Even pinker than before, this iteration sports a new translucent shell and a new locking mechanism. The remake has been described by some as a drive to keep the girl-facing, biometric speech solution relevant in the current recessionary market-which has slowed the already recently slow biometric market.
The new locking mechanism may be a response to the old fold-over-styled security system that drew criticism for its perceived flimsiness. Version 6 now opens more like a book than a folder-version 5’s design, which numerous Amazon reviewers noted was easily pried open.
“It’s a piece of plastic. A nosy brother…who pries [sic] it open will break the lock,” noted reviewer K. Nettles of 5, adding, “This journal is not going to overcome problems with lack of mutual respect within a household.”
Since we haven’t been able to get a hold of a copy for ourselves, we can’t say whether these issues have been resolved. From pictures, though, it seems that the translucent cover produces new security concerns, namely that the contents are visible.
As for whether underlying speech technology supplied by embedded provider Sensory’s has been improved, we don’t know.
The journals actual ability to recognize a correct password and correctly establish a speaker’s identity has long been the source of critical ruminations in its decade’s long existence.
One review by Jed N. Kaplowitz contends that even though the journal “was so fickle about the way [my daughter] spoke the secret code, it wasn’t fickle at all about who entered it. Her brother’s voice worked just as well to open it, and it turned out my deeper voice opened [sic] it too. I could say a word that was close to the original and it would open,” he writes in an Amazon post titled “Made my daughter cry.”
“My daughter tried using it by hiding it in her room, but she quickly lost interest in it, and now it’s on the bottom of her toy box,” the post adds.
The GTPWJ also has its fair share of devotees of course; it has, after all, been in manufacture for 10 years.
One review by Lydia Cummings gushes “I own one, and it is such a wonderful thing to have!…I know all the secrets to owning it,” before offering a number of tips which require owning a piano and speaking your password at a consistent tone.
I asked Sensory’s CEO, Todd Mozer, if he knew whether there had been any updates for the GirlTech this time around and he wasn’t sure. Apparently, there are and have been a couple of different versions that are on the market.
Mozer says that the journal is his company’s longest running product, lasting something like 10 years.
“I’ve heard that it’s the best selling girl’s electronic product of all time. I’m confident it’s also the best selling consumer/low cost biometric product in the world,” he writes in an email to Speech Tech Blog.
Since its inception, the product has seen several IC upgrades and three technology upgrades. It’s gotten a ton more physical makeovers, too, and I expect we’ll keep seeing them if they keep selling. I expect my brother Adam B. will keep buying them too…
Speech Heads, I’m sure some of you out there are well familiar with today’s highlighted technology: The Talking Bottle Opener. Any one of you with a speechy sports fan in your life who loves knocking back a cold one while they watch the big game has doubtlessly seen one of these.
Personally, I can say that my father has a drawer full of these things in his kitchen. There’s the one that plays the University of Miami fight song; another that features Curly Howard (of Three Stooges fame) saying, How about a beer? Nyuk, nyuk, nyuck; one that has Homer Simpson saying, Ooo, beer!; and a number of other ones that I’ve more successfully suppressed from my memory.
My father, it should be noted, doesn’t even really drink. He’s one of these types that constantly tries to foist a bottle on his visitors without ever actually imbibing himself. Often times, I suspect he’s just trying to create opportunities to use his varied speech-enabled openers and only stocks his refrigerator with boxes of Costco-bought “Beers of the World” to use them.
My dad is pretty much just a big speech head with a real flair for novelty. In fact, he is probably where I inherited my own insatiable love of speech tech from.
Back to today’s tech, though. The talking bottle opener is a pretty straightforward device. It takes advantage of the natural conductive properties of most bottle caps. The opener’s metal teeth are essentially a broken electrical circuit. When you press the opener to the cap, the circuit between the teeth is completed by the metal cap, thus activating the speech and making the handheld device issue forth its pre-programmed utterance.
To the best of our knowledge at STB, none of the bottle openers have an onboard dynamic speech interface, though. Now, this may just be my pint of view, but it sure seems like some enterprising Speech Head could rig a beer opener with a TTS engine to make one, if she were so inclined.
Confession time, Speech Heads!
The reason I’m really writing this post is that I would like to solicit the speechmunity to produce a Speech Technology Blog talking bottle opener; one that uses my brother Adam B.’s own voice to utter some of his favorite catch phrases like Get speechy with it! or That’s speechlarious! or This IVR is bustin’ my brains!
