Who came up with the idea for the Speak & Spell?
RW: Generally, Paul Breedlove is credited with of a learning aid for spelling. BE: What was the ultimate goal or aim of the Speak & Spell? RW: To serve as a learning aid for spelling…right away, it was clear that it should be capable of “calling out” the spelling words. BE: When did Speak & Spell development begin, and where did development take place? RW: It began in November of 1976, when Paul Breedlove won a small amount of financing to try to prove the concept of a learning aid for spelling. Paul’s suggested name was “The Spelling Bee.” BE: How big was the Speak & Spell development team, and who else was involved? RW: Initially, there were only a very few people involved. At the initial meeting in November, Paul Breedlove came over to the research Labs with Gene Frantz and Larry Brantingham from the Consumer Products Group. The result of that meeting was that I was to propose a technique for generating the speech in the product. The challenge was that it had to be solid state (no p
RW: Generally, Paul Breedlove is credited with of a learning aid for spelling. BE: What was the ultimate goal or aim of the Speak & Spell? RW: To serve as a learning aid for spelling…right away, it was clear that it should be capable of “calling out” the spelling words. BE: When did Speak & Spell development begin, and where did development take place? RW: It began in November of 1976, when Paul Breedlove won a small amount of financing to try to prove the concept of a learning aid for spelling. Paul’s suggested name was “The Spelling Bee.” BE: How big was the Speak & Spell development team, and who else was involved? RW: Initially, there were only a very few people involved. At the initial meeting in November, Paul Breedlove came over to the research Labs with Gene Frantz and Larry Brantingham from the Consumer Products Group. The result of that meeting was that I was to propose a technique for generating the speech in the product. The challenge was that it had to be solid state (no p
