Surely there isn't a button for every phrase or word?
And don't some people who are unable to push buttons have machines where it is connected to their brains, and their thoughts are processed into sound?
If not and I've got it wrong, would it be possible do you think to make such a machine?
2006-10-10 06:36:41 · 5 answers · asked by Yasmin H 3 in Health ➔ Mental Health
The computer system attached to his wheelchair is operated by Hawking via an infra-red 'blink switch' clipped onto his glasses. By scrunching his right cheek up, he is able to talk, compose speeches, research papers, browse the World Wide Web and write e-mail. The system also uses radio transmission to provide control over doors in his home and office.
During a visit to the research center CERN in Geneva in 1985, Hawking contracted pneumonia, which in his condition was life-threatening. It resulted in acute difficulty of breathing, which could only be overcome through a tracheostomy by which Stephen Hawking lost his natural speech ability. He has since used an electronic voice synthesizer to communicate. The voice synthesizer, which has an American accent, is of a model that is no longer produced. Asked why he has still kept it after so many years, Hawking mentioned that he has not heard a voice he likes better and because he identifies with it. Hawking is said to be looking for a replacement since, other than being obsolete, the synthesizer, a DECtalk DTC01 is now considered large and fragile but as of present, finding a software alternative has been difficult. During a lecture in Hong Kong in June 2006, he joked that if he got a new one with a French accent, his wife would divorce him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_hawkins
DECtalk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DECtalk
2006-10-10 06:48:06 · answer #1 · answered by Karen J 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
they have a camera that is trained at the persons eye, and they look at words, letters, phrases on a screen, the camera can tell what they are looking at and the computer will say it. Someday there will be thought controlled voices for the handicapped, but the technology is still being developed
2006-10-10 13:41:48 · answer #2 · answered by parental unit 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Professor Hawkins always a hero of mine,one day he will do it by thought
2006-10-10 13:48:23 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
He hasnt actually got a machine.
If you look, there's always someone standing next to him, that's the ventriloquist who does the voice...
2006-10-10 13:39:46 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
i have always wondered how that contraption works, but it is above me.
2006-10-10 13:38:38 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