Information Control Educational Materials

Abstract

We provide information control teaching materials that enable a Web app sequence creation application to send data to a tablet device equipped with a Safari browser (registered trademark of Apple Inc.) that does not have an audio terminal. [Solution] The sequence creation application is a Web application that runs on the browser of a tablet device. Children / students create a sequence by arranging processing commands. A transfer device 20 pairs with the tablet device as a speaker via Bluetooth (SIG registered trademark) wirelessly. The sequence creation application uses the browser's functions to transmit the sequence as audio information via Bluetooth wirelessly to the information control teaching material. The transfer device 20 receives the audio information transmitted via Bluetooth wirelessly and sends it to the experimental teaching material. The experimental teaching material returns it to the sequence and executes it.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to information control teaching materials used by children / students in schools. [Background technology]

[0002] For example, the experimental teaching material disclosed in Patent Document 1 is known as a tool for learning control mechanisms through programming experience. Such experimental teaching materials are equipped with output devices such as full-color LEDs and buzzers. Children / students can control the color and light emission time of the full-color LEDs, as well as the scale and musical notes of the buzzers.

[0003] In lessons, each child / student is provided with a computer by the school, and the experimental teaching materials disclosed in Patent Document 1 are connected to this computer. A sequence is created on the computer screen, indicating the order in which to operate output devices such as full-color LEDs and buzzers provided in the experimental teaching materials. The computer is available to the children / students as school equipment.

[0004] Although USB connections have been used to connect computers and experimental teaching materials, in recent years, there have been problems with information leaks and computer virus infections, and there is a tendency to avoid USB connections in schools. Therefore, the experimental teaching materials disclosed in Patent Document 1 use the audio terminal of the computer to transfer data to the experimental teaching materials.

[0005] [Patent Document 1] Publication No. 3236965 DISCLOSURE OF THEINVENTION [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0006] In addition to laptops, in recent years, computers used in schools include tablet devices such as Chromebooks (registered trademark of Google Inc.) and iPads (registered trademark of Apple Inc.).

[0007] Apple has removed the audio jack from the iPad starting with the 2021 model. Sound can be output using the internal speaker, or via earphones or external speakers via the USB port or Bluetooth (Bluetooth SIG registered trademark).

[0008] The applicant provides a sequence creation application for tablet devices as a web application to operate the experimental teaching materials provided by the applicant. This sequence creation application is used by children / students to create sequences. The sequence creation application is launched from the applicant's homepage and executed on a browser, and does not need to be installed on the tablet device. However, the available functions are limited to those held by the browser.

[0009] For privacy reasons, Apple's iPad does not implement WebUSB or Web Bluetooth in its browser (hereafter referred to as Safari browser. SAFARI is a registered trademark of Apple Inc.). For this reason, Web apps that run on Safari browser cannot communicate with each other using the USB port or Bluetooth wireless technology.

[0010] As a result, the sequence creation application, which is a web application, cannot communicate data with the iPad via the USB port or Bluetooth wirelessly, and since recent iPads do not even have an audio port, it is not possible to connect the experimental teaching materials described in Patent Document 1, which use an audio port.

[0011] The present invention is intended to solve such problems by providing information control teaching materials that enable a sequence creation application running on a browser to send data to experimental teaching materials, even on tablet devices that do not have audio terminals. [Means for solving the problem]

[0012] The present invention relates to an information control teaching material in which a sequence of processing commands is created using a sequence creation application, which is a web application that is connected to a tablet terminal and runs on the browser of the tablet terminal, and the sequence and an execution command for executing the sequence are transmitted from the browser. An experiment teaching material including a microcontroller having a program memory using a flash memory, a calculation unit, a data memory, and an input / output port, a connection port, a light-emitting element, a buzzer, and a sound sensor, the connection port being connected to an input terminal of the input / output port; a transfer device including a Bluetooth module that pairs with the tablet terminal as a speaker via Bluetooth wireless and a connector that is connected to the connection port; a decoding program for decoding a signal from the transfer device applied to the input terminal into an original sequence and storing the original sequence in the data memory, and an execution program for executing the sequence in the data memory are stored in the program memory; The sequence and execution commands created by the sequence creation application are output as audio signals from the tablet terminal via Bluetooth wireless communication; The Bluetooth module of the transfer device receives Bluetooth radio signals and sends them to the input terminal, and when the execution command is detected by the execution program, the sequence stored in the data memory is read from the data memory and executed by the arithmetic unit. Effect of the Invention

