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Description  |
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Copending Applications
2. CONTROL SYSTEM AND METHOD Ser. No. 134,958 filed on Apr. 19, 1971 by
Gilbert P. Hyatt;
3. CONTROL APPARATUS Ser. No. 135,040 filed on Apr. 19, 1971 by Gilbert P.
Hyatt;
4. COMPUTERIZED NUMERICAL CONTROL SYSTEM FOR PARTS PROGRAM CHECKOUT,
EDITING, AND EXECUTION Ser. No. 230,872 filed on Mar. 1, 1972 by Gilbert
P. Hyatt;
5. DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM HAVING A STORED PROGRAM COMPUTER DEDICATED TO THE
NUMERICAL CONTROL OF A MACHINE Ser. No. 232,459 filed on Mar. 7, 1972 by
Gilbert P. Hyatt;
6. APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR REAL TIME MACHINE CONTROL WITH A STORED PROGRAM
DATA PROCESSOR Ser. No. 246,867 filed on Apr. 24, 1972 by Gilbert P.
Hyatt;
7. COMPUTERIZED SYSTEM FOR OPERATOR INTERACTION Ser. No. 288,247 filed on
Sept. 11, 1972 by Gilbert P. Hyatt; and
8. APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING HIGH REGISTRATION PHOTO-MASKS Ser.
No. 229,213 filed on Apr. 13, 1972 by Gilbert P. Hyatt now U.S. Pat. No.
3,820,894 issued on June 28, 1974;
9. STORED PROGRAM DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM FOR DIRECT CONTROL OF A MACHINE IN
REAL TIME WITH DISCRETE SIGNALS Ser. No. 291,394 filed on Sept. 22, 1972
by Gilbert P. Hyatt;
10. DEDICATED COMPUTER SYSTEM FOR REAL TIME PATH CONTROL Ser. No. 302,771
filed on Nov. 1, 1972 by Gilbert P. Hyatt;
Are incorporated by reference and the present application is further
related to concurrently filed patent applications
11. APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING INTERACTIVE AUDIO COMMUNICATION Ser.
No. 325,933 filed on Jan. 22, 1973 by Gilbert P. Hyatt;
and is still further related to copending patent applications
12. INTERACTIVE CONTROL SYSTEM Ser. No. 101,449 filed on Dec. 28, 1970 by
Lee, Cole, Hirsch, Hyatt, and Wimmer now abandoned in favor of a
continuing application; and
13. ADAPTIVE ILLUMINATION SOURCE INTENSITY CONTROL DEVICE Ser. No. 152,105
filed on June 11, 1971 by Lee, Wimmer, and Hyatt now U.S. Pat. No.
3,738,242 issued on June 12, 1973;
wherein these copending patent applications are incorporated by reference
as if fully set forth at length herein.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE OF SECTION
Abstract of disclosure
cross reference to related applications
background of the invention
field of the invention
prior art
summary of the invention
brief description of the drawings
detailed description of the invention
audionic program operations
audionic program generation
elemental converter
operation
applications
audionic calculator
audionic clock
audionic typewriter
audionic cash register
multi-terminal system
vehicular announcuator
audionic medical testor
audionic data concentrator
audionic musical instruments
audionic monitor
scope and definitions
claims
background of the invention
1. field of the Invention
This invention relates to electronic calculators and in particular an audio
message arrangement for improved operator interaction.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Electronic calculators have typically been implemented with special purpose
logic for data processing and with illuminated display subsystems for
operator interaction. Although audio systems have been used for special
arrangements such as for telephone answering systems, they have not been
used with calculators.
Audio reply systems have taken the form of tape recorders, phonograph
records, and other well known electromechanical devices. Speech is
recorded on a medium such as a magnetic tape, then played back as required
to provide the audio message.
Automatic playback devices are known in the prior art such as with
telephone answering systems that answer with recorded instructions on a
first magnetic tape, then record a telephone message on a second magnetic
tape. These electro-mechanical systems are typically bulky, unreliable,
and inflexible which characteristics are inherent in electro-mechanical
devices. Also, these prior art arrangements only provide sequential access
for generating fixed messages and do not provide the capability for
general message build-up. Therefore, multitudes of potential applications
have not been feasible in the prior art due to the limitations of this
equipment.