Please, please, oh please. My birthday is in just a couple of weeks. Make my birthday wish come true, speech heads.
Today, we took a break from our well-worn beat of covering the major speech vendors to explore the smaller, individual speech market. We hit the streets of eBay lookin’ for a big score of little speech, and let me tell you: we were not disappointed by our findings.
On the higher end of things, we found this Dynavox augmented speech device that turns a Palm 3 into a portable TTS solution. Particularly handy for the impaired, the little guy is able to speak a number of useful pre-loaded phrases for common day-to-day scenarios. Add your own for that personal touch!
In a similar vein, a watch that really tells the time to the blind. This little beaut’ talks all the times from AM to PM.
O’ Speech Heads, never in all my years did I think I would see speech-enabled currency. But seller, directmktg, has ushered one mostly-kinda silver dollar right into our hands.
He/she trumpets out: “Hear the actual words spoken by the father of our country, President George Washington, 200 years ago. Just press the shield on the reverse and listen.”
The best part though, the very best part: the dollar is actual LEGAL TENDER (albeit in Liberia). You could go to the store, use the coin to play actual words spoken by George Washington, and then use that same coin to buy a bag Doritos Extreme Kickin’ Chili chips (albeit in Liberia).
Speech Heads, these auctions end soon, so don’t miss out! I know my brother Adam B. and I won’t!
This installment of our ongoing series in the history of speech is sure to bring nostalgic remembrances to all you Speech Heads born in the late 70s to early 80s. Just a little more than thirty years ago, Texas Instruments brought us an important development would change many a childhood. No. I’m not talking about the TI-89 calculator with your copy of “Drugwars” surreptitiously installed so you could slack off in the back of pre-calculus. I’m talking about the Speak & Spell.
Speak & Spell
I can see some speech-eyes rolling. “Really, Eric?” you’re asking, but hear me out. Despite it’s humble size, The Speak & Spell played an important role in Speech History. It was one of the first highly accurate and widely available text-to-speech products—really one of the first practical applications of speech synthesis for a consumer market.
The toy was a direct outgrowth of Texas Instrument’s bizarre 1970s experiments in speech synthesis. The world had just seen man create the tech required to reproduce human speech with tuned voices stored on ROMs. Seeing the potential of those speech fruits, Paul Breedlove, a TI engineer, began development of the Speak & Spell in 1976 with a paltry $25,000 budget. Yes, even then it seems that the world callously and stupidly turned a cold shoulder to speech. Breedlove, however, would be vindicated. Within two short years, the Speak & Spell was flying off the 1978 shelves.
Breedlove’s completed proof incorporated TI’s trademarked Solid State Speech technology, which stored full words in solid state the way calculators of those halcyon 1970s days stored numbers. The Speak & Spell even had a slot for “expansion module” cartridges, which could be inserted to beef up the onboard vocabulary. O’ the foresight of those Texas men! You can see the very same principles at work at today’s speech solutions, like with Nuance and their specific expansion vocabularies for radiology, or orthopedics, or (hopefully in the future) trucking—Nuance, if you’re reading this, I know that there’s at least one boy who’d like to see a CB trucker vocabulary for his Dragon Naturally Speaking rig next Christmas.
The Speak & Spell had its limitations though; limitations that in many ways highlighted some of the persistent problems of building vocabularies that have dogged us in speech.
In my own bucolic childhood, my friends and I would use the old S&S to try and spell dirty words we had found in the dictionary. I’m sure some of you Speech Heads out there did the same, only to find, with the same disappointing results my brother Adam B. and I saw, that words like “wiener” and “scuzzbucket” were not included in the machine’s rather limited vocabulary. Come to think of it, you couldn’t even find the latter term in the limited vocabulary of a late 80s dictionary, either.
Still, the Speak & Spell had great staying power. The machine was produced for nearly twenty years and saw many improvements over its 1978-1992 run. Its vacuum florescent display was replaced with liquid crystal, it was given a membrane keyboard (which in turn was changed from ABC to standard QWERTY layout), and it saw several releases in different languages.
Special fun fact about the different languages: there’s no regional lockout on the expansions, so you can plug a German cartridge into your English Speak & Spell and confuse the b’jeepers out of your friends.