[0013] According to the information control teaching material of the present invention, a sequence creation application running on a browser can send data to the experimental teaching material even on a tablet terminal that does not have an audio terminal. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0014] [Figure 1] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing information control teaching materials. [Diagram 2] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an information control teaching material. [Diagram 3] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a browser screen on a tablet terminal. [Figure 4] 4A and 4B are diagrams for explaining the operation of the experimental teaching materials, in which FIG. 4A shows a packet and FIG. 4B shows the operation of the microcontroller. BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THEINVENTION

[0015] This invention takes advantage of the fact that while the Safari browser prohibits mutual data communication via USB terminals or Bluetooth wireless, it does not prohibit the browser from outputting audio via Bluetooth wireless. It is an information control teaching material that transmits data to experimental teaching material 1 via Bluetooth wireless using a transfer device 20.

[0016] FIG. 1 shows the information control teaching material used in this embodiment, with FIG. 1A showing a front perspective view of the experimental teaching material 1, FIG. 1B showing a rear perspective view, and FIG. 1C showing a perspective view of a transfer device 20. The experimental teaching material 1 is a teaching material that is purchased and owned by a child / student. The experimental teaching material 1 has the outer shape of a rectangular parallelepiped clock, and has an electronic clock on the front side that displays the date, day of the week, time, and temperature on an LCD screen. The four sides of the experimental teaching material 1, excluding the front and back, are made of transparent resin, allowing the interior to be seen through.

[0017] In Fig. 1C, the transfer device 20 is prepared as school equipment and is lent to children / students during information control classes or purchased. The tablet terminal T can pair with the transfer device 20 as a speaker. When pairing with the transfer device 20 is established, the tablet terminal T can wirelessly transmit audio information via Bluetooth wireless.

[0018] Fig. 2 shows a block diagram of the experimental teaching material 1, Fig. 2A is a block diagram of the experimental teaching material 1, and Fig. 2B is a block diagram of the transfer device 20. In Fig. 2A, the microcontroller 10 is a semiconductor device in which an internal bus, a program memory 10a using a flash memory, a data memory 10b, a program counter 10c, a decoder 10d, an arithmetic unit 10e, a data memory 10f using a flash memory, a USB circuit 10g, an input / output port 10h, and a timer 10k are integrated.

[0019] The input / output port 10h is equipped with many input / output terminals, which can be changed to input terminals or output terminals by software. The input / output terminals used as inputs are connected to a light sensor 13 and a sound sensor 14 as input devices. The input / output terminals of the input / output port 10h are connected to a full-color LED 7 and a buzzer 16 as output devices. In addition, signals can be sent and received in both directions with the electronic clock 3, and the time can be set from the microcontroller 10 side. In addition, the electronic clock 3 side is provided with information sensors such as temperature sensors, which can be acquired by the microcontroller 10 side. Furthermore, the input / output terminals of the input / output port 10h are connected to an input / output terminal 10i capable of bidirectional input / output and an input terminal 10j set to "data input" by software. The USB terminal 11 of the experiment teaching material 1 is directly connected to the input / output terminal 10i, and the connection port 12 is directly connected to the input terminal 10j.

[0020] In addition, a full-color LED 7 is mounted as a light-emitting element, and the colored light can be irradiated to the outside through the transparent resin on the side of the experimental teaching material 1. Furthermore, the experimental teaching material 1 has a USB terminal 11, a connection port 12, and a power switch 17. The USB terminal 11 is directly connected to the input / output terminal of the microcontroller 10, and information communication can be performed using the USB function built into the microcontroller 10. The USB terminal 11 can be used when the child / student returns home to download a Windows-based sequence creation application, separately provided by the applicant, to his / her home computer for use.

[0021] The connection port 12 is directly connected to the input / output terminal of the microcontroller 10. Information from the connection port 12 is decoded and used by software built into the microcontroller 10. In addition, a buzzer 16 is provided on the inside of the back of the experimental teaching material 1, which can play music by changing notes and scales.

