US3845250A

US3845250A - Manual key operated message generator

Info

Publication number: US3845250A
Application number: US00227759A
Authority: US
Inventors: Brien G O
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1972-02-22
Filing date: 1972-02-22
Publication date: 1974-10-29
Anticipated expiration: 1991-10-29

Abstract

A flat circular disk of plastic material is impressed with parallel grooves, each extending over a substantial portion of the circumference of its track. The disk is mounted on a turn table and the latter provided with a drive mechanism to rotate it one complete revolution at a uniform angular velocity each time the drive is actuated. Each of the grooves carries a recorded message component and is provided with a transducer for recovering that message and broadcasting it through a loudspeaker with the aid of a suitable amplifier. A keyboard is provided with electrical switches equal in number to the recorded message components; upon the actuation of any one of these switches the turntable drive is set in motion and the transducer output corresponding to the desired message is connected to the amplifier. Any message whose vocabulary is restricted to the recorded components may be generated and broadcast by sequentially depressing the appropriate switches of the keyboard.

Description

United States Patent OBrien Oct. 29, 1974 MANUAL KEY OPERATED MESSAGE GENERATOR [76] Inventor: Gerard OBrien, 33 Pampapra Ave.,

Jersey City, NJ. 07307 [22] Filed: Feb. 22, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 227,759

[52] US. Cl. 179/1004 R, 35/8 A, 35/35 C, 179/100.1 PS, 179/1001 C, 179/1004 D, 274/9 R, 274/9 A, 274/9 R 51] Int. Cl ..Gl1b 31/114,611!) 3173,0111) 31.80 [58] Field of Search.....-.....T.179/1004 R, 100.4 D, 179/1002 MD, 100.2 CA, 100.3 B, 100.1 C, 100.1 PS: 340/174.1 C; 274/13 R, 14, 9 A, 9 R, 4 H; 35/8 A, 35 C, 9 A; 84/128 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,471,534 5/1949 Muth 84/128 2,500,947 3/1950 3,086,297 4/1963 3,483,633 12/1969 3,516,175 6/1970 3,563,554 2/1971 3,610,638 10/1971 3,711,658 l/l973 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 268,726 5/1929 ltaly 35/35 C Primary ExaminerRaymond F. Cardillo, Jr. Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Lilling & Siegel [57] ABSTRACT olution at a uniform angular velocity each time the drive is actuated. Each of the grooves carries a recorded message component and is provided with a transducer for recovering that message and broadcasting it through a loudspeaker with the aid of a suitable amplifier. A keyboard is provided with electrical switches equal in number to the recorded message components; upon the actuation of any one of these switches the turntable drive is set in motion and the transducer output corresponding to the desired message is connected to the amplifier. Any message whose vocabulary is restricted to the recorded components may be generated and broadcast by sequentially depressing the appropriate switches of the keyboard.

4 Claims, 11 Drawing Figures l l I'll/ W i l/m 1 mil/If Mb MANUAL KEY OPERATED MESSAGE GENERATOR BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This application is related to my co-pending application United States Ser. No. 227,760 (filed Feb. 22, I972), filed concurrently herewith and entitled POR- TABLE VOICE MESSAGE GENERATOR.

The present invention relates to a device capable of generating voice messages by combining elements of a pre-recorded vocabulary. The preferred embodiment of the invention is controlled from a keyboard, analogous to the controls of a typewriter or a piano, on which each key corresponds to, and is marked for identification, to one of the pre-recorded message ele ments. The message elements are recorded on a flat disk, analogous to a convential gramaphone record, on a set of parallel concentric grooves covering the major portion of the circumference of this record. Individual transducers are allocated for each of the grooves and are connected to the amplifier/speaker output segment of the device through electrical switches controlled by the keys of the control board. Upon the depression of the appropriate key, the message element is played from the record through the speaker; the complete message being composed by the successive depression of the desired keys. The novelty and utility of the invention is immediatelyapparent; i.e., it can be used as a musical instrument, with each key corresponding to a given note or chord of the scale selected; as a training device; as an interference-free voice communicator requiring only a narrow bandwidth transmission link; as a translator as noted herein below, indeed in many similar applications.

