DATAMATH CALCULATOR MUSEUM

Texas Instruments Speak & Learn Magic Wand

Date of introduction:	1983	Display technology:	n.a.
New price:		Display size:
Size:	11.0" x 11-0" x 2.3"
Weight:	26 ounces	Serial No:
Batteries:	4*D cells	Date of manufacture:	wk 46 year 1983
AC-Adapter:		Origin of manufacture:	USA
Precision:		Integrated circuits:	C14007, TMS5220, CD2228
Memories:
Program steps:		Courtesy of:	Joerg Woerner

The MAGIC WAND was introduced in the year 1983 with the suffix "SPEAK & LEARN". Both together gives you an imagination of the technology behind this rare educational toy:

A small barcode reader catches words and sounds from a text book and the synthesizer technology borrowed from the earlier Speak & Spell, Speak & Math or the Speak & Read reproduces it.

Find some additional pictures of the Magic Wand:

The barcode reader (wand) outside the holster. It is attached to a long cable to reach the huge book.
A side view of the barcode reader. The black tip on the right is made from infrared transmissive plastic. Inside you will find a Infrared LED as transmitter and a transistor as receiver.
Click on the picture to view the related book.
This picture gives you a view of the opened book. The barcodes are entered from the left to the right.
One page of the book with all the barcodes printed.
The printed circuit board (PCB) of the Spaek & learn ressembles the latest edition of the TMS5220 speech synthesizer technology.

MAGIC WAND Available Books

Unfortunately Texas Instruments never released a list of the available barcode-books of the Speak & Learn MAGIC WAND but the fellow collector James Townsend compiles it himself:
(Bradley Mariska provided additional informations about "The Berenstain Bears". Thanks !)

Title	Level	ISBN	Copyright
Mister Roger's Planet Purple	1 - Toddler	0-89512-092-5	© 1983 First Edition Family Communications, Inc.
My First Animal Book	1 - Toddler	0-89512-085-2	© 1983 First Edition Texas Instruments Incorporated
The Droopy Dragon	2 - Preschool		© 1982 First Edition Texas Instruments Incorporated
Talking E.T. Wordbook	2 - Preschool		© 1982 First Edition Universal City Studios, Inc.
The Alphabet Zoo	2 - Preschool	0-89512-059-3	© 1982 Second Edition Texas Instruments Incorporated
The Noisy Number Robots	2 - Preschool	0-89512-060-7	© 1982 First Edition Texas Instruments Incorporated
PicturePages^® Makes Science Simple	2 - Preschool	0-89512-093-3	© 1982 First Edition PicturePages^®, Inc.
The Berenstain Bears Olympics	2 - Preschool	0-89512-070-4	© 1983 First Edition The Berenstain Bears
The Sprites' Adventures on Earth	3 - Early Elementary		© 1982 First Edition Texas Instruments Incorporated
The Wonderful Sound Store	3 - Early Elementary	0-89512-061-5	© 1982 Second Edition Texas Instruments Incorporated
The Amazing Spider-Man in Skyscraper Caper	3 - Early Elementary		© 1982 First Edition MARVEL COMICS GROUP
The Berenstain Bears On the Job	3 - Early Elementary	0-89512-069-0	© 1983 First Edition Stanley and Janice Berenstain
The Great Monster Party	3 - Early Elementary	0-89512-074-7	© 1983 First Edition The Berenstain Bears
Zany Zingers	3 - Early Elementary	0-89512-086-0	© 1983 First Edition Texas Instruments Incorporated
Scooter Computer and Mr. Chips	3 - Early Elementary	0-89512-088-7	© 1983 First Edition American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.
Mac's Big Surprise	3 - Early Elementary	0-89512-058-5	© 1982 Second Edition Texas Instruments Incorporated

MAGIC WAND Speaking Reader

"LPC allophone speech was also used in the TI MAGIC WAND Speaking Reader, a product that came out shortly before Texas Instruments discontinued its Consumer Products Division in 1983. Text-to-speech capability was used in the development of bar-code readable books for children as a first-pass generating of the strings of allophones and their accompanying prosody. The first-pass strings would then be edited to produce the optimal allophone strings and prosody that would then be coded into bar-codes under the written text of the printed book. A small bar-code reader could then be passed over the bar-code and the MAGIC WAND reader would string the stored allophones together to speak the passage."

Kathleen M. Goudie Marshall, (1979-1983 Member of Technical Staff, TI Consumer Products Division, Lubbock, TX)

If you have additions to the above article please email: joerg@datamath.org.