Had a tight budget Digital Voice Recording (DVR)educational project in mind, & recalled those 10 second Hallmark recordable greeting cards,once popular in the early 90s. My 2005 idea involved modification to suit a Picaxe microcontroller, delivering user generated sounds rather than boring old speech synthesis. It's been done with a Basic Stamp & makes a most attention getting device! Sadly the Hallmark cards have long gone,as has also a later 90s "Yak-Bak" gizmo that repeated back ones voice or songs etc.Kids stuff!
Recordable postcards & photo albums ARE still around, but at the $$ level...
OK -they may have been novelties even at that time,but their quality electronics were worth more than the final toy! You know how it goes - take the guts from a solar powered garden lamp worth a few $US & create a $$$ electronic design...
The solid state (zero power EEPROM stored-good for 10+ years) electronics in these early DVRs gave suprisingly good speech quality,with circuitry usually based around (Winbond) Information Storage Devices (ISD)"ChipCorder" range. These chips alone retailed ~US$5-$10,typically as their ISD1110 or ISD1020. Fast forward to
2005,& their ISD1420 (=20 secs)& ISD2560 (60 secs)look the equivalent, with tradeoffs between recording time & bandwidth (= voice quality)now possible too. See a complete list =>OK- toy shop time. Guess I should have asked a 3 year old earlier on for my electronic market research, since -BINGO- a charming talkative Teddy Bear. These cuddly Wild Republic "Say & Send Friends" bears were apparently all the rage just last Xmas(2004), & presently sell ~US$10. The sound module is velco pouched within the bear, & gives a great quality 10 second greeting when it's tummy is pushed. Maybe have some recording fun with older kids(& yeah-teens!),then slide out the neat recorder for workshop enhancement & give the bear to a younger child? See a pix =>
Well that's the plan, but my nursing wife has promptly run off with the bear to amuse her patients. Further postings when Teddy reappears! Stan