James Waldby Consulting

Speech Timer

Automatic and Easy-to-Use Timer

for Toastmasters Speeches

James Waldby's ``SpeechTimer'' lets you time most Toastmasters speeches by pressing a single button to begin timing, and another button to stop timing. The timer automatically turns on green, amber, and red lights at appropriate times. All the directions for using the timer appear in clear English on its front cover! Here's what the cover looks like:

For example, if you press the 5-7 button, a green light will turn on at 5 minutes; amber at 6 minutes; and red at 7 minutes.

The picture below shows the display 53 seconds after pressing the 2-3 button (to time a speech evaluation).

When you press the ``More'' button, directions appear on the display for choosing one of the times 8-10, 10-12, 10-14, 20-30, or 30-40 minutes. For example, the timer will begin timing a 10 to 14 minutes speech (with green at 10, amber at 12, red at 14) if you press More, More, More, *.

The picture below shows the display after pressing More once.

After you press More (one or more times) the star button is used to start timing. Outside of the ``More'' context, the star button is used to demonstrate how the lights work. For example, if the timer-person at a Toastmasters meeting wishes to show speakers what the lights look like, he or she can press * four times, to step through the sequence Green - Amber - Red - Off. The star button also can be used for manual control of lights, in case of time limits not included among the preprogrammed times of 1-2, 2-3, 4-6, 5-7, 6-8, 8-10, 10-12, 10-14, 20-30, and 30-40. Units also can be delivered with custom time sets.

Version 1 models of SpeechTimer have toggle or rotary On/Off switches. Version 2 models (March 2005) will have pushbutton On/Off switches and automatic powerdown after an hour of inactivity. The picture below shows a version 1 prototype.

The standard set of lights for the SpeechTimer look like a small traffic signal (red, amber, green, top to bottom) on a post. Different forms can be custom built; for example, the picture below shows lights intended for speech contest use, where judges are not supposed to know timing information before turning in ballots.

For more information or for quotations, please email James Waldby at j-waldby@pat7.com