It is foreseen that one of the most beneficial applications of the instant invention will be aiding handicapped persons such as blind people, or mutes who can only communicate by sign language or in writing. With such severe restrictions, the device of the invention would permit such persons to converse with the average person unfamiliar with the hand codes or braille, and the messagegenerating machine enables them to acquire an artificial voice.

Similarly the device can be used as an instantaneous translating machine, the keys being marked with words and phrases of one language, known to the operator, while the corresponding recorded messages carry the identical information in a language unknown to him. With the aid of two such machines individuals sharing no common language may carry on a conversation within the limitations of the recorded vocabulary.

That the above limitation is not a serious one is readily shown by references in the prior art to such machines as the Japanese tanaka typewriter, the organ and many other keyboard controlled machines whose range of expression contains several hundred components, more than sufficient to encompass a particular purpose, including the basic vocabulary of any spoken language.

As a training device, a typical application concerns the use of the message generator as the sending component of a Morse code communications link. A person completely unschooled in the code can readily operate a keyboard marked with characters to be encoded, the corresponding dot-dash patterns being obtained from the record. Since the correct pattern is audible immediately upon the depression of the key, the trainee rapidly learns to associate a given pattern with the character he has just encoded.

In an analogous manner the translating machine previously described may be used for learning purposes, the trainee actuates the key representing a given word and hears the word repeated to him in the language he is attempting to learn. He is free to proceed at any speed, to repeat individual words as often as he desires and to combine them in arbitrary patterns, thus reinforcing the basic effect in a manner which pre-recorded instructional records cannot duplicate. In addition, the machine can also be used to generate predetermined sound effects, if so desired.

SUMMARY The present disclosure teaches the ways and means of the construction of a device for the generation of a message ultimately decipherable by the human ear. The purpose of the invention is achieved by prerecording the sound-patterns, words and phrases which may be used as building blocks of the message to be generated and providing a control console through whose manipulation a human operator, or a specially programmed mechanical or electronic computing device, can combine the pre-recorded elements into a variety of intelligible and useful messages.

It is an aim of the invention to describe the manner in which the requisite mechanical, electrical and electronic components may be combined into the aforementioned message generator.

It is a further aim of the invention to teach techniques of construction and operation leading to the greatest economy in the building and utilization of such a device.

It is a further aim of the invention to describe methods by which the capacity of the message generating device to store and replay information may be increased. I

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The preferred embodiment of the invention will be described in detail by reference to the enclosed drawings, in which;

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a manually operated voice message generator or message generating unit of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a partial sectional view of the operating elements of the device or generator shown in FIG. 1;

FIGS. 3 and 4 show alternate selection strips for the device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the recording utilized in the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 6 and 7 are mutually orthogonal sections of the recording along the lines 6-6 and 7-7 depicted in FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a sectional view of an alternate embodiment with a double-sided recording;

FIG. 9 is a partial sectional view along the lines 9-9 of the transducer element of the device shown in FIG.

FIG. 10 is a view, partially in section, of the mechanical components of a keyboard operated embodiment of the invention, and

FIG. 11 is a form, or chart, illustrating typical vocabularies capable of being employed with the voice message generator of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The simple, manually operated embodiment of the message generator is illustrated in FIG. 1, in which a record bearing a plurality of parallel grooves, impressed with pre-recorded message elements, is mounted on a turn-table 4 carried on a base 6. A transducer, or pick-up, 20 is mounted near a pivoted end of an arm 3 and the latter rests in one of the grooves of a serrated guide-bar 7. The transducer 29 is connected to an amplifier 8 provided with a speaker 9. A drivesystem, not illustrated specifically for the purpose of clarity, is provided for turning the turn-table 4 at a predetermined speed corresponding to the speed at which the recording was originally made and cooperates with a brake 5 to accomplish exactly one revolution of the turn-table each time the message generator is actuated.