[0022] In FIG. 2B, the transfer device 20 includes an antenna 21 for transmitting and receiving data to and from the tablet terminal T by Bluetooth wireless communication, a Bluetooth module 22, a DA conversion circuit 23, and a transfer display LED 24. The Bluetooth module 22 makes it appear as if a speaker is connected to the tablet terminal T. The output of the DA conversion circuit 23 is converted into a voltage analog waveform by an impedance 25 and sent to a connector 26. A digital signal before DA conversion may be sent to the connector 26 without passing through the DA conversion circuit 23. In this case, processing on the experimental teaching material 1 side is required. The transfer display LED 24 flashes while the Bluetooth module 22 is receiving audio information by Bluetooth wireless communication.

[0023] FIG. 3 shows a browser screen 30 of a sequence creation application that runs on the tablet terminal T. The sequence creation application appears when the applicant's web page is opened. The browser screen 30 has a selection window 31, an editing window 32, a control bar 33, and a status display bar 34. The selection window 31 displays "control," "LED lighting," and the like, which are categories of processing commands executed by the experimental teaching material 1. For example, "control" allows the selection of various processing commands including an If statement. Also, "LED lighting" allows the type of color that the full-color LED 7 lights up to be specified. The selected processing command is displayed surrounded by an assembly block frame in the editing window 32. In the figure, the "if-then" command, the processing command for the condition that goes in the "-" position, and the processing command to be executed when the condition is met are shown in the assembly block frames 35, 36, 37, 38-1, and 38-2. Each assembly block frame has a connection piece. The "if...then" command assembly block 35 is C-shaped, and the condition command assembly block 36 can be connected from the right side, with assembly blocks 38-1 and 38-2 inside and connected by upper and lower connecting pieces. In the figure, assembly block 37 is about to be connected below assembly block 38-2. Unnecessary assembly blocks can be discarded in a trash can 39.

[0024] Children / students can create sequences by appropriately selecting these processing commands c2 and connecting and assembling the building blocks.

[0025] The transfer button 41 is a button for sending the sequence created in the edit window 32 to the experiment teaching material 1. When the transfer button 34 is pressed, the sequence creation application converts the sequence into audio information and outputs it via Bluetooth wireless using the browser interface. The execute button 42 is a button for sending a sequence execution command to the experiment teaching material 1 to have the experiment teaching material 1 execute the sequence transferred to it.

[0026] FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the operation, in which FIG. 4A shows a packet sent from the tablet terminal T, and FIG. 4B shows the operation of the microcontroller 10. In FIG. 4A, when the transfer button 41 is pressed, a packet of a predetermined length is created on the programming editor side. FIG. 4A shows that one sequence consisting of a plurality of processing commands c1 to c3 is divided into packets on the left and in the center, and the packet on the right contains an execution command c4. A start mark SM and a stop mark EM are added before and after each packet, and the packets are converted into voice data.

[0027] To convert to audio data, for example, an inverted bit with the bit value inverted is added to each bit of the transmitted data, generating a code whose polarity is inverted in the middle of the bit time. In other words, if the value is "0", it becomes "01", and if the value is "1", it becomes "10". If this is then sent as a serial signal at 1 msec time intervals, it will be converted into audio data of approximately 1 KHz. The specified length of the packet is set to a length that can hold 32 commands. The reason for keeping it to 32 is that an increase in the number of commands would cause timing discrepancies, since this is an asynchronous signal transfer using audio signals between tablet terminal T and experimental teaching material 1.

[0028] The audio is transmitted using the audio output function of the browser on the tablet terminal T. Meanwhile, the controller on the tablet terminal T side recognizes the transfer device 20 as a Bluetooth speaker and determines that it is connected, so the audio is transmitted to the transfer device 20 via Bluetooth wireless.

[0029] Each time the transfer device 20 receives a packet, it turns on the transfer display LED 24 once and then turns it off. Since the transfer display LED 24 allows the student to visually confirm that a packet is being sent, the student can confirm that communication is taking place between the tablet terminal T and the transfer device 20.

