
Texas Instruments’ Speak and Spell - sohkamyung
https://spectrum.ieee.org/consumer-electronics/gadgets/the-consumer-electronics-hall-of-fame-texas-instruments-speak-spell
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retrocryptid
As it turns out, my uncle, Ralph Dosher, was the executive in charge of green-
lighting the Speak-n-Spell. Before he died, I had the pleasure of talking with
him about the Speak 'n Spell and TI LOGO as he was preparing a memoir of his
50+ years at GSI/TI.

According to my uncle's notes, this story is mostly true, but misses some of
the nuances.

First, you have to remember that corporate culture in TI in the mid-70s was
not at all like what is common in Sili Valley today. TI in the mid-70s was
considerably more "locked down" than modern, small, nimble companies.

To say that management saw little value in it is not exactly correct. It's
probably more fair to say they weren't ready to even think about new ideas. I
would not be surprised to learn that TI at the time made year-long plans on
January 2nd and didn't stop to think about new ideas until December 30th.

But there was definitely interest in educational devices among TI execs. I
know my mother (an Educational Psychologist) frequently talked with my uncle
(Exec in charge of Educational Initiatives) about such a project for several
years before the release of the Speak-n-Spell after extended contact with
Seymour Papert, Cynthia Solomon and Logo.

What _is_ true is TI wasn't sure what product they should make and Breedlove,
et al. did rather gobsmack TI management when it was presented to them. (The
story I heard was the concept was nearly fully developed when presented.)

The problem was that their immediate management, who were busy building
calculators, did not know how the SnS fit into the calculator line. The story
my uncle recounted was there was a process in place to make sure good ideas
made it to management; but it did take a while. Either Breedlove or Wiggens
supposedly pulled a corporate social faux pas by trying to leap-frog over the
established process.

To our modern silicon valley sensitivities, this would be an obvious thing to
do: if you find you're blocked, you just go around the blockage. But TI in the
mid-70s was still culturally staid.

Complicating matters further, the engineering team was in Lubbock and the
execs they needed to talk to were in Dallas.

A better way of putting this is Breedlove, et al. were way ahead of their
immediate management in Lubbock and it took a while for them to figure out who
in Dallas they needed to talk to. Saying exec management didn't think it
should be produced is a bit simplistic.

~~~
Electric_Genie
I was the editor of that story at Spectrum. Your notes might be very valuable
to future writers on that seminal project. If you ever wish to talk about them
I can be reached at g dot zorpette at ieee dot org. Thanks for taking the time
to share your recollections here.

~~~
retrocryptid
My cousin is the one with the _real_ trove of notes. Let me get her your email
address.

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imglorp
> Wiggins and Brantingham specified and designed the chip entirely by
> themselves and without any approvals from anyone, according to Frantz. TI
> management had neglected to fit the project into any particular reporting
> structure, and that suited the four team members just fine. In Frantz’s
> estimation, the lack of “help” from management gave Wiggins and Brantingham
> the freedom they needed to figure out a successful design.

I am dying to know what was learned internally at TI after this regarding
project oversight. I think we all KNOW that the way get things done is hand
out the tools and get the hell out of the way. This seems to be the message at
Skunk Works, Bell labs, Xerox PARC etc.

But when the pressure is on, your Big Corp is GOING to lay on the product,
tech, marketing, etc etc governance, replete with timelines, KPIs, budgeting,
accounts, timesheets, yada yada. This kills the project.

~~~
throwaway_9e38
I really wish my experience were that cut and dry. This strategy seems to me
to depend super strongly on the quality of the developers/engineers, and their
commitment to getting work done (c.f. your examples: Skunk Works, Bell Labs,
PARC, etc -- I really wish I worked in such an environment!).

There are people who are good at seeming busy, but who wildly overestimate,
take every opportunity to get bogged down on some trivial obstacle,
chronically misunderstand objectives/values, can't consistently put three
words in a row correctly, and just seem in general to be the weak link; those
people need to be managed.

~~~
waiquoo
It's also really interesting the effect of management to drive timelines and
innovation. If you look at the Apollo program, there was a ton of innovation
driven by a incredibly fast design/launch cycle. Well managed timelines and
goals can have a focusing effect (point the innovators in the most effective
direction and give them the tools). The issue is when meeting the timelines
and goals BECOMES the measure, rather than measuring effect. At that point
it's just teaching the test and micromanaging.

~~~
imglorp
That's an extreme and useful counterexample. Did anyone distill Apollo project
management lessons learned into something we can apply now?

~~~
waiquoo
Of course. Here are couple interesting papers by NASA leadership from the
Apollo era (PDF warning):

[https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/197200...](https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19720005243.pdf)

[https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/293253main_62682main_jerry_madden_f...](https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/293253main_62682main_jerry_madden_forum7.pdf)

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adrianmonk
Unless you were alive during that time, it's hard to relate to how
technologically impressive this gadget was when it came out. It was not only
beyond expectations of what a toy could do, it was beyond expectations of what
any product could do.

As I recall, people had no experience with speech synthesis in their everyday
lives. There were no automated phone systems with a computer voice you called
into. This technology was something you _might_ think could be done in a lab
somewhere, but not everyone would have necessarily even thought that.