Details of the transducer assembly 29 are shown in FIG. 2. A needle 21 serves as the sensor, attached to a transducer cartridge 22. The assembly 29 is pivoted around a pin 23 on an arm 24 rigidly affixed to the assembly by suitable means, such as a rivet 26. A counterweight 25 supplies the necessary force for maintaining the needle 21 in contact with the record 10, the latter lying flat on the turn-table 4 and centered on a pin 19, which is the upper end of the shaft of the turn-table. The record 1 is prevented from rotating relative to the turn-table by an auxiliary pin 10, offset from the rotational center of the record and engaging a mating perforation a therethrough.

In operation, the arm 3 is lifted and brought to rest in the trough of the guide-bar 7 corresponding to the message element which it is desired to broadcast through the speaker 9. The drive system is then actuated and rotates the record 1 through a complete revolution accomplishing that purpose. The arm 3 is then moved through an arc to another trough in the bar 7, thereby placing it over a different groove in the record 1 and the drive system is actuated again, replaying a different message element. The guide-bar 7 is marked with symbols identifying the message elements recorded on record 1 on a groove corresponding to the trough nearest the symbol. FIG. 3 shows a guide-bar 71 marked with the numbers and auxiliary phrases necessary for generating any message concerning strings of numbers and arithmetical operations consisting of addition and subtraction. Similarly FIG. 4 shows a guidebar 72 marked with the letters of the alphabet. Either of the guide-

bars

71 and 72 may be used with records carrying the pre-recorded sounds shown on them in English, some other language or in a pre-arranged code, as desired.

FIG. 5 shows details of the record 1, including mounting holes 9a and 10a for respectively engaging the center pin 9 and offset pin 10 of the turn-table 4. A series of parallel grooves are impressed on the record, beginning and ending in a blank sector 11, it being arranged that the needle 21 comes to rest in the sector 11 between successive operations of the device; enabling it to be shifted to a radial position corresponding to any one of the impressed grooves.

The limitations of conventional record cutting equipment is also a consideration in the construction of the message generator; long message elements or phrases may require the use of slower speeds of rotation, for example. Also record disks having a plurality of concentric circular grooves, omitting blank sector 11, could be employed; such records cannot effectively be made on existing equipment due to the tendency of the engraving needle to undercut the beginning of a concentric groove when approaching it at the end of a revolution.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a particular groove 12 in the record, in the region of the blank sector 11. FIG. 7 is another section of the record 1, orthogonal to the section of FIG. 6, indicating that the groove 12 is a part of group of five closely spaced grooves, each carrying the same message, so arranged that any misalignment of the record 1 on the turnable 4, of the arm 3 in the guide-bar 7, or of the cartridge 22 in the transducer assembly 20, can be accomodated by the needle 21 entering a groove slightly offset from the center groove 12 of the given group, without thereby generating an erroneous or confusing message through the speaker 9.

The record depicted in FIG. 7 is suitably restricted to thirty message components on a conventional twelve inch disk rotating at thirty-three and a third revolutions per minute, (33 its rpm), each component being carried on five parallel grooves.

Another embodiment of the invention, as shown in FIG. 8, achieves a larger capacity by utilizing both sides of a record disk simultaneously. A record 301 is mounted in vertical alignment on a shaft 309 passing through a matching, centrally located orifice 309a in the record 301. The shaft 309 and the supporting bearings and drive system are omitted from the illustration for the sake of clarity.

The record 301 is flanked by yoke pieces 306a and 30612, on a radial alignment with the center of rotation of the record, which carry individual transducer elements 122 corresponding in number and radial spacing to the grooves on either face of the record disk 301. The needles 121 of the transducers 122 are in permanent contact with their assigned grooves and generate electrical signals representing the pre-recorded message components from these grooves on each rotational movement of the disk. These signals are fed, by suitable wiring, into a switchbox 345, suitably composed of a number of inter-connected relays or solid-state switching elements, which may be so controlled from a keyboard or other command device, such as a computer (not shown), via a cable 357, as to connect the desired transducer output to another cable 351 leading to an amplifier and, thence, to a loudspeaker.

