Education and demonstration – Question or problem eliciting response – Correctness of response indicated to examine by...
Patent
1989-08-07
1991-02-05
Bahr, Robert
Education and demonstration
Question or problem eliciting response
Correctness of response indicated to examine by...
434327, 434335, 434201, 382 65, G09B 700
Patent
active
049900935
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to teaching and amusement apparatus.
Published European Specification 0099920 discloses teaching and amusement apparatus of considerable value. A self-contained electronic "pin" is used in conjunction with specially printed material to provide interactive teaching devices in the form of a book or worksheet having question and answer areas. The pen is used by the user in a self-teaching or amusement fashion. Reference should be made to that specification for further detail. Products embodying the invention described in that specification have been successfully commercialised under the Registered Trade Mark Questron and have secured substantial user acceptance.
However, such products are of limited application, and the range of activities which may be carried out using them is limited. The printing of the printed material may also require very close control to ensure it works properly, which, though achievable, is expensive and so increases the cost of the product. The problem is to extend the application of such devices without putting even greater constraints on the printing of the printed material.
The problem is solved in accordance with the invention, by providing a hand-held detector including a sensor head for discriminating between areas of printed intelligence carried on a substrate, the detector giving a sense perceptible indication dependent on a property of the area of printed intelligence against which it is placed, characterised in that the detector can be switched between an active mode in which it can be used to differentiate between areas of printed intelligence and a programming mode in which a set of operating instructions can be input to control the operation in the active mode, and in that the detector includes a screen for displaying a visual output of the sense perceptible indication.
Such detectors have the ma]or advantage that inexpensive manufacture of the printed material using standard printing techniques can be retained, and indeed the difficulties of providing material are eased, as if desired the discrimination effected by the detector can be on the basis of a visually distinguishable property, but the programmed instructions can compensate for that detectability to keep the amusement or learning activity interesting and challenging.
In the programming or learning mode, the detector is given a set of instructions which it uses to decide how to operate in an active mode. In the active mode the detector is used in conjunction with printed material to provide a wide variety of detailed responses, the detailed behaviour of the detector when used in conjunction with such printed material being conditioned by the data captured in its learning mode.
The most convenient way of putting the present invention to practice is of course by means of appropriate microelectronics, conveniently configured on a single chip, forming part of the detector. A simple switch or similar control may be used to switch the detector between learning and active modes, but the preferred mode of operation is to provide that on first being switched on the detector self-configures into a programming mode, and that it only changes to an active mode on receiving appropriate programming.
The preferred way of programming the detector is to provide, e.g. on the same sheet of printed material as the detector is to be used with in the active mode, a suitable code or the like which is "read" while the detector is in the learning mode and which is then used automatically by the detector to condition subsequent operations of the detector on that same sheet. This enables the coding for use in a learning mode and the material for use in an active mode to be printed on the same sheet and thus kept conveniently physically together and thus to minimise the occurrence in use of the detector learning to operate in one particular way which does not then correspond with the teaching or amusement data with which it is then used, i.e. it ensures that the detector and the paper are playing with the same rules.
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Frazer Stephen O.
Riddiford Martin P.
Bahr Robert
Doyle Jennifer L.
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