Hexstatic, Darren Emerson, Freezepop, Optiganally Yours, Sigh, Win, Circle Research, and the Artificial Sea. Also used by Claude Woodward (The Sonic Manipulator).

British synthpop band Depeche Mode entitled their 1981 debut album Speak & Spell.

Brian Duffy, with the modified toy orchestra creates any vocal parts of songs using a Speak & Spell.

Comedian Dane Cook impersonates a Speak & Spell on his album Harmful If Swallowed, joking about how the voice sounded like the toy was possessed.

French musician and electronic music godfather Jean Michel Jarre, has used the S&S sound in the track "Touch to Remember" from his latest album Téo & Téa.

German electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk use a Speak & Spell in several songs on their 1981 album Computer World.

The Speak & Spell is referenced several times on Homestar Runner. In one toon, a character has built a robot made out of a box of Grape Nuts and a Speak & Spell.

In the 2008 OST for Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann anime, Track #16 on the first CD contains the Speak & Spell voice spelling the following letters "l e e r o n i s g a y h e i s s o g a y g a y h e l o v e s m y a s s h o l e a s s h o l e " This message is a reference to Leeron Ritona.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Texas Instruments: Timeline and Speak and Spell using DSP Logic
  2. ^ History Channel,Modern Marvels:"70s Tech", 2007, aired 6:00-7:00pm MST

[edit] External links