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Glimpse of Stephen Hawking's Computer

Posted by Unknown on Monday January 9, 2012 @10:20PM from the long-live-dectalk dept.

kenekaplan writes "Intel application engineer Travis Bonifield has been working closely with Hawking to communicate with the world for a decade. He's traveled from the United States to England every few years to hand-deliver Hawking a customized PC. Bonifield talks about the technology that powers the customized system." Hawking's latest machine is a Thinkpad x220. Lately he's been trouble speaking due to weakened cheek muscles (down to one word per minute). New Scientist has a brief interview with Hawking's outgoing technician on the challenges he faced. It turns out Hawking is still using a DECtalk (despite some reports suggesting otherwise).

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Re:DecTalk is a warhorse by JasterBobaMereel · 2012-01-09 23:13 · Score: 5, Interesting

Someone found recordings of his original voice and offered to build a voice around this, but Hawking said that he did not even recognise it as his own voice anymore ...

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Puteulanus fenestra mortis
Re:DecTalk is a warhorse by Sockatume · 2012-01-09 23:19 · Score: 3, Interesting

There's a company in Edinburgh that's doing the same thing with Roger Ebert, drawing on the large body of recordings of his voice. Wonder if it's the same one.

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No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
The most profound mystery in the Universe is ... by Framboise · 2012-01-09 23:48 · Score: 5, Interesting

From the Telegraph link, we happily learn:
In an interview with the New Scientist magazine to mark his 70th birthday on Sunday, January 8, he was asked: "What do you think most about during the day?" to which he replied: "Women. They are a complete mystery."