[0030] A signal from the transfer device 20 is input as is to the input terminal of the microcontroller 10. The input terminal 10j is preset to function as a digital input. With this function, even if the input signal has an analog waveform, a specific threshold is used to determine whether the input signal is "0 / 1." The input signal is binarized using a predetermined threshold. On the other hand, when the signal from the transfer device 20 is a digital signal, it can be acquired as is. The binarized signal is decoded to the original sequence by a decoding program stored in the program memory 10a of the microcontroller 10, and the original sequence is stored in the data memory 10f.

[0031] FIG. 4B shows the operation of the decoding program that acquires one packet. If the input terminal 10j of the microcontroller 10 maintains a changed state until it is determined that the changed state is not noise after changing from the normal potential, it is determined that data transmission has started, and the operation of the timer 10k, which is designated with a predetermined period, is started. After acquiring data at the input terminal at every period designated by the timer 10k and confirming that it is a start mark SM, the voltage value of the input terminal 10j of the bit is taken in at the timing of every designated period until the stop mark EM, and the data is converted into serial data. The acquired serial data is collected by a predetermined number of bits and converted into processing commands c1 to c3, which are written to the data memory 10f via the internal bus. In this way, the data memory 10f receives a sequence from the tablet terminal T. Also, when the execution command c4 is received at the input terminal of the microcontroller 10, it is detected by the execution program stored in the program memory 10a of the microcontroller 10. Then, the execution program reads out and executes the sequence of the processing commands c1 to c3 stored in the data memory 10f.

[0032] The data memory 10f is a flash memory, which is a non-volatile memory. Therefore, even when the experiment teaching material 1 is separated from the tablet terminal T, the experiment teaching material 1 is able to execute the sequence autonomously.

[0033] According to this embodiment, a sequence creation application running on a browser can send data to the experimental teaching material 1 even if the browser is not capable of mutual data communication via USB or Bluetooth wireless and the tablet terminal T does not have an audio terminal. [Explanation of symbols]

[0034] 1 Experimental materials 2 Front Panel 3. Electronic Clock 7 Full-color LED 9 Back Panel 10 Microcontrollers 10a Program Memory 10b Data Memory 10c Program Counter 10d decoder 10e Computing Unit 10f Data Memory 10g USB circuit 10h I / O port 10i input / output terminal 10j Input terminal 10k timer 11 USB port 12 Connection port 13 Optical Sensor 14 Sound Sensor 16 Buzzer 17 Power Switch 20. Teleporter 21 Antenna 22 Bluetooth Module 23 DA conversion circuit 24 Transfer indicator LED 25 Impedance 26 Connectors 30 Browser screen 31 Selection window 32 Editing window 33 Control Bar 34 Status Bar 34 Transfer button 35, 36, 37, 38-1, 38-2 Assembly blocks 39 Trash Can 41 Transfer button 42 Execute button

Claims

1. In an information control teaching material, a sequence including processing commands is created using a sequence creation application which is a web application that is connected to a tablet terminal and runs on a browser of the tablet terminal, and the sequence and an execution command for executing the sequence are transmitted from the browser; A teaching material for an experiment, comprising a microcontroller having a program memory using a flash memory, a calculation unit, a data memory, and an input / output port, a connection port, a light-emitting element, a buzzer, and a sound sensor, the connection port being connected to an input terminal of the input / output port; a transfer device including a Bluetooth module that pairs with the tablet terminal as a speaker via Bluetooth wireless and a connector that is connected to the connection port; a decoding program for decoding a signal from the transfer device applied to the input terminal into an original sequence and storing the original sequence in the data memory, and an execution program for executing the sequence in the data memory are stored in the program memory; The sequence and execution commands created by the sequence creation application are output as audio signals from the tablet terminal via Bluetooth wireless communication; The information control teaching material is characterized in that the Bluetooth module of the transfer device receives Bluetooth radio signals and sends them to the input terminal, and when the execution command is detected by the execution program, the sequence stored in the data memory is read from the data memory and executed by the arithmetic unit.

2. In the information control teaching material of claim 1, The sequence creation application creates a sequence as an audio signal divided into packets of a predetermined length, The audio signal divided into packets is wirelessly output from the tablet terminal via Bluetooth through the browser, The information control teaching material, wherein the transfer device is provided with a transfer indication LED that flashes every time the Bluetooth module receives the packet.

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