Electronic musical instruments such as electronic organs are known in the
prior art. Although these instruments do not provide speech messages, they
are exemplary of one type of prior art arrangements. These instruments
provide for the selection of oscillators and filters, where the
oscillators generate the desired tones and the filters shape and combine
the waveforms to generate complex sounds. The oscillators and filters are
analog devices, selected with operator switches and controls. These analog
devices are limited in capability and do not easily lend themselves to
monolithic processes.
The prior art is further defined in the art of record associated with the
referenced patent applications, wherein this art of record is incorporated
herein by reference as if fully set forth at length herein.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a calculator system for improved operator
communication. In particular, a digital audionic system is presented for
speech messages also known as speech replies. This arrangement has been
found to be particularly advantageous in a system using digital data
processing and, in particular, in dedicated systems using a stored program
data processor.
Many prior art devices rely on visual displays for operator feedback such
as a calculator and a clock. The operator must visually inspect the device
to determine the condition, state, or information to be provided; which
can result in distracting the operator from other tasks. The audionic
device of this invention provides an audionic or speech feedback message
which can be received by the operator without distraction from visual
tasks and with a minimum of operator effort.
An audionic calculator system exemplifies this invention, where an operator
may be viewing a column of numbers and entering the numbers digitally
through a keyboard without taking his vision from the column of numbers.
In prior art calculators, the operator must view a display and will not be
cognizant of errors in entering the numbers when not visually monitoring
the feedback display. With the use of an audionic calculator, the system
will reply with audio messages to define the information entered and the
solutions without requiring the operator to take his vision from the
column of numbers.
The audionic system of this invention may also be used in applications
other than the calculator application as described herein.
The digital audionic system of this invention distinguishes over the prior
art systems and provides advantages over those prior art systems. The
digital arrangement for generating audio signals differs from the
mechanical techniques such as used in the tape recorders and differs from
the electronic analog techniques such as with oscillators and filters. The
digital form of this invention has many advantages over the prior art
arrangements including virtually unlimited flexibility to develop audionic
messages and suitability for batch fabrication such as with integrated
circuit processes.
The audionic system has been found to have particular advantages in
portable devices because of the low power consumption and small size
characteristics.
The audionic system can provide lower power consumption than is possible
with prior art display systems. The audio reply may be an intermittant
reply with a single sequence of audio characters. This is contrasted to a
continuous visual display required to insure operator acceptance of the
displayed information. In addition, the efficient conversion of electrical
to audio energy can be achieved with a miniature high efficiency
transducer. Therefore, average power drain can be extremely low.
The audionic system can be of small size and simplified packaging when
compared to a bank of display characters. A single miniature audio
transducer can be made extremely small because there is no inherent human
factors requirement for size such as for display devices in which the
operator must be able to visually resolve the displayed characters. Also,
package configuration is not critical with an audionic device because the
orientation relative to the operator is not critical, where audio energy
can be interpreted around corners or from inside a pocket of a garment
being worn by an operator and is not restricted to "line of sight" as with
visual displays.
The audionic device can be a batch fabricated device where the same
manufacturing process may be used for virtually all parts of the device
with the possible exception of a miniature transducer. The monolithic
technology can be used to batch fabricate a processor, an audionic memory,
and an audionic D/A converter on a single integrated circuit chip or array
of integrated circuit chips providing what is defined herein as a
monolithic audionic system.
The audionic calculator can be implemented as illustrated for the
generalized audionic device in FIG. 1. Various peripherals or extremities
may be added or eliminated as required for the particular application as
described in the referenced application Ser. No. 101,881. For example, the
keyboard or tape reader may be used to load information into an audionic
system such as for initial condition setting. After loading, the system
may not require a keyboard. Therefore, the keyboard can be implemented as
a plug-in device and need not be an integral part of the system.
The particular embodiments discussed herein indicate the flexibility of the
audionic device which can be used in a wide range of systems including
vehicles such as an automobile, inhabited structures including a home and
an office, equipment including a typewriter and an oscilloscope, and other
such uses. In general, the audionic device can be used for most
applications that require a system to interact with an operator.