More important than its technological significance though, is its impact on our cultural memory. The Speak & Spell, perhaps more than any other speech solution, has made its way into popular discourse. Various works of art make reference to it. Kraftwerk sampled it in their seminal work Computer World, E.T. famously used one to phone home, there’s one in Toy Story, Chucky played with one in Bride of Chucky, and Dane Cook (who isn’t funny at all) apparently has a shtick about it on his album Harmful if Swallowed. And these are just a few. A lot of musicians use modified Speak & Spells with bent circuts as instruments.
All this talk is probably getting you Speech Heads worked up into a heat. You’re probably just itching to visit mom and dad, and spend six hours trying to fish your old Speak & Spell from your childhood closet. You don’t have to, though. There are a bunch of emulators on the Internet for you to play with without having to suffer one of your father’s fishing stories or your mother’s constant criticism about your hygiene.
If the latest issue of Speech Technology hadn’t already gone to press, you might see me running through the labyrinth that is Speech Tech HQ, whilst shouting “Stop The Presses” as a crowd of sooty-faced newsboys stared at me with awe, respect and the deepest admiration.
“What’s he doing?” one would say.
“Haven’t you heard?” another would reply.“He just broke the Squawkers McCaw story wide open!”
And then, in the jubilation and drunken ecstasy that would naturally follow, the presses would grind to a halt, the magazine would be rewritten, and the world would learn of Squawkers McCaw: the new FurReal Friend Talking Animatronics Parrot from Hasbro.
That’s Right Speech-Heads: A Voice-Recognition Powered Toy Parrot.
According to Toysunder.com, Squawkers is a sassy, startlingly realistic, plush–plumed parrot that can speak more than forty-five words, phrases and sound effects—-including his signature “Squawk, Squawk, Squawk” Song and Dance.
From the site: “By teaching additional words and phrases, you can even ‘train’ Squawkers to talk back to you, just like a real parrot. Be sure you have [his] cracker on hand when he gets hungry otherwise you’ll hear about it.”
Squawkers comes with the aforementioned toy cracker, a remote control, a perch, and “with his advanced voice recognition system, can talk in a funny, squawky voice and repeat what your child says, just like an actual parrot.”
And Squawkers doesn’t stop there.He has a host of other speech features and makes a fine companion.
I should know.When my girlfriend went away to “visit family” for the Holidays, I found comfort in Squawkers velveteen plumage and the gentle robotic coo of his voice.Many a night, he and I would sit by the fire, swapping stories and sipping mulled wine. Ah, memories …
Squawkers McCaw is available here at Amazon.com for $81.99.
Well, well. I figured with Christmas upon us it would be kind of a slow week for the blog, but I have figured wrong.
There’s been an outpouring of response to my post about the GirlTech Password Journal (GTPJ). So far, the post has seen more comments than any in Speech Tech Blog history. A number of disgruntled Speech Heads have been writing in to say that they’re dissatisfied with the biometric speech solution. I can’t say for sure, but it seems like many of you out there have been coming to us, having maybe received one of these bad boys (well…girls, really) for Christmas feeling like you got the short end of the stick and looking for answers.
The chief complaint out there seems to be that the GTPJ not only keeps offending parties from reading the journal’s most private thoughts contained inside, but also the authorized user.
One reader put it best when he or she wrote, “MY 6 YEAR OLD SIXTER HAVE ONE BUT IT RUBISH.”
I have to admit, I’m kinda glad that we’ve tapped into a raw nerve here. Not only has it gotten a lot more people looking at the blog (always good), but it seems to be highlighting, in its own roundabout way, a perennial problem in speech: if you don’t spend a lot of money, there is a lot of short end of the stick to go around.
Because of high development costs and the increased centralization and consolidation of major sectors of the speech industry through mergers and acquisitions, this speech stuff has stayed relatively expensive for a long time. For large enterprises that can absorb the big expenses, quality hasn’t been an issue. They can spend the capital to get speech solutions that work with a high degree of accuracy and precision. However, when you’re making toys and are looking to keep costs low and maximize profits, that’s another story altogether.
