Apparatus for use in learning a skill for example typing, reading, spelling, employing a keyboard

1,116,812. Educational appliances. CAMBRIDGE CONSULTANTS Ltd. 26 Nov., 1965 [27 Nov., 1964; 8 March, 1965], Nos. 48413/64 and 9808/65. Heading G5G. [Also in Division B6F. Apparatus for teaching reading, spelling, shorthand, arithmetic, braille and the like or for the operation of keyboards, comprises a keyboard 27 having electrical contacts wired to a comparator 26 and a tape sensing device 20 operated from a record tape containing information to be typed, and also wired to the comparator which presents an output indicative of coincidence or non-coincidence of signals from the keyboard and tape and when there is no coincidence an indication is given to the operator. The keyboard, Fig. 1b (not shown), has finger guide bars or division members (102) separating the keys into groups to be used by one finger and has a cover (103) to obscure the keys from the operator. The home keys upon which the fingers should rest are indicated by heating, vibrating the keys, by passing currents of air through them or by specially shaping the keys. A timing device (104), a character counter and an error counter (105, 106) are provided. The keyboard, which may be an ordinary typewriter fitted with the required electrical contacts, is coupled (107) to the apparatus, Fig. 1a (not shown), which comprises, a sheet 110 giving details of the typing exercise and which may be automatically advanced, and a series of normally invisible lamps 112 representative of the keys of the keyboard. One of these lights is lit if there is no coincidence between the required character and the actual character typed. On Fig. 4, the lamp is shown by reference 40 and is illuminated to indicate an error and the position of the correct key. The lamp is lit after a timing delay controlled by a circuit 32 and through an " AND " gate 38 connected to the sensing device 20 via coder 21 and to a gate 22 through the timing circuit 32. The timing circuit is manually adjustable and is also automatically adjusted according to the speed of typing: The timing circuit may be " beaten " by the operator if both the backspace key and the correct key is operated before the lamp is illuminated. If a lamp does light further typing is prevented until a back-spacing key is depressed. This removes the " non-coincidence " output from a line 43 and the keyboard contacts 27 are reconnected to earth via a gate 42. The lamp 40 is extinguished and the information tape is advanced by a tape drive 31. The output on the line 43 or the