Speak and Spell release | Synthesized speech joins the market | Techday, June 11th
On this TECHDAY in history, on June 11th 1978, Speak and Spell went on sale, and electronically synthesized speech was used commercially. It was a technologically innovative electronic educational game for children, developed by Texas Instruments. Through the game, the children learned the spelling of English words. The word was displayed on the device’s panel and, at the same time, spoken by it. The child, from then on, would have to type the word correctly. It went down in history as the first commercial application of digital voice synthesis.
Fun fact, the Speak and Spell redesigned twice under the same name in 1982. The model over the years faced many changes upon each release, with the last one being in 1992. This year marked the end of production and distribution of the model series. In 2009, though, it was named an IEEE Milestone.
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Author: PC-GR
The World of Technology