In this invention, digital audionic signals representative of speech are
stored and available for speech message generation under control of a
digital device which may be a digital computer. The digital audionic
signals can be accessed in a random access manner. This permits the
digital device to select various digital audionic signals in a
programmable sequence and to build up a more complex speech pattern.
An audionic system is implemented with an audionic memory for storing
audionic information, a digital data processor which may be a stored
program digital computer for processing the audionic information, and an
audio transducer for converting the digital audionic information into
audionic replies. The transducer may include a digital-to-analog (D/A)
converter to convert the digital signals to analog signals and a speaker
or earphone to convert these analog signals to sound waves. The digital
processing may include retrieval of a sequence of stored audionic samples
or may involve computations to generate many samples from optimized
information.
In an illustrated embodiment, the audionic system includes a stored program
digital data processor which executes program routines to derive digital
samples that are used to make-up the speech message. A D/A converter is
used to convert the audio samples to analog signals which are amplified
and used to drive an audio transducer such as a speaker or ear phone.
An object of this invention is to provide a practical audionic system.
A further object of this invention is to provide an audionic calculator
system.
The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of this invention
will be apparent from the following detailed description of preferred
embodiments of this invention, as illustrated in the accompanying
drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWINGS
A better understanding of the invention may be had from a consideration of
the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the following
drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the system comprising FIG. 1A showing a
general purpose data processing system having audio response capability
and FIG. 1B showing the audio response portion of the system of FIG. 1A.
FIG. 2 is a diagram of the control and display panel.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram and schematic diagram of the converter subsystem.
FIG. 4 illustrates audionic signals comprising FIG. 4A showing a first
waveform to exemplify audio signal buildup and FIG. 4B showing a second
waveform to exemplify superposition of waveforms.
FIG. 5 shows program flow diagrams of audionic operations comprising FIG.
5A showing an executive routine, FIG. 5B showing a flow diagram related to
generating the waveform of FIG. 4A, FIG. 5C showing a flow diagram related
to generating the waveforms to FIG. 4B, and FIG. 5D showing a flow diagram
related to signal buildup.
FIG. 6 shows a program flow diagram of converter operations.
FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an audionic communication link.
FIGS. 1 and 2 of this application are generally the same as the
corresponding figures in the previously referenced parent applications,
Data Processing System and Factored Data Processing System for Dedicated
Business Applications; with minor changes such as with the reassignment of
reference numerals to make those figures compatible with the form of this
application.
By way of introduction of the illustrated embodiment, the components shown
in FIGS. 1 through 7 of the drawings have been assigned general reference
numerals and a brief description of such components is given in the
following description. The components in each figure have in general been
assigned three digit reference numerals wherein the hundreds digit of the
reference numerals corresponds to the figure number. For example, the
components in FIG. 1 have reference numerals between 100 and 199 and the
components in FIG. 2 have reference numerals between 200 and 299 except
that the same components appearing in successive drawing figures has
maintained the first reference numeral.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The audionic system of this invention can take any of a number of possible
forms. A preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1
and will be described in detail hereafter.
This application is a continuation-in-part of the previously referenced
application, Ser. No. 101,881 and relates more specifically to an audionic
message system which may be provided by applying the general teachings of
the parent applications to the specific context of this audionic system
for operator interaction.
The system of this invention is exemplified by the system disclosed in the
parent applications and shown in FIG. 1A. As discussed in the parent
applications, the system peripherals and extremities may be changed to
meet the requirements of the particular application while still
exemplifying the teachings of that invention. For example, the data
processing system 110 has been shown as a numerical control system for
controlling a milling machine 124, where input and output peripheral
subsystems have been described which are suitable for performing this
desired control function in the previously referenced application Ser. No.
101,881. However, those skilled in the art will readily recognize that the
numerical control system is merely illustrative of the present invention
and the principles of that invention are equally applicable to other
systems such as audionic systems described herein in which different forms
of input and output peripheral subsystems might be used to perform the
particular task of such other systems. An audionic subsystem is shown in
FIG. 1B to illustrate the audionic application of the system of this
invention.
