A LOW COST PRODUCT DESIGNED TO INTERFACE WITH A PERSONAL COMPUTER, WHICH WILL VOCALIZE WORDS IN THE COMPUTER'S MEMORY.

THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROJECT IS TO INVESTIGATE COST EFFECTIVE (LOW COST/HIGH PERFORMANCE) PRODUCTS AND APPLICATIONS DESIGNED TO INTERFACE WITH A PERSONAL COMPUTER, WHICH WILL VOCALIZE UPON A GIVEN COMMAND WORDS OR PROCESSES WHICH HAVE BEEN STORED IN THE COMPUTER'S MEMORY OR ARE DISPLAYED ON THE COMPUTER MONITOR. THE PRODUCT GOAL IS THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD WHICH CAN BE INSERTED INTO ONE OF THE BUS SLOTS ON AN IBM OR EQUIVALENT PERSONAL COMPUTER. THE USE OF THIS SYSTEM IN AN EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT INCLUDE: (1) PROMPTING AND VOCALIZING SPECIFIC WORDS IN ANY TEXT WHICH HAVE BEEN PREVIOUSLY STORED ON DISK: (2) VOCALIZING AND PROMPTING MATHEMATICAL PROCESSES FOR TEACHINGMATHEMATICS: AND, (3) READING FROM THE COMPUTER TEXT INPUT FROM ANY SOURCE. A COMPUTER WHICH CAN VOCALIZE WORDS AT THE USERS SIGNAL IS OF PARTICULAR IMPORTANCE IN SPECIAL EDUCATION AS A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF STUDENTS CAN RELATE TO SPEECH YET HAVE COGNITIVE OR PERCEPTUAL DEFICITS WITH SYMBOLS (WRITTEN TEXT OR NUMBERS).