With this embodiment the number of possible message elements is first doubled by the simultaneous use of both sides of the recording 301 and further increased by the possibility or reducing the number of the redundant recording grooves; the transducers not being moved during the operation of the machine the relative alignment between a particular groove and its associated transducer 122 may be made very close by adjustments to the

yokes

306a and 306b and by the individual mountings 124 of the transducer elements.

FIG. 9 illustrates in detail the relative positions of the record 301, a particular groove 312 and the corre sponding transducer 122 and its needle 121 with transmission leads 126 and 127 issuing from the transducer for connection to the switchbox 345.

Yet another embodiment of the instant invention is shown in FIG. 10. A pedestal bearing 33 is mounted in the bottom of a rectangular enclosure 106 and carries one end of a shaft 109 in a vertical alignment. Two turntables, 104a and 104b, are mounted on shaft 109 and

support recording disks

101 and 201 respectively. A gear-wheel 32 is keyed to the shaft 109 and is engaged by a pinion 31 driven from a drive-motor 30 whose shaft 304 is also engaged by a brake 105. An internal partition 133 separates the drive and record compartments of the enclosure 106 and provides an upper bearing for the shaft 109.

Each of the

records

101 and 201 is surmounted by a bank of transducers mounted at the end of support members pivoted on one wall of the enclosure 106; a typical assembly being represented by transducer 222, support 224 and pivot 229.

There are, as noted hereinabove, thirty groups of recording grooves in each record disk, each supplied with a transducer. Each transducer 222 is connected electrically to a particular switching element in a keyboard 40 by one of

cables

58 and 59. Each switching element represents a particular message element; switch 41 being marked with the letter F for example and switch 42 with the letter O. Each of these switches is provided with suitable contacts which, upon depression of the switch key, cause the turn-table shaft 109 to execute one revolution the command signal being transmitted to drive motor 30 and brake 105 by cable 47 and cause the output of the corresponding transducer to be connected to amplifier 108 by cable 51. Such signal triggering the release of said brake 105 and the simultaneous automatic rotation of said co-operating turn-tables as is conventionally well-known in the prior art. The turn-tables subsequently stopped automatically upon the manual release of the depressed switch key thereby re-engaging the brake. Sufficient time is available between the end of any broadcasted recorded sound and the manual depression of the next selected switching key for further successive complete cycles of a single turn-table revolution. The amplifier 108, in turn, is connected to speaker 109 by lead 52 and causes the prerecorded sounds from the selected groove on either record, 101 or 201, to be broadcast by the speaker 109. It is noted that sufficient time is available for such manual operation of the apparatus of the invention as noted hereinabove, inasmuch as at 33% rpm (which is approximately 2 seconds per revolution), and since each message element takes only about a second of time to recite, approximately one-half of the recorded means on any track remains unused before the recorded means reaches its initial starting position for each of the recorded message elements. Thus, it is virtually impossible for one using the device properly to operate a switching key at the wrong" time, such as in the middle of digit, letter, etc. because almost half of each track in the disk is void of a message element. It is thus clearly inherent in the operation of such an apparatus that each cycle of operation occurs within a single revolution of the turn-tables.

By the extension of the principles demonstrated above it is possible to erect message generating devices which have access to a number recordings; FIG. 11 demonstrates the vocabulary of one such machine provided with six recording faces, either by six separate records, according to the art of FIG. 10, or by the six faces of three records according to the art of FIG. 8. These six recording faces each carry thirty distinct prerecorded sound components which provide a musical scale of two and a half octaves, the ordinal numbers in such a manner that any sensible combination may be derived, a set of words to compose any arbitrary message concerned with the use of such numbers in ordinary speech, the letters of the alphabet as well as the Morse-code equivalents of the alphabetic and number records.

