Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

General Discussion

dalton99a

(81,475 posts)

10. It was originally done by MIT engineer Dennis Klatt:

Reply to LAS14 (Reply #9)

Wed Mar 14, 2018, 11:54 AM

Mar 2018

https://www.wired.com/2015/01/intel-gave-stephen-hawking-voice/
How Intel Gave Stephen Hawking a Voice

Hawking is very attached to his voice: in 1988, when Speech Plus gave him the new synthesizer, the voice was different so he asked them to replace it with the original. His voice had been created in the early '80s by MIT engineer Dennis Klatt, a pioneer of text-to-speech algorithms. He invented the DECtalk, one of the first devices to translate text into speech. He initially made three voices, from recordings of his wife, daughter and himself. The female's voice was called "Beautiful Betty", the child's "Kit the Kid", and the male voice, based on his own, "Perfect Paul." "Perfect Paul" is Hawking's voice.

Edit history

Please sign in to view edit histories.

23 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Stephen Hawking's simulated voice. A couple of questions. [View all] LAS14 Mar 2018 OP

Actually I heard this morning that the only thing he didn't like about it underpants Mar 2018 #1

Do you agree that it's American? I definitely hear Scandinavian. nt LAS14 Mar 2018 #2

oh, its American 'voice', but fyi-Keep Talking poboy2 Mar 2018 #6

Radiohead used it on "Fitter Happier" in 1997 - yikes that was 22 years ago? underpants Mar 2018 #11

Sounds American to me n/t underpants Mar 2018 #12

Some quicky answers blugbox Mar 2018 #3

Wow!!! I can't imagine what "upgrading" would consist of!!!! nt LAS14 Mar 2018 #5

He was able to move his eyes. aidbo Mar 2018 #4

OK. I'll bite. So tau is a Greek letter. So we have a little formula here. What's it for?? nt LAS14 Mar 2018 #7

Some people suggest the ratio of the *radius* of a circle to its circumference muriel_volestrangler Mar 2018 #14

Yeah..... I gues I knew that..... :-) LAS14 Mar 2018 #17

Actually, it fits pretty neatly in Eulers identity. aidbo Mar 2018 #21

Well, yes, but ... muriel_volestrangler Mar 2018 #22

The identity is just a special case of Eulers formula. aidbo Mar 2018 #23

This message was self-deleted by its author missingthebigdog Mar 2018 #15

Tau is 2 * pi. aidbo Mar 2018 #20

Why Stephen Hawking's voice computer spoke with an AMERICAN accent dalton99a Mar 2018 #8

Maybe it's American with a strong computer-simulation lilt???? nt LAS14 Mar 2018 #9

It was originally done by MIT engineer Dennis Klatt: dalton99a Mar 2018 #10

Thanks! Now I'm wondering where Dennis Klatt was born. LAS14 Mar 2018 #13

He was from Wisconsin: dalton99a Mar 2018 #19

It's an early text to speech device fescuerescue Mar 2018 #16

So we can assume that his wife's and daughter's voices... LAS14 Mar 2018 #18