JP2003091229A - Learning device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a learning device capable of learning English words, etc., with pleasure. SOLUTION: The learning device is dice shaped and outputs a picture and pronunciation corresponding to the face facing upward. A learner pronounces the word and also learns the spelling accordingly. Thus, the learner can learn, while playing dice, randomly outputted words. Also, by inputting an answer into the dice to judge whether the answer is correct or not and integrating the number of correct answers and incorrect answers to sum up the ratio, the correct answer rate is calculated and the degree of learning progress can be judged.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a learning device capable of learning English words while rolling and playing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various devices for making children learn English words have been put into practical use. One of them is a device including a card having a magnetic stripe and a card scanner. This is to draw pictures of animals etc. on the surface of the card and record the pronunciation of the English word corresponding to that animal on the magnetic stripe, and let the motor driven card scanner scan it to pronounce English words. there were.

[0003]

However, in such a device, the task of setting a card in the card scanner is simple and uninteresting, and since the next card to be set is known in advance, it is possible to avoid unexpectedness and play. There are no elements,
There is a problem that children learning English words etc. soon get bored.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a learning device capable of learning English words while rolling and having fun.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is an apparatus housed in a polyhedron housing, and stores a display unit provided on each surface of the polyhedron and an image corresponding to each surface of the polyhedron. Storage means and a control means for displaying an image corresponding to the surface on the display portion of the surface facing the predetermined direction when the device is rolled and then stopped. To do.

The present invention is an apparatus housed in a polyhedron casing, and a display section provided on each surface of the polyhedron,
A sound output unit provided on the surface of the housing, a storage unit for storing images and sounds corresponding to the respective faces of the polyhedron, and when the device is rolled and then stopped, the device faces in a predetermined direction at that time. And a control unit for displaying an image corresponding to the surface on the display unit of the surface and outputting a sound corresponding to the surface from the sound output unit.

The present invention is an apparatus housed in a polyhedron casing, and a display section provided on each surface of the polyhedron,
Input means for the user to perform an input operation, storage means for storing question information corresponding to each surface of the polyhedron and an answer thereto, and when the device is rolled and then stopped, facing a predetermined direction at that time. The question information corresponding to the face is displayed on the display part of the face, and when the answer is input from the input means corresponding to this display, the display part indicates whether the answer is a correct answer or an incorrect answer. And a control means for displaying on the display.

The present invention is characterized in that, in the above-mentioned invention, means for updating the storage contents of the storage means is provided. The present invention is characterized in that, in the above-mentioned invention, the housing has a regular polyhedron shape.

The learning device of the present invention is housed in a polyhedron housing. If the casing is a regular polyhedron such as a cube (cube), it is possible to equalize the probability of which surface will come into contact with the ground and stop when rolled. Further, by setting the center of gravity of the whole as the center of the regular polyhedron, the probability can be made more uniform.

When rolling and stopping, an image corresponding to a surface facing a predetermined direction is displayed. The surface facing the predetermined direction is generally the surface facing the ground plane (upper surface)
However, in the case of a polyhedron such as a regular tetrahedron that does not have a surface facing the ground contact surface, the surface in a predetermined direction may be determined.

The learning contents stored in the storage means are images, voices, question information, etc. The images and voices are, for example, images of animals and pronunciation of English words representing the animals. Also, an image of the problem of addition or multiplication and a voice of the answer may be used. The question information includes spelling of English words, problems of addition and multiplication, and the like, and the answer may be input from the input means.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an external view of a dice-type learning device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the learning device. This learning device is housed in a cubic (dice-shaped) housing 1, and a display unit 2 including a liquid crystal display 15 and a touch panel switch 16 is provided on the surface of each surface. In a normal state, the display unit on each side displays 1 to 6 eyes similar to those of a general dice. A large number of small holes 3 for speakers are formed near two opposite vertices of the cubic casing 1. A speaker 18 is provided inside each.

This device is used by a user (learner) shaking it like a dice. When the robot rolls and then stops, an image of the animal is displayed corresponding to the upper surface and the corresponding English word (the English name) is pronounced. The user practices the pronunciation of English words in accordance with this, and then answers the question of spelling displayed on the screen.

In FIG. 1, a cover 4 is provided on one side of the housing 1. Inside the lid 4 removed, a battery case and a power switch (not shown) are provided. The user uses this device by removing the lid 4, setting the battery, turning on the power switch, and then closing the lid 4 again.
In addition, inside the lid 4, a program memory 11, which will be described later,
A connector for the data memory 12 may be provided.

