Hawking's voice

I just re-watched the last episode and now I'm quite sure: for Hawking's voice they used the old Amiga programme "Say" that came with "Workbench".

I always thought that he sounded like the old Macintalk/Talking Moose programs from the days of Systems 4 & 6. :)

DGH

It also sounds like the text-to-speech software that came with the original SoundBlaster card.

If I rember correctly it was the same company that did the software for a range of computer systems. There was a bit of a story about it with the Amiga and Commodore doing somthing to piss off them and thats why the software did not come with systems that had 2.04 and above - I could be wrong its a long tme since I read about this!

Adam.

"S. T. L." wrote in message news:[email]...

original

In article , doug holverson wrote:

BTW, the Moose is still alive! It's now called Uli's Moose, and it's been updated to work under systems 7.x and 8.x . It's flaky under OS 9, so I've had to (temporariliy) disable it. Still as useless as ever, but still quite funny!

there are few people out there who know MacOS 4+5... But are the people who know MacOS 1+2+3??? Must have looked odd:-)

Shadow

Was there ever a Mac OS 5 (or a Finder 2 or 3) ever officially released?

Mainly looked (and felt) like a less featured versions of the later monochrome Mac OSes. They didn't have CDevs, either.

DGH

well I just rewatched the credits and it is Steven Hawking's own voice emulator. "They" didn't use anything. If you think it sounds like a thingamajiggy, then that must be what Hawking uses all the time. It's the same voice as when he appeared on The Simpsons last year

_________________________
ICQ #10176400
www.wavking.com
www.anewhope.org

Martin Schmidt wrote in message news:8h0k8h$23mj8$[email]...

Also the same voice he used when he made a rather neat cameo on Star Trek NG. In the flesh I might add.

Ok they used his own program. But I still think its Text-To-Speech. Look at www.bell-labs.com/project/tts/index.html and make own examples.

Shadow

Of course it's text-to-speech. Is anyone arguing that point? He makes the machine say what he wants to say. Text to speech is all it possibly could be.

my $.02

Buck Rojerz wrote:

Yes. I still say it's that Amiga programme "Say".

On Wed, 7 Jun 2000 17:08:47 +0200, "Martin Schmidt" wrote:

Whatever program was used, it was highly customized for him. Now quit Dissin' Hawkings or he'll have your gravity disconnected!!

--Larry

after all he invented it, don't ya know

"Martin Schmidt" writes:

Or the Atari ST program Speech..

They all sound the same, because they use a very common algorithm, no use in trying to figure out exactly what program it is.

Tomas

Sorry to break your hearts, guys... But it most definately is the Narrator-function in Win2K Pro.....

Angak

Ok, we have some opinions in hee now... and the final statement: Text-To-Speech of Bell Labs, works on my Mac OS 8.6.

Ya.

Shadow

Post-final statement: Talking Moose, works on my Mac OS 6.0.7!

:b

DGH

Shadow" wrote in message news:[email]...

*

Heh. OK FOLKS! An interesting note:

Most probably, the device used was made by the Prentke-Romich Company of Wooster (pronounced WOO - ster, not wuh-ster) Ohio. I have visited their facility many times on business. They are all great people, and have created a wonderful place to work, and are doing work that is truly socially redeeming.

The device is called The Liberator, and was created for individuals who cannot speak for themselves. It consists of a usually wheel-chair mounted device which is a keyboard. The board has a removable paper 'chart' that rests over the (perhaps) two hundred keys. Each key can be 'context sensitive'; that is, the words chosen to make the output sentence can change depending on the sequence they keys were pressed, and other factors. It's amazing, Most people who use it are very glad to be able to actually speak for themselves. My guess is that Mr. Hawking may not have the motor function to use the standard-issue Liberator anymore, But, I am fairly certain he did use one a Liberator at some point.

It is TRUE that there are many versions of the algorithm that produce the exact same output. So, maybe everybody is 'right.'

OK, me go bye bye now

Andrew.

to fresh up the discussion: Bell Labs have their own Text-Synthesize-system. CHECK OUT www.bell-labs.com/project/tts/index.html

Shadow

In alt.tv.futurama, on the "Re: Hawking's voice" thread, Andrew wrote:

The following was posted to the simpsons-l mailing list, shortly after the episode "They Saved Lisa's Brain (AABF18)" aired. (Hawking was a guest star on that episode, as well.) I've taken the liberty of reproducing it here.

[begin]

[end]

"Benjamin Robinson" wrote in message news:[email]...

star

apple

lacks

of

from,

him.

picks

the

edited

they're

the

occupies

Cambridge)

wife

the

sending

I thought he dumped his wife for his nurse...or was she (the nurse) the "long suffering" lass?

with a

[email]

decide

That�s usenet. We�re talkin �bout Stephen Hawking�s wife in a FUTURAMA NG. Thad-is-funny :-)

BTW, do we already have an official short form for FUTURAMA like OFF for Simpsons?

Shadow

Shadow wrote:

How bout Y3K?

The nurse is the (ex)wife of the software speech developer. That's what he gets for giving Hawking's voicebox an American accent!