Tape cassette phrase retriever

#This invention has relation to a tape recorder/playback machine in which intelligence is recorded and played back on an audio tape permanently mounted on two takeup reels within a cassette which in turn is mounted in the recorder/playback machine. The invention has relation primarily to the playback phase of operation; and provides a mechanism whereby the tape in the tape recorder can be repeatedly backed up for any one of a number of preselected distances. This allows the user to stop the machine in a usual or preferred manner each time he has played back the section which he wants to repeat, to rewind a portion of the tape of just the right length back past the playback head, and then to start the playback machine in any usual or preferred manner; thus to playback the intelligence over again. The method will be repeated as many times as desired. This invention finds use where the inflections of a language or the subtleties of a musical composition are being studied and learned by the user of the invention, for example.

#Tape recorder/playback machines are each provided with a cassette well to receive a generally rectangular cassette having reel mounted audio tape therein. The tape in the cassette passes along a portion of the outside of one of the longer longitudinal edges of the cassette; and means is provided in the playback machine to extend into the cassette on both sides of the tape to drive the tape in forward direction at a constant speed for the purpose of recording and/or playback of intelligence on the magnetic tape. A suitable recording head and a suitable playback head are situated in each recorder/playback machine in position to come in operational contact with the magnetic tape, for example, as it moves through the machine in forward direction. The tape in the cassette is mounted on forward and reverse tape takeup reels, and each of those reels is provided with a drive sprocket at the center thereof. There is an opening in the case of the cassette to allow forward and reverse drive pinions of the recorder/playback machine to extend into the cassette to be in operational driving relationship with respect to the forward and reverse drive sprockets of the tape reels.

#Suitable mechanisms and controls including appropriately labeled manually operable control bars can be provided in the recorder/playback machine to drive the tape in forward direction to play back the intelligence recorded on the magnetic tape (PLAY); to drive the tape in forward direction to record intelligence on the tape (RECORD-PLAY); to drive the tape in forward direction at relatively high speed (FAST FORWARD); to drive the tape backward at high speed (REWIND); to stop the progres of the tape through the cassette and the machine (STOP); and to eject the cassette from the machine (EJECT).

#As seen in FIGS. 1-6, a cassette retriever 10 made according to the first form of the invention includes an outer case 12 which is positioned above a recorder/playback machine 14 having a cassette well 16 in which an audio tape cassette 18 is situated. Lugs 20, extending downwardly from the phrase retriever 10, properly position the retriever with respect to the playback machine 14 by bearing on the appropriate surfaces of the cassette well 16. The playback machine 14 includes a forward drive pinion 22 and a reverse drive pinion 24 which extend upwardly into the cassette well 16 to be in meshing, driving relationship to a forward reel drive sprocket 26 and a reverse reel drive sprocket 28 of the tape cassette 18, respectively. As best seen in FIG. 2, in connection with reverse drive pinion 24, the reel drive sprockets 26 and 28 form an integral part of a forward tape takeup reel 29 and a reverse takeup reel 30, both of which are rotatably mounted within the cassette 18. An audio tape 34 is wound on these reels. The details of construction of the playback machine 14, the cassette 18, the tape 34, and the operative interrelationships between them are well known and form no part of the present invention in and of themselves.

#It is sufficient for purposes of this specification to understand that a capstan 32, extending upwardly from below the cassette well 16 of the playback machine 14, extends through a provided opening (not shown) in the cassette to cooperate with a pressure roller (not shown) of the playback machine 14 to drive the tape 34 in forward direction off of the reverse takeup reel 30 in the "PLAY" operating phase with a control bar 36 depressed. During this same phase of operation, the forward tape takeup reel is being rotated to take up slack as the capstan drives the tape past a playback head 38.

#A "FAST FORWARD " control bar 40 is provided on the playback machine 14, and when it is depressed, the tape 34 is pulled rapidly from the reverse takeup reel 30 onto the forward takeup reel 29 due to the rapid rotation of the forward drive pinion 22 of the playback machine 14 acting on the forward reel drive sprocket 26 of the cassette 18.