In the block diagram of FIG. 2, a control unit 10 including a microcomputer includes a program memory 11, a data memory 12, a sensor 13, a display control unit 14, and a voice processing unit 1.
7, the input detection unit 19, and the communication unit 20 are connected.

The program memory 11 stores a control program for controlling the operation of the learning device. The data memory 12 stores a plurality of images, a crying voice, an English pronunciation voice, question and answer data, and the like. Both the program memory 11 and the data memory 12 may be directly attached to the board, but these can be replaced by the user by making them memory cards or memory cartridges and connecting them to the control unit 10 via sockets. You may Further, the programs and data may be rewritable from the outside via the communication unit 20.

Of the six surfaces of the housing, the sensor 13 has which surface faces upward (or which surface is grounded).
A sensor that detects the direction of gravity and can detect the direction of gravity by enclosing a ball made of mercury or metal. The control unit 10 detects, based on the detection content of this sensor, that this device is swung like a dice and is rolling, and as a result, which surface is facing upward.

The display control unit 14 includes a memory for expanding an image read from the data memory 12 by the control unit 10 and a memory 6
A selector is provided for switching to which of the liquid crystal displays 15 on the surface the image is displayed. The display control unit 14 receives from the control unit 10 which surface is facing upward, and outputs / displays the image developed in the memory on the liquid crystal display 15 of the surface facing upward.

The voice signal processing unit 17 is provided with a DAC and an amplifier, and converts the squealing voice read out from the data memory 11 by the control unit 10 and the pronunciation voice of English words into an analog voice signal and amplifies it. Output. The input detection unit 19 is a functional unit that scans the touch panel switch 16 provided on the surface of the six-sided liquid crystal display 15 to detect which part of which surface the user is pressing. The six touch panel switches 16 may be sequentially scanned, and the control unit 1
It may be configured such that information indicating which surface faces upward is input from 0, and only the touch panel switch on that surface is scanned.

The communication unit 20 may be means for communicating with the host by wireless communication such as Bluetooth, or may be means for communicating with the host through a cable such as USB. In the case of a means for communicating with a host by a cable, the connector is built in the housing 1, and when communicating, the lid 4 is opened to connect the connector and the cable.

The contents communicated with the host by the communication unit 20 are stored in the programs stored in the program memory 11, the data stored in the data memory 12, the internal memory of the control unit 10 or a part of the data memory 12. For example, sucking up the usage log.

FIG. 3 shows an example of contents stored in the data memory 12 when it operates as a learning device for English words. In this example, the classification of the animal can be learned along with the name of the animal. In the data memory 12, mammals 1, mammals 2, birds, reptiles, amphibians,
Data of animals belonging to the genre of fish is stored. Each data is an image of the animal, if there is a cry, that cry, pronunciation of the English word of that name (voice data),
It consists of question information for asking spelling and answer data. The data of the above problem may be text data,
An image of this is displayed. When the learning device is rolled and stopped, the genre corresponding to the upper surface is selected, and 1 is selected from a plurality of data belonging to the genre.
Select one to display its contents or output as voice.

The operation of the learning device will be described with reference to the display example of FIG. 4 and the flowchart of FIG. Figure 5
In the flowchart, when the power is turned on, the dice of 1 to 6 are displayed on each of the six liquid crystal displays (s1: FIG. 4 (A)). Then, the counter that counts the number of questions, the number of correct answers, and the number of incorrect answers is reset (s2). After this, the process waits until rolling is detected (s3). This rolling detection is to detect a state in which the user rolls by rolling like a dice. When the rolling is detected, the process proceeds to s4 and waits until the rolling stops and the stationary state is reached (s4). When the rolling stops, it is detected which surface (active surface) is facing upward (s5). When an active surface which is a surface facing upward is detected, one data corresponding to the active surface is selected from the data memory 12 (s
6). This selection is an operation of selecting a genre (data group) corresponding to the active surface and randomly selecting one data from the genre. The selected data is read (s7), the image is developed and displayed on the liquid crystal display 15 on the active surface (s8: FIG. 4).
(B)). At the same time, if the data includes a cry, the voice is reproduced and output from the speaker 18 (s8 '). After that, the voice in which the English word corresponding to this animal is pronounced is reproduced and output from the speaker 18 (s
9). The user repeats this pronunciation to practice the pronunciation of the word.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4C, a question asking the spelling of the word is displayed (s10). This is a selection problem of selecting the correct spelling, and the user presses the correct spelling among them with his / her finger. The pressed position is detected by the touch panel switch 16 and the input detection unit 19, and the control unit 10 detects which spelling is selected based on the detection content (s12). Then, it is judged whether or not this is a correct answer by comparing with the answer data included in the above data (s13). If the answer is correct,
A "correct answer" screen as shown in FIG. 4D is displayed on the display (s14), and the number of questions and the number of correct answers are counted up (s15). On the other hand, if the answer is incorrect, a “mistake” screen as shown in FIG. 4 (E) is displayed on the display (s1
6) Count up the number of questions and the number of wrong answers (s1
7). After that, statistics such as the number of questions and the percentage of correct answers are displayed (s18). After this is displayed for a certain period of time, these displays are erased, the display 15 is returned to the display of the dice (s19), and the process returns to s3.