In the preferred embodiment, the system of this invention is a dedicated
data processing system; where the data processor 112 is a stored program
data processor committed to one or more prime tasks. As shown in FIG. 1,
the data processor 112 performs a system prime task under program control
such as the numerical control of a machine 124 or such as calculator
processing in conjunction with an operator through control panel 114 and
display panel 118. In the system of this invention, an audionic subsystem
100 including audionic interface 102 and transducer 104 is provided for
operator communication, where the peripherals not required for this
audionic system such as the machine 124 of the numerical control
application are not included in the system.
The data processor 112 may also perform system subtasks such as processor
coaction for operation of a peripheral as discussed for the factored or
integrated data processing system of the parent applications and as
discussed for the analog-to-digital (A/D) converter hereafter.
It is within the scope of this invention to provide a display panel 118 as
an auxiliary operator interface in the audionic system and may be
refreshed such as under computer program control as described in detail in
the referenced applications. It is still further within the scope of this
invention to provide computer processing of switch rudimentary signals as
discussed in the referenced applications.
The data processor 112 operates under control of a program stored in the
main memory 130 and may operate in conjunction with a scratch pad memory
131. As discussed in the parent applications, the preferred embodiment of
this data processor is as a monolithic data processor, where the main
memory 130 is an integrated circuit read only memory and the scratch pad
or intermediate memory 131 is an integrated circuit alterable memory.
The data processor 112 operates in conjunction with a plurality of
peripherals which include an audionic subsystem which is shown in FIGS. 1B
and 3 and which may include an operator panel such as the control panel
114 or display panel 118 or both, which are shown in more detail in FIG.
2; a tape reader 116 which may be a punched tape reader; a data link 150
to communicate with a computer center 160; an auxiliary memory 152 such as
a rotating memory or other well known memory; line drivers and receivers
154 to communicate with various other subsystems; a typewriter 156; a CRT
display and light pen 158; and other such subsystems.
A reduced block diagram is shown in FIG. 1B where the system of FIG. 1A is
reduced to the specific form of an audionic system. Processor 112 is
responsive to information stored in memory 130 to provide audionic
messages 101 to audionic interface 102 to control transducer 104 with
signals 103. The transducer provides audio (sound) signals 105 in response
to electrical control signals 103. The data processor 112 is a stored
program data processor in a preferred embodiment but may be a special
purpose logic device in other embodiments. The interface 102 accepts
digital command signals 101 and generates transducer control signals 103.
In a preferred embodiment, audionic interface 102 includes a D/A converter
and amplifier to drive transducer 104 with analog control signals 103. A
preferred embodiment of a D/A converter 302 is discussed in detail
hereafter. Other embodiments will become obvious to those skilled in the
art. In other embodiments, audionic interface 102 can be implemented with
other control arrangements, where control signals 103 may be digital drive
signals or other such signals. It will become obvious to those skilled in
the art that other control or signal processing arrangements can be
provided for interface 102 that will be responsive to digital command
signals to provide the speech messages.
The audionic transducer 104 may be a well known speaker or earphone for
generating sound waves in an air medium or may be another type of
transducer that impresses audionic signals on other medium such as in
water or on a bone. Therefore, audionic signals may include sound waves,
speech waves, vibration, and other such signals. Various input subsystems
106 and output subsystems 108 may also be included in the audionic system
as required by the application.
As shown in FIG. 3, a parallel output register 324 receives digital signals
101 from data processor 112 to excite D/A converter 302. Register 324 is
exemplified by the C.sub.I Register shown in FIGS. 13 and 15 of the
referenced application Ser. No. 101,881. The digital signals C.sub.I15 Q
through C.sub.I10 Q select analog switches 314, which may be FET switches
or other well known circuits, to selectively excite the resistor ladder
316 to sum the signals from switches 314 to generate analog signal 306.
Amplifier 318 and power amplifier 320 will buffer, filter, and amplify
analog signal 306 to generate signal 103 to drive the sound transducer
104. Other circuit arrangements will become obvious to those skilled in
the art.
Operation of the audionic device is generally described with a constant
sample rate or a constant period between sample updates. An added degree
of flexibility and optimization is achieved with a variable sample rate or
update period. As will be discussed hereafter in conjunction with the
waveform of FIG. 4A and the program flow chart of FIG. 5B, a programmable
period T is provided to decrease the required number of samples, to
increase audio fidelity, and to generally increase the flexibility of the
audionic system.
The operation of this invention will be bette | | |
