How tragedy overshadowed miracle of stephen hawking’s synthetic voice

STEPHEN HAWKING: EXPERT ON 'TRAGEDY' AFTER SPEECH SYNTHESIS Professor Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a form of motor neurone disease, back in 1963

when he was just 22. The disease progressed and in 1985, he contracted pneumonia. Doctors performed a tracheotomy to prevent the infection spreading and to help him breathe — however, it

meant the astrophysicist lost the ability to talk. RELATED ARTICLES Professor Hawking first learned to communicate with his eyebrows by suggesting which letters he meant on a spelling card.

He later used a menu controlled by a computer system a year after the operation. When he used a hand clicker to choose various words and commands, a synthetic voice read them out. The voice

was created by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Dennis Klatt in 1984 and became one of Professor Hawking’s key attributes — despite the voice speaking in an American accent and the

astrophysicist being British. The voice, known as Perfect Paul, was meant to emulate the default male voice but Professor Hawking initially took a dislike to the synthetiser and wanted it to

be sent back. Professor Stephen Hawking (Image: Getty) Hawking was diagnosed with a form of motor neurone disease, back in 1963 when he was just 22 (Image: Getty) He ended up keeping it —

but according to the BBC’s history programme, Witness, a terrible event later overshadowed this remarkable technological feat of speech synthesis. The programme, broadcast in November last

year, explained how in the early Eighties, Mr Klatt started to receive treatment for terminal cancer. During the process, he started to lose his voice due to the radiation. Friend and

colleague of Dr Klatt, Joseph Perkell, explained: “That’s what gradually caused his vocal cords, laryngeal tissues, to stop functioning properly. “His speech became more and more difficult.

READ MORE: CHARLES DARWIN'S CRIPPLING FEARS ABOUT ORIGIN OF SPECIES EXPOSED Hawking started using Klatt's speech synthesizer in the Eighties (Image: Getty) RELATED ARTICLES “But,

at the same time, the synthetic speech coming out of his office didn’t change, naturally. “So it was ironic, it’s a unique kind of tragedy actually, that this man who focused so much on

reproducing this natural process lost it in himself.” Dr Klatt’s daughter Laura explained to the BBC: “He knew that he had a terminal illness really when I was quite young. “But he was

always so optimistic.” Dr Klatt died in 1988 which was the same year that Professor Hawking published his book ‘A Brief History of Time’. DON'T MISS Brexit: How Richard Dawkins hit out

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  [REVEALED] Hawking went on to become a world-famous astrophysicist (Image: Getty) The Queen met Hawking in 2014 and he joked about his American accent from Dr Klatt (Image: Getty)

Additionally, the voice system Perfect Paul was based on Dr Klatt’s own voice, which lived on through Professor Hawking. Dr Perkell continued: “Hawking’s... his is a remarkable story. “I

wonder if being to contribute by speech — this is purely speculation on my part — might have added to his longevity as a person.” Professor Hawking was expected to only live for a handful of

years after his diagnosis in the Sixties, but he defied expectations and lived to be 76. By 2008 the nerves in the astrophysicist’s hand began to degenerate, so his graduate assistant

developed a “cheek switch” which detected when he tensed his cheek muscle. STEPHEN HAWKING WARNS OF 'CONTINENT CLUSTERING' IN EARTH'S FUTURE He was subsequently able to write

emails and browse the internet, as well as write books and, of course, speak. Professor Hawking was later offered an updated voice, perhaps with a British accent. However, as he had

explained in 2006: “I keep it because I have not heard a voice I like better and because I have identified with it.” He explained on his website that the accent has been described as

Scandinavian, American or Scottish. Professor Hawking also joked with the Queen once in 2014 that his voice was “copyrighted”. He remained with Mr Klatt’s synthetic voice until his death in

2018.