Comments on: The Man Who Takes Care of Stephen Hawking’s Voice Speaks

By: Sandra

Sandra — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 12:04:37 +0000

@TerryS

You can’t even spell “solution” so don’t try and claim that the guys that work with Stephen Frickin’ Hawking don’t know what they’re doing.

By: Jenise

Jenise — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 04:44:08 +0000

Stephen Hawkins is an amazing individual. He deserves to have his voice. He has lost the ability of most other aspects of his body. I understand why he might want to hang on to that. Perhaps an appeal for some of the scientists that worked at the now closed down plant would help. You’ve done a great job of ensuring he maintains his voice.

By: Abhijeet Subhash Joshi

Abhijeet Subhash Joshi — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:18:22 +0000

Dear Michael Minnick, We would like to know if you make any progress in helping get processor programme reverse engineered. Could you please comment here if you make any headway in it. Thanks.

By: Gunnar

Gunnar — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 08:28:32 +0000

@Bob Snyder, I agree that it is important to preserve the voice that has become so identified with Stephen Hawking, if at all possible, but I still think that even providing him with a new (and perhaps, clearer voice) is better than losing his ability to speak altogether.

I have also noticed (as you have) that too many people (even some obviously articulate and well informed people whose views I highly respect, who one would think should know better), and who blog in the internet, mix up and improperly use “lose” and “loose” and also “to” and “too” and even “there”, “their” and “they’re.” Even more surprising to me is how many otherwise seemingly well-educated bloggers seem to think that the past tense forms of the verbs “to lead” and “to mislead” are spelled the same way as their present tense forms.

By: lawrence mwangi

lawrence mwangi — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:53:24 +0000

Its our prayers that there will be smooth transition Hawking is a special gift to humanity and Science..Has inspired millions by his intelligence, courage and enthusiasm

By: TerryS.

TerryS. — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:36:02 +0000

Seems like this is a story about nothing. I’m sure if some people put their minds to it (instead of only Sam) we’d have a solusion quickly. Just think, he’s only occupied the position for ~5 years.

By: Bob Snyder

Bob Snyder — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:21:49 +0000

@john, You should look up the definitions of loose and lose someday. Also, it is “his voice” in the sense that when anyone hears it, they think of Stephen Hawking. It is distinctly “his voice.” I am sorry if you fail to comprehend the difference between possession and perception in this article.

By: Terry

Terry — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 11:49:42 +0000

I am in agreement with Richard. As cutting-edge as the technology was in the ’80′s, it is so far obsolete now, it’s pathetic. Instead of wasting time trying to reverse engineer the dinosaur, use up-to-date software & synthesizers to get a new ‘voice’. I have a text-to-speech synthesizer on my laptop that was downloaded as freeware that is very close to the same ‘voice’. It should not be that difficult to get Stephen updated with new technology & yet keep the same voice we have all come to recognize.

By: Gunnar

Gunnar — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:07:55 +0000

It’s too bad that we can’t yet halt or reverse the progress of his neuromuscular disease. What progress is being made on that? I agree with Iain that it would be better to equip him with a new and clearer voice than for him wind up with no voice at all. By now, we should also be getting closer to being able to decode the electrical activity of his brain and convert it directly into intellible speech, shouldn’t we?

By: john

john — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 03:52:57 +0000

how are the sounds generated by a synthesizer “his voice”. seems “his voice” is a group of sounds designed by someone/thing else that someone CLAIMS belongs to hawking.
the voice originates in hawking’s typing. therefore, the typing itself is also “his voice.”
the sad thing is that if someone doesn’t act pronto he could loose “his voice”.
until someone/thing makes a ” new voice” for him.
good luck

By: Iain

Iain — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 02:30:41 +0000

Well, I don’t care if it’s his voice or not, his ideas are what count.

By: Richard Dinning

Richard Dinning — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:12:03 +0000

I’m sorry, but it doesn’t sound that complex to record Stephen’s voice as it is, then analyse the frequencies with a frequency analyzer and then program a modern voice synthesizer to reproduce those frequencies.

I suspect it would take a some time to get it exactly right, if that’s what you’re going for but all it would take is the right sound engineer and money. If he doesn’t have the money, I’m sure thousands would contribute if he made an appeal.

By: Kip Koehler

Kip Koehler — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:04:31 +0000

Steven has been an inspiration to us all. To continue on with such a debilitating disease is beyond measure. Sam Blackburn has been a saint.

By: Michael Minnick

Michael Minnick — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:37:47 +0000

Is the company SpeechPlus? I worked for them in that era as a firmware engineer.