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).

2 of 146 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

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 ...

--
Puteulanus fenestra mortis
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."