Remember the language master that was in elementary school which used magnetically striped cards which recorded snippets of voice? Why not update this technology with a CCD strip scanner and a CELP/Speex decoder that can play back paper cards with 2D barcodes on them? You record your voice in a program that compresses it to 4.8 Kbps or less and then print out the file on a 300 DPI or better black and white printer. The only disadvantage I can think of would be that you wouldn't be able to re-use cards, of course, that would prevent the kids from erasing cards and recording them with sewer chute language.
For the record, with Speex 2.1 Kbps compression and PaperDisk, I have recorded the phrase "Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't." into less than a 1 square inch space.-- Amishman35, Nov 26 2004 Language Master Cards http://www.btintern...ge_master_cards.htmThe original. Picture and a magstripe. [jutta, Nov 26 2004] random, halfbakery