GB1089338A - Teaching machines - Google Patents

Abstract

1,089,338. Educational appliances etc.; tape recorders. T. KORN. Oct. 9, 1904 [Oct. 14, 1963], No. 41325/64. Headings G5G and G5R. To enable a student learning e.g. a language, where a correct pronunciation is important, to hear the effect of his own voice at the moment of speaking, he wears earphones, mounted in a helmet 2, Fig. 1, to screen him from extraneous noise, and speaks into a microphone connected via amplifier/filter means 4, which transmits to the earphones the complement of the so-defined " parasitic conduction " through his own bonestructure, resulting in his apparent hearing of his voice as heard by others. The same effect may be achieved by an acoustie conduit connecting a mouthpiece to one (or two) ear pieces and having a suitable acoustic filter therein, Fig. 8 (not shown). A teacher may intercommunicate selectively with several students, Fig. 2A (not shown), each of whom is provided with a "corrective" feedback device 4, as in Fig. 1. Preferably a student hears model sounds from a tape 9, Fig. 3, at spaced intervals, and during the spaces records his attempts at imitation on a second tape 10 while he listens to his speech as modified by the filter 4. The student may also record the model sounds on the tape 10 for subsequent comparison by playback, Fig. 3A (not shown). The frequency response of the " parasitic conduction " is as in Fig. 5 (not shown), and the filter 4 of known R-C construction is adjusted between the correction curves of Fig. 6 (not shown) depending on the general level in use, two variable resistor controls. Fig. 7 (not shown), being ganged, so that overall gain and " correction " may be varied together.