Speak & Spell
Educational Toy
1978 (designed), 1980 (manufactured)
1978 (designed), 1980 (manufactured)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
The Speak and Spell is a revolutionary children’s electronic teaching device and plaything first sold around the world in 1978. It consists of a portable plastic console with alphabetical membrane keyboard and a vacuum fluorescent display that could show words made of letters in a seven-segment formation. It teaches spelling through electronic synthesis of letter sounds and words through a variety of built-in games. It is considered to be the first portable electronic gaming device with interchangeable cartridge modules for different programmes.
It was developed by Texas Instruments Incorporated, a manufacturer of semiconductors and integrated circuit boards, based in Dallas, Texas and formed in 1951. They sold the world’s first microcontroller, a “calculator-on-a-chip”, in 1971, combining the functions of logic and memory of a calculator on a single device. This allowed for the miniaturization of calculators and, later, other electronic functions.
Following success with a mathematics teaching calculator for children, the Little Professor, in 1976 the team at Texas Instruments looked to teaching language. They realised that pronunciation would require speech, and at the time, speech synthesis did not exist outside outsize laboratory computing. The toy’s development necessitated the creation of solid-state speech circuitry, with no moving parts, unlike other tape recorder or pull-string record toys of the time. This would be the first innovation in digital signal processing of audio – processors of which have led to the development of diverse devices and functions such as mobile phones, medical imaging, and weather forecasting. The device would also incorporate a technique called linear predictive coding, for coding speech. This allowed the device to generate a word from a much smaller amount of data than a digitized recording of it would have taken up. Combining these new technologies in a toy for children’s education invited wider acceptance of computing in domestic settings. It is considered a milestone in personal computing, lauded by the USA’s Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers as a breakthrough device.
It was developed by Texas Instruments Incorporated, a manufacturer of semiconductors and integrated circuit boards, based in Dallas, Texas and formed in 1951. They sold the world’s first microcontroller, a “calculator-on-a-chip”, in 1971, combining the functions of logic and memory of a calculator on a single device. This allowed for the miniaturization of calculators and, later, other electronic functions.
Following success with a mathematics teaching calculator for children, the Little Professor, in 1976 the team at Texas Instruments looked to teaching language. They realised that pronunciation would require speech, and at the time, speech synthesis did not exist outside outsize laboratory computing. The toy’s development necessitated the creation of solid-state speech circuitry, with no moving parts, unlike other tape recorder or pull-string record toys of the time. This would be the first innovation in digital signal processing of audio – processors of which have led to the development of diverse devices and functions such as mobile phones, medical imaging, and weather forecasting. The device would also incorporate a technique called linear predictive coding, for coding speech. This allowed the device to generate a word from a much smaller amount of data than a digitized recording of it would have taken up. Combining these new technologies in a toy for children’s education invited wider acceptance of computing in domestic settings. It is considered a milestone in personal computing, lauded by the USA’s Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers as a breakthrough device.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Parts | This object consists of 2 parts.
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| Title | Speak & Spell (manufacturer's title) |
| Materials and techniques | Plastic, electronic components, printed card |
| Brief description | Handheld children's computer, Speak & Spell, Texas Instruments, USA, 1980 |
| Physical description | Handheld computer consisting of a red plastic casing with integrated handle at the top, a black plastic strip covering a speaker and a vacuum fluorescent display, and below that is a membrane keyboard with red, orange and yellow keys. The keys are an alphabetical keyboard, consonants are coloured orange, vowels are yellow, and other functions are red. The additional functions are described with yellow capital letters. With the computer is its original box. |
| Dimensions |
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| Production type | Mass produced |
| Gallery label |
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| Production | Speak & Spell was initially released in 1978. This is an example of a second generation Speak & Spell, the most recognisable and biggest selling model, with a membrane keyboard rather than the initial design which incorporated a chiclet keyboard. |
| Subject depicted | |
| Summary | The Speak and Spell is a revolutionary children’s electronic teaching device and plaything first sold around the world in 1978. It consists of a portable plastic console with alphabetical membrane keyboard and a vacuum fluorescent display that could show words made of letters in a seven-segment formation. It teaches spelling through electronic synthesis of letter sounds and words through a variety of built-in games. It is considered to be the first portable electronic gaming device with interchangeable cartridge modules for different programmes. It was developed by Texas Instruments Incorporated, a manufacturer of semiconductors and integrated circuit boards, based in Dallas, Texas and formed in 1951. They sold the world’s first microcontroller, a “calculator-on-a-chip”, in 1971, combining the functions of logic and memory of a calculator on a single device. This allowed for the miniaturization of calculators and, later, other electronic functions. Following success with a mathematics teaching calculator for children, the Little Professor, in 1976 the team at Texas Instruments looked to teaching language. They realised that pronunciation would require speech, and at the time, speech synthesis did not exist outside outsize laboratory computing. The toy’s development necessitated the creation of solid-state speech circuitry, with no moving parts, unlike other tape recorder or pull-string record toys of the time. This would be the first innovation in digital signal processing of audio – processors of which have led to the development of diverse devices and functions such as mobile phones, medical imaging, and weather forecasting. The device would also incorporate a technique called linear predictive coding, for coding speech. This allowed the device to generate a word from a much smaller amount of data than a digitized recording of it would have taken up. Combining these new technologies in a toy for children’s education invited wider acceptance of computing in domestic settings. It is considered a milestone in personal computing, lauded by the USA’s Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers as a breakthrough device. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | B.20-2022 |
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| Record created | October 6, 2021 |
| Record URL |
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