I remember my sister’s Furby, for instance. That thing recognized what we were saying only maybe 30 percent of the time—and that’s probably being pretty generous. To keep toymaking costs low, the hardware and software on many speech-enabled kid’s products has been less than thrilling. This is particularly egregious when manufacturers make all sorts of promises to kids that the products just don’t deliver. The stuff never seems work like it does in the commercials, and many a child is left bawling mercilessly as his parents tear their hairs from the roots in wild frustration.
This isn’t true all over speech. We’re starting to see some positive movement in price, especially with speech-enabled smart phone apps–a lot of which are really good and free to boot. But speech, like history, doesn’t move in a straight line. So watch out.
I’ve said this all before when I warned “Caveat emptor” at the end of my original post about the GTPJ, but maybe I ought to translate this time around so there can be no question: Let the buyer beware. Yes, buyer beware, dear Speech Heads.
Ah, the Holiday Season. Truly, a time unlike any other here at Speech Tech Blog.
Just yesterday, my editor broke out his vast collection of Speech-Enabled Holiday Decorations. And of course, we all got into the spirit: eating Candy Canes, drinking Hot Toddies, Mulled Wine and Rubbing Alcohol, kissing inappropriately under the Mistletoe and, of course, decorating Speech Tech HQ.
The scene here is now one of high jocundity and elfin delight. Picture our office: a sprawling maze of tinsel covered cubicles, replete with drifts of fake snow and strings of kaleidoscopic colored lights, culminating in a glittering display cabinet showcasing our many Talking Holiday Decorations.
Do an of them really make use of Speech Technology?
Probably not.
But, here at Speech Tech Blog, that has never stopped us before. And it certainly won’t influence our decision making after five cups of my editor’s VoIP Holiday Magic Eggnog.
Among the Holiday Decorations for your consideration, Gentle Reader, are:
And, of course, don’t forget about the crown jewels of our office decorations: Our Talking Christmas Trees. So kickback with a Cup of Holiday Cheer and check out The Video:
While we were all sleeping and unaware, the once fledgling field of Girl Technology has advanced by leaps and bounds. Mattel has released a state-of-the-art “Girl Tech Password Journal.”
The journal promises girls a secure voice recognition password system that should allow only the authorized user access to its treasure trove of secrets. The thing is a kind of plastic folder that physically locks itself and opens only when a user speaks the correct password. It also uses some rudimentary voice recognition software to ensure that no one who has surreptitiously learned the password—like say a meddlesome younger brother or a nosy parent—can get in.
Further still, the journal recognizes a few other voice commands like light, date, and time, which provide access to more sundry features found inside. And if that wasn’t enough, Mattel has also provided “double the privacy” with additional analog security features like its Magic Pen and Glow Light. When used in conjunction, the Pen and Light “will reveal [your most private thoughts] only to you. The page will look blank to prying eyes!”
The Girl Tech Password Journal is only one of a steadily growing number of toys that have been coming out with voice recognition technology embedded into them. As voice technology has improved and become cheaper, it has trickled down into all sorts of unexpected places with increased sophistication in its applications.
Girls, before you run out and get one though, a word of caution: the Password Journal has some notable security flaws. As with all voice technology in the toy price range, the functionality is compromised greatly in order to cut costs. This is no advanced biometric solution. We know of at least one parent who was able to get into gain access to his daughter’s most private thoughts by speaking her password over and over in a high falsetto.
Caveat emptor, dear reader.
Eric B. —
June 17, 2009 @ 2:48 pm 
The GirlTech Password Journal has been given a make over for 2009, Dear Readers.
Speech Heads, I’m sure some of you out there are well familiar with today’s highlighted technology: The Talking Bottle Opener. Any one of you with a speechy sports fan in your life who loves knocking back a cold one while they watch the big game has doubtlessly seen one of these.
This installment of our ongoing series in the history of speech is sure to bring nostalgic remembrances to all you Speech Heads born in the late 70s to early 80s. Just a little more than thirty years ago, Texas Instruments brought us an important development would change many a childhood. No. I’m not talking about the 
In my own bucolic childhood, my friends and I would use the old S&S to try and spell dirty words we had found in the dictionary. I’m sure some of you Speech Heads out there did the same, only to find, with the same disappointing results my brother 
More important than its technological significance though, is its impact on our cultural memory. The Speak & Spell, perhaps more than any other speech solution, has made its way into popular discourse. Various works of art make reference to it. 
If the latest issue of 
Ah, the Holiday Season. Truly, a time unlike any other here at Speech Tech Blog.