A Microprocessor-Controlled User-Interactive Information Dissemination System

A telephone dial access, user-interactive, information dissemination system is described which incorporates up to eleven tape recorders controlled by an Intel 8085 microprocessor. The system has a dial-in capability permitting the caller to select any one of ten messages he may wish to hear. In addition, all recorded messages are played to the caller as rate-altered or time compressed speech (rate of transmission is changed from that produced by the speaker). The speech rate may be selected independently for each tape recorder, ranging from normal (1.0) to 1.7 times the normal speed. The combination of rate-altered speech and user-interactive capability permits this system to be very efficient for many information dissemination tasks.