Externally, it appears like a normal greeting card. Just a little bulky, perhaps, and a little heavier than you’d expect, but often, nothing unusual. But when you wide open it, a tune begins and a movie-preview speech booms out a note. Yes, this is a performing, talking greeting cards. In spite of the fact that cards like these have been with us for a considerable length of time, they stay enough of an oddity to embrace you by ponder. Furthermore, a portion of these even let senders record their own particular music or messages.
The innovation that underlies such cards is a variety of various sciences: microelectronics, out-dated mechanics and financial aspects. Over a novelty item such as this, price is of the substance. While people will planting season for $3 for an ordinary card, they don’t go much above that for the one that sings. Fortunately, an inexpensive Greeting Card Music Chip does most of the project. A respected chip, the very small Chipcorder (from Information Storage Devices), not only provides enough space to record a brief note or jingle, but also integrates audio filters and amplifiers — all on a silicon chip so small that six of them could fit perfectly on the postage stamp.
Chipcorders record analog sound, not the digital audio usually associated with microelectronics, and once and for all reasons. For one, it removes the cost of the two converters required by PC sound cards and modems to change over simple cautions into computerized markers, at that point switch the procedure. Since simple sound doesn’t should be encoded and compacted like computerized sound, it requires up altogether less space for capacity, which additionally minimizes expenses.
These sound-recording chips were first advertised in the principal 1990’s for use in phone voice-mail, lightweight transcription gadgets and intuitive books. Be that as it may, since potato chips with moderately concise sparing circumstances of 10 or 20 seconds can be made efficiently, they relocated normally to oddity things like welcome charge cards. Toward the beginning of 1998, they likewise discovered their way into in excess of 12,000 NEW YORK cabs: They will be the innovation behind the hotshot voices that remind anybody to lock in, get a receipt and take every one of your things when you clear out.
Whatever they are being used for, Chipcorders need a sign to tell them to start out playing. This is the only mechanical part of the complete operation, which is very low technical. In handmade cards, the circuit board filled with the Chipcorder is glued to a newspaper mounting. A vinyl tab keeps two electrical contacts from touching the other person and closing a circuit.
The paper mounting mounted on the finish of the plastic tab is then stuck in the crease in the welcome card. Starting the card steps the tab back; it slips out from between the two partners, enabling the circuit to be finished. The delivering electrical flag says the Chipcorder to learn.
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The chips can easily be recorded over, for at least thousands of repeat recordings. However, not all singing greeting cards enable you to record your own emails, because it costs more to add that capabilities. All Chipcorders have the ability for re-recording, yet additionally for clients to record their own sounds requires that each card have yet another progress and a mouthpiece, and the ones cost cash to purchase and introduce. In spite of the way that they are basically generally little things, they push up the estimation of a card to around $10, which is steep notwithstanding for the high-edge handcrafted cards showcase.
It’s economics that has prevented music greeting cards from becoming widespread. The typical outlets for handmade cards — bookstores, drugstores, card shops and, ever more, supermarkets — are high-overhead corporations that absorb profit margins. With regards to the electric outlet, regular credit cards retail for $1 to $4, with about 50 % of this being earnings. The Chipcorder, batteries and speaker can cost just what a retail store is ready to purchase a greeting card, pricing singing credit cards from the retail channel. So some big greeting card companies which may have experimented with singing credit cards, like Gibson Greetings, no more manufacture them.