Abstract:
This invention is an interactive reading system comprising a book or other similar printed material and a reading wand. The book can be of varied design and can be manufactured using existing printing methods. The reading wand comprising an electronic circuitry that will decode words on the book and provide audio playback of the associated word.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     Not Applicable  
       FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH  
       [0002]     Not Applicable  
       SEQUENCE LISTING OR PROGRAM  
       [0003]     Not Applicable  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION-FIELD OF INVENTION  
       [0004]     This invention relates to an education aid, particularly to an interactive reading system.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0005]     In regards to reading, it has been research that children starts to learn letters and the names of various objects by audible repetition accompanied by visualization of the object. Books, and especially picture books, have always been useful and very instrumental for such a task. Numerous prior art detailed educational aids based on a varied configuration of books, but however good the book is there still requires the presence of an individual that can provide the audible repetition. Some prior art has attempted to solve this problem such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,641,401 B2 to Wood et al, (Nov. 4 2003). Here a device with multiple templates is described. It allows the user to obtain audio playback of words associated with a picture. This was bulky and expensive since each set of templates required a memory module. U.S. Pat. No. RE38286 E to Flowers (Oct. 28 2003) discloses a position location system, which has subsequently been incorporated into systems that can provide audio playback based on user selection. Again, this was bulky and expensive.  
         [0006]     Accordingly, several objects and advantages of the present invention are to provide a system that will interactively playback works as directed by a user, the system is to be inexpensive and does not require a bulky based unit for operation.  
         [0007]     Still further objects and advantages will become apparent from consideration of the ensuing description and drawings.  
       SUMMARY  
       [0008]     In accordance with the above-mentioned objects and advantages, the present invention consists of an interactive reading system, the system comprising a book or other similar printed material and a reading wand. The book can be of varied design and can be manufactured using existing printing methods. The reading wand comprising an electronic circuitry that will decode words on the book and provide audio playback of the associated word.  
     
    
     DRAWINGS-FIGURES  
       [0009]      FIG. 1  shows a view of the interactive reading system;  
         [0010]      FIG. 2  shows a detailed view of the reading wand;  
         [0011]      FIGS. 3   a  and  3   b  shows a representation of the printed composition; and  
         [0012]      FIG. 4  shows a block diagram representation of the reading wand. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0013]      FIG. 1  shows an overview of an interactive reading system in an operational environment. The interactive reading system comprises of a book  10  or other similar printed material and a reading wand  12 . The book  10  consists of a front cover  100  and a plurality of printed pages  102   a ,  102   b ,  102   c  . . . . The front cover  100  consists of a sheet of magnet or other similar magnetic material.  FIG. 2  shows the reading wand in detail showing the wand&#39;s enclosure and the location of the speaker  28 . A detail section shows the tip of the reading wand comprising a magnetic field receiver  200 , a plunger  202 , a spring  204  and a switch  206 .  FIGS. 3   a  and  3   b  shows different preferred embodiments of the printed composition of the book  10 . A printed code  30  is shown with a generic printed content. The printed code  30  is constructed to be invisible to the user and consists of linear strips of magnetic ink. In  FIG. 3   a  the composition consist of a paper based  306 , a magnetic ink layer  304 , a separator layer  302  and a top graphic layer  300 .  FIG. 3   b  shows an alternate composition. Here a multiple print process is shown consisting of a plurality of ink layers  308  and a plurality of magnetic ink layers  310 ,  312 . The latter is possible due to manufacturing advances in magnetic ink composition giving rise to varied colored magnetic inks. The printed code  30  is fully contained within the generic printed content. For example a generic printed content could be “DOG” and within this text would be the printed code  30  corresponding to DOG. In this way, the generic printed content provides a visual guide to a user to locate and scan the printed code  30 .  FIG. 4  shows a block diagram representation of an electronic circuitry of the reading wand comprising a speaker  208  being driven by an audio driver  402 . A magnetic field receiver  200  when activated by a switch  206  sends a code to a processing unit  400  where the code is mapped to an audio file stored in a memory array  404 .  
         [0014]     ASIDE: Magnetic ink character reader—Magnetic ink is a suspension of ferrous magnetic power in a solvent liquid. Magnetic ink is similar in properties to other inks with the added feature that the ferrous magnetic power can retain small magnetic fields i.e. the ink can exhibit a magnetic field. Since is similar to other inks the same printing processes can be used for magnetic inks as for standard inks. Uses for magnetic ink have been documented in many prior art such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,148,010 to Shiau, (Apr. 3 1979). Most of the applications for magnetic ink are related to security or fraud prevention such as used in US paper money system. The use of magnetic ink in this particular application is to provide an invisible code. The code is a simple bar type code consisting of a plurality of vary width magnetic ink interspaced with a plurality of vary width spaces.  
         [0015]     The ferrous magnetic powder retains a magnetic field for a period of time and gradually the magnetic field decays until its undetectable. For it to function correctly the ferrous magnetic powder has to be magnetized prior to being sensed.  
         [0000]     Operations.  
         [0016]     The book  10  in its closed state causes the magnet of the front cover  100  to induce a magnetic field into the magnetic ink layer  304 ,  310 ,  312 . With the book  100  opened, a user pushes down the reading wand  12  making contact between the magnetic field receiver  200  and the generic printed content. This force causes the plunger  202  to depress and engage the switch  206 . Once so engaged the user slides the magnetic field receiver  200  across the generic printed content and hence the printed code  30 . Engaging the switch  206  causes the reading wand circuitry to wake up from a low power sleep state. The magnetic field receiver  200  produces an electrical representation of the printed code  30  and conditions this electrical representation to a first digital code. The memory array  404  is pre-programmed with a database of codes, each code with a plurality of associated sound files. The processing unit  400  searches the memory array  404  for a code corresponding to the first digital code. If a match is found the associated sound files are transmitted to the audio driver  402  for conversion into analog signals to drive the speaker  208 . If no matches are produced then a generic sound file, for example “Word not recognize, please scan again.”, will be transmitted to the audio driver  402 . Once the sound files are completed, the reading wand circuitry will enter a low power sleep state.  
         [0000]     Conclusion, Ramifications and Scope of Invention.  
         [0017]     Thus, the reader will see that the interactive reading system of the present invention provides a portable yet economical system for locating objects. Furthermore, the apparatus has the additional advantages in that 
        it is simple and inexpensive to manufacture; and     it does not require a bulky base unit to interact with a user.        
 
         [0020]     While my above description contains much specificity, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the invention, but rather as an exemplification of one preferred embodiment thereof. Many other variations are possible such as a second preferred embodiment whereby the book  10  consist of unbound individual pages.  
         [0021]     Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be determined not by the embodiment illustrated, but by the appended claims and their legal equivalent.