And suddenly there was this device -- a child's toy no less -- that was
compact and portable and battery powered, and it was _talking to you_.
Interactively, which also added to the novelty because most people didn't have
home computers and many didn't use a computer at work at all either.

~~~
noneeeed
I'm 41, I frequently have to remind myself of just how far tech has come in
just the time I've been alive, especially when dealing with bewildered older
people.

My first computer, the ZX Spectrum, was simple enough that we assembled and
programmed a roughly equivalent machine from scratch on breadboard in my first
year at uni.

I recently resurrected my old Big Track robot/tank toy from my dads loft for
my son to play with. Its over 30 years old, and has less computing power than
an electric window controller, but back then it was the most futuristic thing
I could imagine. My boy absolutely loves it. Its just the right level of
sophistication for a 5yo, although I need to stick a volume control on it :)

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sixothree
I had one of these as a kid. I opened it up and used wires to connect
different chips, eventually finding one that "made it talk funny".
Unfortunately the plastic casing was not user serviceable and had a long
discussion with the parents who thought I was troubled. Thankfully they
understood and took it as a sign to do the best they could to make electronics
and computers available to me. Many trips to radio shack were the result.

~~~
arafa
My friend used to be into "bending" talking toys this way. My favorite was the
bent Furbys they took the "fur" off of:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srf1oreJ_Vo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srf1oreJ_Vo)

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simonswords82
Speak and Spell is the first educational toy I remember using as a child.
There was also a Speak & Math that I was lucky enough to own too.

In hindsight, it was probably my first introduction to basic computing and
programming. I now run a software development company.

The guys who decided to pursue the creation of these devices positively
impacted the lives of so many children. What a lovely story.

~~~
pro_zac
I had 3 of these (Speak & Spell, Speak & Math, and Speak & Read). I can still
hear the voice of the Speak & Math game "Greater than, less than"

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heyflyguy
"That is incorrect, the correct spelling is..."

I attribute my early vocabulary and spelling to this little machine. Awesome,
just awesome history.

~~~
starvingbear
P-O-T-S-CHHCKUMPH-A-T-O Potato.. top notch.

I cant look at a potato without that machines voice in my head

~~~
cwilkes
I can’t think about the word for a small land mass in the ocean without saying
“spell ISLE meaning island”

Which now that I typed it up looks like it should be pronounced “is-Lee”

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sohkamyung
For those who want to know more about the Speak N Spell, check out this book,
"The Speak N Spell" by Gene Frantz [1]

[1] [https://cnx.org/contents/swFM2W46@5.12:6sbZNcLi@4/Speak-N-
Sp...](https://cnx.org/contents/swFM2W46@5.12:6sbZNcLi@4/Speak-N-Spell-
Introduction)

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tgtweak
Very fond memories of using this as a child... On top of that I'm sure it
still works today just as well as it did back then. Something to be said about
purpose built ICs.

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Digit-Al
A friend of mine had one of those. Oh what fun we had making it carefully
enunciate rude words and phrases lol

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hiroshi3110
Ah, the machine penguins use to talk to humans.
[https://madagascar.fandom.com/wiki/Speak_and_Spell](https://madagascar.fandom.com/wiki/Speak_and_Spell)

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agumonkey
a french electronician did some repair video

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lyqbo45Ygs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lyqbo45Ygs)

I hope you can enjoy beside the language "barriere"

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dade_
"You are correct, now spell YACHT"

How I miss the 80's.

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jpm_sd
I'm a little bit disappointed that they didn't mention the critical role
played by Speak & Spell in the movie "E.T.":

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-
Terrestrial#/me...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-
Terrestrial#/media/File:ET_Communicator_Cropped.jpg)

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dillonmckay
Has anybody used one recently with their children?

I was considering purchasing a ‘new’ model as a gift.

~~~
TehCorwiz
I used to circuit-bend Speak & Spell / Speak & Math and my kids still play
with one or two I have kicking around. On the one hand it sounds cool, and for
most things it isn't unintelligible. On the other, the speech synthesis does
have its limitations and foibles. I've been playing with then since I was a
kid and I still can't make it out some of the time. If my kids can't
understand it they don't seem bothered by it. I'd say that even with those
limitations it's still moderately educational insofar as alphabet and basic
vocabulary practice are concerned, but the word list is fairly limited.

On the physical side I still enjoy the simplicity of the device. It's tactile
in ways that touchscreens aren't, even if you have the one with the membrane
keyboard. My kids can pick it up, turn it on, and start typing letters and get
letter & words read aloud, no tutorial or parent permission required. I love
that it's an appliance, I don't have to worry about in-app purchases, ads, and
all the other modern consumerist trappings.

It's not perfect and not deep, but then not everything needs to be. Sometimes
good enough can be great.

------
JoeDaDude
I'd be curious to know if the TI implementation of LPC in chip form led to, or
influenced, the creation of a Federal Standard for Voice Coding, FS-1015,
which was used in some military radios at the time.

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lightedman
My father brought me one of these when he worked at TI, along with my first
computer, a TI 99/4A. I might even still have them in storage.

