‘Toy’ Gives a Voice to the Voiceless : N.Y. Firm Also Has Device That Helps Hearing-Impaired

If the Nobel Prize in Medicine could be given to a toy company, Nasta Industries would be a shoo-in.

Not once but twice in the past year, this small manufacturer of cheap electronics for children has produced toys with applications that are not frivolous--giving voice to those who could not speak and aiding the hearing-impaired.

“We were as surprised as anybody” by the serious uses to which the toys were put, said Scott Spiegel, Nasta’s director of sales.

It all started when an Omaha, Neb., man discovered that with the aid of a Transformers Voice Synthesizer--a $10 item that makes a child sound like a robot--he could speak after his cancerous larynx was removed.

Then, in December, an 80-year-old Tulsa, Okla., woman found another use for the Super Amplifier, an $8 toy that allows children to don headsets and, with a gun-like receiver, amplify sounds 20 feet away. Totsy Carlson discovered that in some circumstances, the Super Amplifier was better than her hearing aid.

“She’s hearing things she hasn’t heard in years,” said Sue Bolding, Carlson’s daughter.

Spiegel said it’s too soon to say whether sales of the Super Amplifier were affected by news of its medical use. But he said a half a million Transformers Voice Synthesizers have been sold, and numerous hospitals have asked Nasta for donations of the robot-like toys.

The voice toy has come full circle. Inventor John Bloomfield of Hilton Head Island, S.C., said it all started when he and his children visited a friend who had recently lost his larynx to cancer.

The friend spoke with the aid of a $300 machine; his children were captivated, he said, because the machine made his friend sound like a robot.

The machine, Bloomfield said, was simple: The device pumped a tone through a tube into his friend’s mouth, and by moving his lips the man was able to articulate words.

Bloomfield took the workings of the $300 machine and simplified them, merging many functions into a single computer chip. His device was installed by Nasta in one of the popular Transformer robots.

“The toy version is just that--it’s a toy version,” Bloomfield said.

But when he heard that some patients were using the devices, he took another look at his invention. “We didn’t recognize the real problems of patients in the hospital after surgery,” he said.

So Bloomfield transformed his Transformer toy into an improved voice synthesizer called P.O. Vox, or post-operative voice. At $65, it costs far less than previous models.

At Nasta, meanwhile, they’re all in a state of shock.

First came the voice synthesizer. “We weren’t marketing it as a voice box,” Spiegel said. “We were marketing it as a toy robot.”

Then, when Nasta executives were in Hong Kong, where the company has a plant, they learned that the Super Amplifier had found a new use. Spiegel’s father read about Totsy Carlson and sent him a clipping. “When I read the article, I couldn’t believe it,” Spiegel said. “Twice in one year--unbelievable.”

Don’t expect New York-based Nasta, which sells $40 million in toys each year, to expand into medical instruments.

“No, we’re sticking with toys,” Spiegel said. “We have a nice little niche, and that’s where we’re going to stay.”