Things are tough right now ...

They're tough for everyone :( But when coronavirus hit here in the UK, the museum had to close its doors to the public, and we lost practically all our income overnight.

No visitors, no workshops, no events, no school visits... no income. We know that things are tough for everyone right now, but if you can afford to help us through these tough times please donate what you can.

There's over 36,000 exhibits here! That should keep you occupied for a bit - get searching!

Or come and get involved on our social media channels ...

Thank you.

Texas Instruments introduced Speak & Spell

1978
Texas Instruments introduced Speak & Spell

Texas Instruments Inc. introduced Speak & Spell, a talking learning aid for ages 7 and up. Its debut marked the first electronic duplication of the human vocal tract on a single chip of silicon. Speak & Spell utilised linear predictive coding to formulate a mathematical model of the human vocal tract and predict a speech sample based on previous input. It transformed digital information processed through a filter into synthetic speech and could store more than 100 seconds of linguistic sounds.

The four individuals who began the Speak & Spell program were Gene Frantz, Richard Wiggins, Paul Breedlove, and George Brantingham.