Radio Reporter Who Lost Voice Returns To Air Using App Built From Archived Audio (ajc.com)

McGruber writes: Jamie Dupree had been a radio reporter from 1983 until the Spring of 2016, when he lost his voice. His official diagnosis is a rare neurological condition known as "Tongue Protrusion Dystonia" -- for some unknown reason when he tries to talk, his tongue pushes forward out of his mouth, and his throat clenches, leading to a voice that is strangled and strained, as it is a struggle to string together more than a few words at a time. Dupree's plight attracted the attention of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), who went to the floor of the House and delivered a speech that publicized Dupree's voice troubles and the lack of answers. Other reporters wrote stories about Dupree and people inside his company, Cox Media Group, tried to find a high tech solution to get him back on the air. They eventually found a Scottish company named CereProc which agreed to sift through years of Dupree's archived audio to build a voice -- which, when paired with a text-to-speech application -- would sound like Dupree and get him back on the radio.

Dupree writes that the app works and will allow him to "talk" on the radio again. Starting next week, he will again provide stories to news-talk radio stations and be back on the air in hourly newscasts.

Comments

Re:Giving back a voice to those who lost it = awes

[Jason Levine]

My wife's grandmother recently passed away due to ALS. It attacked her throat and severely impaired her ability to eat or drink. Towards the end, she was getting all of her "nutrients" via a sponge squeezed in her mouth, hoping that enough went down her throat and not out of her mouth or into her lungs. On the speech front, her voice went from a slight slur (which might have made you think she had a stroke) to full fledged "mumble talking." If she was trying to tell you "It's on the top shelf", all that would come out of her mouth would be "iiiii ooooo eeeee fffffff." Needless to say, this was very stressful for both her and us. She knew was she was trying to say but couldn't express it and we couldn't understand her. She would use a writing pad to write down what she wanted, but it wasn't perfect either.

ALS is a horrible disease. You slowly lose control over your body while your mind continues to function. Eventually, you become trapped in your own body. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.