After Roger Ebert lost the ability to speak in 2006 due to a post-cancer surgery tracheostomy, the film critic has communicated via Post-It notes, an eloquent and hilarious array of hand gestures, and his Mac laptop synthesizer. The version that read out pre-typed introductions at his annual film festival in 2009 had an upper-class English accent the British might call "emollient." Ebert and his wife Chaz called it "Sir Laurence" and shortly thereafter replaced it with a more accessible American–accented voice called "Alex." By next year, Ebert may sound even more like himself, courtesy of personalized voice work being carried out by the Edinburgh-based company CereProc (short for cerebral processing and pronounced "serra-prock").
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Feed SubscriptionGetting Voice: New Speech Synthesis Could Make Roger Ebert Sound More Like Himself
After Roger Ebert lost the ability to speak in 2006 due to a post-cancer surgery tracheostomy, the film critic has communicated via Post-It notes, an eloquent and hilarious array of hand gestures, and his Mac laptop synthesizer.
Read More »This Week In Bots: Space Droids, Dog Droids, Chatting Droids And Farming Droids
Do Astronauts Dream of Electric DEXTREs? Potentially evoking creepy memories of external circuit failures from the film 2001, an important circuit breaker aboard the ISS recently popped and had to be replaced. The thing is, it sits in an electronics sled outside the ISS, and would've necessitated an astronaut to perform a spacewalk to fix it--but this time the Canadian-made DEXTRE performed the task entirely by remote control, with mission controllers runnning the operation from Houston while the astronauts aboard the station slept
Read More »The End Of The Death Trap: How A Tragic Car Crash Saved Formula One Racing
The new documentary Senna tells the story of the life and tragic death of Formula One racer Ayrton Senna, whose fatal crash at the San Marino Grand Prix led to a host of safety innovations for the sport. Fast Company spoke with screenwriter Manish Pandey about the movie and how Senna's death brought a new era of innovation for Formula One to life
Read More »Storyboarding The Apes
In a world full of CG and unlimited budgets, one man clings tight to his hand-crafted illustrations.
Read More »Stand and Deliver
Calculus does not have to be made easy--it is easy already. That banner used to grace the Los Angeles classroom of someone once called the best teacher in America. Jaime Escalante, the unconventional calculus teacher who was depicted by Edward James Olmos in the 1988 film Stand and Deliver , died last year of cancer at the age of 79.
Read More »Are You A Victim Of Phantom Vibration Syndrome?
That's right--when you reach for your cell phone, though you are unprovoked by a beep or a hum, you are a slave of biology. And of our modern-day dependency on gadgets. You might laugh, but do you find yourself reaching for a vibrating phone in your pocket, only to discover that it's not there?
Read More »OK Go’s Human Kaleidoscope, All Is Not Lost, And How It Translates Into Sales
Damian Kulash and director Trish Sie walk us through the making of All Is Not Lost, and OK Go's approach to the music experience. In the course of producing its distinctive videos, OK Go has contended with the unpredictable ( dogs , toast ) and the potentially dangerous ( paint cannons , treadmills )
Read More »07.19.2011 | Inc.com Daily
Lights that transmit data, Borders closes, prizes for small businesses, and more. First Wi-Fi, now Li-Fi?
Read More »Inside Intel And Toshiba’s Social Film
"Inside" stars Emmy Rossum, Intel, and, maybe, you. We go behind the scenes of the latest branded filmmaking adventure. Emmy Rossum’s hair is up in a bun.
Read More »"The Ledge" Director Matthew Chapman Calls On Atheists; Is He Preaching To The Choir?
The thriller, out today, borrows a page from Bible-toting film supporters to market a movie with a godless message. When it comes to promoting his new thriller to an atheist audience, writer/director Matthew Chapman isn’t waiting on a miracle.
Read More »Transformers: More Than Meets The Ear
The giant robots in the new Transformer movies are all computer-generated. The ear-rattling sounds, however, are 100% real. Right down to the tiger with emphysema playing Megatron.
Read More »What Hanksy’s Rat-Themed Street Art Means For Tom Hanks’ "Larry Crowne"
As Tom Hanks heads to the box office with his latest flick, a rodent-bodied spoof pops up on the streets of NYC--and on popular photo app Instagram. Is this a marketing stunt or just an odd cultural collision
Read More »Anatomy Of A Cannes Winner: Nike Write The Future
We continue our series uncovering the key decisions that made a campaign an award-winner. Here, Eric Quennoy and Mark Bernath, ECDs at Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam dissect Film Grand Prix winner Write the Future. Due to irresponsible use, the word "epic" is a shell of its former self, but it’ll have to do the heavy lifting here to describe Nike’s Write the Future campaign.
Read More »More Than Just an Exercise Class
Want a ballerina body? "Back away from the barre," says Brynn Jinnett, 27, a Harvard University-educated former professional ballerina who danced in the film Black Swan. Jinnett, who'd been dancing since the age of three, was frustrated by the fitness trend of barre method classes.
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