While the above embodiments have been illustrated with references to the commonly utilized recording disk of the phonograph arts, it is understood that any analogous recording method and medium is equally applicable in the present invention; in particular the use of other sizes of recording disks, other speeds of drive, the use of impressed magnetic fields in a suitable surface stratum and the use of cylindrical drums as the recording forms are to be understood.

What is claimed is:

1. In a manually operated device having a frame for the generation of audible messages from pre-recorded sound components, comprising in combination:

a keyboard having a plurality of keys each bearing an indicia;

recorded means in the form of one or more bodies of revolution carrying on the surfaces thereof a multiplicity of pre-recorded message elements in parallel, finite arcuate tracks on at least one side of said recorded means;

shaft means, rotatively supported by bearing means in said frame, for supporting said recorded means about its rotational axis of generation in said frame;

means for restraining relative rotational motion as between said recorded means and said shaft means;

drive means for impelling the rotational motion of said shaft means at a uniform velocity and cooperatively associated brake means, for normally arresting rotational motion of said shaft means of said recorded means;

a plurality of transducer means, each one of said transducer means being in permanent alignment with one of said tracks for reading said prerecorded message elements on said track and converting same into electrical signals of fluctuating intensity;

amplifying means for said signals of fluctuating intensity;

broadcast means for the conversion of said signals of fluctuating intensity to audible sound;

control means, including a plurality of switching elements having contact means, for controlling signals transmitted to said brake means, whereby upon sequentially depressing manually selected keys having the desired indicia to be broadcasted as sequential audible message elements, said brake means is released upon each depression of a single key thereby permitting rotation of said recorded means, and upon the manual release of each of said depressed keys said brake means is re-engaged to stop said rotation; and

each of said message elements occupying substantially less then said full arcuate tracks so as to enable the manual release of said depressed key within the completion of one single revolution of said recorded means.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein said transducers are disposed on both sides of said record means, whereby both sides of the record means may be corded means is in the form of a substantially flat, circular disk of plastic material and said tracks form substantially parallel circular arcs on said disks; and said recorded means being rotated at approximately 33% rpm.

Claims

1. In a manually operated device having a frame for the generation of audible messages from pre-recorded sound components, comprising in combination: a keyboard having a plurality of keys each bearing an indicia; recorded means in the form of one or more bodies of revolution carrying on the surfaces thereof a multiplicity of pre-recorded message elements in parallel, finite arcuate tracks on at least one side of said recorded means; shaft means, rotatively supported by bearing means in said frame, for supporting said recorded means about its rotational axis of generation in said frame; means for restraining relative rotational motion as between said recorded means and said shaft meaNs; drive means for impelling the rotational motion of said shaft means at a uniform velocity and co-operatively associated brake means, for normally arresting rotational motion of said shaft means of said recorded means; a plurality of transducer means, each one of said transducer means being in permanent alignment with one of said tracks for reading said pre-recorded message elements on said track and converting same into electrical signals of fluctuating intensity; amplifying means for said signals of fluctuating intensity; broadcast means for the conversion of said signals of fluctuating intensity to audible sound; control means, including a plurality of switching elements having contact means, for controlling signals transmitted to said brake means, whereby upon sequentially depressing manually selected keys having the desired indicia to be broadcasted as sequential audible message elements, said brake means is released upon each depression of a single key thereby permitting rotation of said recorded means, and upon the manual release of each of said depressed keys said brake means is reengaged to stop said rotation; and each of said message elements occupying substantially less then said full arcuate tracks so as to enable the manual release of said depressed key within the completion of one single revolution of said recorded means.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein said transducers are disposed on both sides of said record means, whereby both sides of the record means may be utilized simultaneously so as to substantially increase the number of possible message units.

3. The device according to claim 1, wherein the number of pre-recorded message elements is a function of the number of recording grooves or parallel tracks in said record means.

4. The device according to claim 1, wherein said recorded means is in the form of a substantially flat, circular disk of plastic material and said tracks form substantially parallel circular arcs on said disks; and said recorded means being rotated at approximately 33 1/3 rpm.