 |
Individualized Artificial Voices
Individualized artificial voices are being readied for patients scheduled to lose their vocal chords due to cancer surgery. The technique will replace the mechanical, artificial voice converter that is used today.
Researchers from the University of Sheffield, with collaboration of a team from the University of Edinburgh recorded the voice of a female patient prior to surgery. The team created a digitized voice based on about seven minutes of speech from the client.
Bernadette Chapman, the patient subject for the process, said:
"We all take our voices for granted, but it is not until we lose them that we realise what a marvellous gift the voice is. So I thank the researchers on behalf of myself and all who will benefit from this new appliance, for all the work they have undertaken."
In expressing her preference for a more individualized artificial voice, Ms. Chapman disparaged the existing technology, the Servox machine or artificial larynx. She stated that the "machine tends to sound very like a dalek and can be very embarrassing to use, especially in public places."
"I was a Nursing Sister before losing my voice and have always been aware of how difficult patients find the Servox machine, some refusing to use it and so becoming very reclusive. To have a new technique that sounds more like a human voice, indeed more like the patient's own voice prior to operation, would be a great breakthrough and welcomed by all of us who rely on technology to communicate.
(Golden flying bling Dalek from the BBC's Dr. Who)
Science fiction writers have played with the idea of artificial voices and voice technology. Consider the multiple sample voice from The Shining One (1937) by Nat Schachner, the robot voice from Catch That Rabbit (1944) by Isaac Asimov, and even the voice-changing bowtie from Case Closed 1994 by Gosho Aoyama.
From this University of Sheffield press release via medGadget.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 9/10/2009)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion (Back On) ( 3 )
Related News Stories - (" Medical ")
CARMAT Bioprosthetic Total Human Heart Replacement
'George Walt's corporate existence proved the workability of wholly mechanical organs...'- Philip K. Dick, 1964.
Physical Exam? We've Got Apps
See the future of handheld, personal medical devices used with your smartphone.
Japan's Nursing Home Robot Plan
Let's make the Roujin Z-0001 Robotic Bed!
Mini-Livers Made By 3D Printer
Organlegging may not be the growth industry that some fear.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Current News
German Firm Seeks To Recruit Autistics
Not a deficit, but a strength.
NASA Supports Pizza Printer
Is it extra with printed pepperoni?
Could Ground-Based Lasers De-Orbit Space Junk?
'Then their lasers vaporized the smaller satellites...'
'Hello, Computer!' Google Now Highlighted at IO13
'Hello, computer!'
MIT Robot Cheetah Video Shows Gait Transition
'The legs are long, curled way up to deliver power, like a cheetah's.'
TrackingPoint Smart Rifle
Not your typical 'smart bullet' approach.
Sky City's 220 Stories Are Go
'It rested among green parklands and... stood in total isolation, a glittering block of whites and flashing windows dotted with colors.'
CARMAT Bioprosthetic Total Human Heart Replacement
'George Walt's corporate existence proved the workability of wholly mechanical organs...'
Personal Sniffer Robots
'...The ticking combinations of the olfactory system of the hound.'
Physical Exam? We've Got Apps
See the future of handheld, personal medical devices.
The Interplanetary Internet, Vint Cerf Speaking
'This was the center of Interplanetary Communications.'
Drosophila Robotica, The Mechanical Fly
'... the Scarab [flying robot] buzzed into the great workroom as any intruding insect might...'
Robo-Raven Flapping Wing Robot Bird
'When he had first built them, they had been crude indeed, flying mechanisms with little more than a reflex-response unit.'
Japan's Nursing Home Robot Plan
Let's make the Roujin Z-0001 Robotic Bed!
Samsung Smart TVs With Gesture Control
'He waved his hand and the circuit switched abruptly.'
Swiss HCPVT Giant Photovoltaic 'Flower'
'...leaning against one of the slender stalks of a sunshade-photocell collector.'
