Roger Ebert Premieres His New MacBook Voice

[rdowns]

Awesome story.

Link with video

CNN story

(CNN) -- Renowned film critic Roger Ebert hasn't been able to speak for the past four years, but that doesn't mean he's been silent.

The Chicago-based author still pens film reviews, posts updates on his online journal, and offers his picks for the Academy Awards, as he did on Tuesday's "Oprah Winfrey Show," using a computer-generated voice that sounds remarkably similar to his own.

Until recently, Ebert communicated with hand signals and monotone text-to-speech software.

When Ebert sat down for an interview for Esquire magazine's March issue that chronicled his life since he lost his voice to thyroid cancer, he said he had used an English voice with his text-to-speech software, which he named "Lawrence." But "Lawrence" had a tendency towards odd phrasing and Ebert ultimately settled for something more generically American.

 

[RawBert]

Cool. I like Roger Ebert. I watched his show for about 10 years.

This voice sounds better than before. Stephen Hawking should get a new one too.

I know it's messed up to say, but he looks like a cartoon. I do feel bad for him though. I'm glad he survived.

 

[Gelfin]

Cool. I like Roger Ebert. I watched his show for about 10 years.

This voice sounds better than before. Stephen Hawking should get a new one too.

I know it's messed up to say, but he looks like a cartoon. I do feel bad for him though. I'm glad he survived.

Seems I have read that Hawking has accepted that particular vocoder as "his voice," despite lots of advancements in TTS in the years since it was built. IIRC the company that made his box has gone out of business and an extraordinary effort is invested on his behalf to keep it working as he expects.

I do think it's incredible that Ebert can get back some measure of the voice he lost too, though.