As described above, in this embodiment, the English words can be practiced while playing like dice, so that the English words can be learned while having fun without getting tired. It should be noted that this device is not limited to English words, and can be used for learning any content such as arithmetic calculation and reading of Chinese characters.

In this embodiment, the touch panel switch is used as the input means and is pressed by the finger, but it may be pressed by the pen. A key switch may be provided at a position different from the display. In this case, the key top of the key switch is prevented from protruding from the surface of the housing. Alternatively, the wireless communication function of the communication unit 20 may be used to receive an input from another device such as a PHS phone.

In this embodiment, the shape of the housing 1 is a cube (dice shape), but the shape of the housing is not limited to a cube and may be a rectangular parallelepiped or another hexahedron. In this case, it becomes possible to control by biasing the probability of which surface touches and stops when rolling,
It can be expected to improve the game. Further, in this case, since the display area can be made different for each surface, the display contents for each surface can be made diverse.

Further, it is not limited to a hexahedron such as a cube, and other polyhedron may be used. In this case, since the number of surfaces to be displayed is increased, it is possible to prepare a plurality of display contents so as to have variety. Further, in the case of a polyhedron, the display area can be made different for each surface, so that the display contents for each surface can be made diverse. Further, in the case of a polyhedron, it is possible to control the probability of which surface comes into contact with the ground and stops when it is rolled, by intentionally biasing it depending on the shape, and it is expected that the game property is improved.

Further, if the polyhedron is a regular polyhedron (eg, regular tetrahedron, regular hexahedron, regular octahedron, regular dodecahedron, regular icosahedron, etc.), which face will come into contact with the ground and stop when rolled. The probabilities can be made uniform, and the probabilities can be made more uniform by making the center of gravity of the whole the center of the regular polyhedron.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, learning contents such as images, voices, and questions are output by rolling a polyhedron shape such as dice, so that learning can be performed with a sense of play. Further, which content is output depends on the chance of rolling, so that it is possible to provide a game property.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of a dice-shaped learning device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the learning device.

FIG. 3 is an internal configuration diagram of a data memory of the learning device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a display example of a display of the learning device.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the learning device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Housing, 2 ... Display part, 3 ... Small hole for speaker, 4 ... Lid,
10 ... Control unit, 11 ... Data memory, 12 ... Program memory, 13 ... Sensor, 14 ... Display control unit, 15 ... Liquid crystal display, 16 ... Touch panel switch, 17 ... Voice signal processing unit, 18 ... Speaker, 19 ... Input detection Part, 2
0 ... Communication section

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Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A device housed in a polyhedron housing, comprising: a display unit provided on each face of the polyhedron; a storage unit for storing an image corresponding to each face of the polyhedron; A control device for displaying an image corresponding to the surface on the display portion of the surface facing the predetermined direction when stopped after the learning device. 2. A device housed in a polyhedron housing, comprising: a display unit provided on each surface of the polyhedron; an audio output unit provided on a surface of the housing; and a device corresponding to each surface of the polyhedron. When the device is rolled and then stopped, the display unit of the surface facing the predetermined direction at that time displays the image corresponding to that surface and A learning device comprising: a control unit that outputs a corresponding voice from a voice output unit. 3. A device housed in a casing of a polyhedron, comprising: a display unit provided on each face of the polyhedron; input means for a user to perform an input operation; and a unit corresponding to each face of the polyhedron. The storage means for storing the question information and its answer, and when the device is rolled and then stopped, the question information corresponding to that surface is displayed on the display section of the surface facing the predetermined direction at this time. A learning device comprising: control means for displaying on the display unit whether the answer is a correct answer or an incorrect answer when an answer is input from the input means in correspondence with the display. 4. The learning device according to claim 1, further comprising means for updating the storage content of the storage means. 5. The learning device according to claim 1, wherein the housing is a regular polyhedron.