Legendary Film Critic Roger Ebert Finds His Voice With New Speech Technology

Roger Ebert is undoubtedly THE most respected film critic/entertainment author that ever lived. Ebert has been writing about movies for the Chicago Sun-Times for over 40 years. He’s written 15 books about film and became the first person to win the Pulitzer Prize for film criticism in 1975. Last year he was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Director’s Guild of America, the first film critic to ever receive such an honor. And of course, along with his dearly departed former co-critic Gene Siskel, Ebert provided movie fans all over the world with the iconic catch-phrase “Two Thumps Up!” The guy is a pretty big deal in the movie industry.

Back in 2006, Ebert lost his ability to speak and the lower part of his jaw (causing him to wear a scarf at all times) due to thyroid cancer-related surgeries. The tragic loss of his voice left him unable to continue his weekly TV show “Ebert & Roeper at The Movies,” with fellow Chicago critic Richard Roeper. However, Ebert’s horrible circumstances have not slowed him down one bit when it comes to seeing and reviewing films. Ebert is still going to the theater several times a week to write reviews for his Chicago Sun-Times/movie blog RogerEbert.com, while simultaneously showcasing hope and triumph to millions of people who can no longer use their voice because of cancer.

Since his surgeries, Ebert has been using a computerized voice system that allows him to audibly communicate with others, similar to that of genius physics scholar Stephen Hawking. That simulated voice has a very mono-tone and robotic sound, something that Ebert obviously got tired of. Then one day, he was just surfing around the internet and stumbled across a Scottish speech technology company called CereProc. They provide a very unique service that allows people who are unable to speak, to find their voice again…literally. What they did for Ebert is copied the audio from his years of TV appearances, took his speech patterns and tones and applied them to his personal voice system. So instead of that mono-tone robot, it’s Roger Ebert that’s speaking, without actually speaking.

It’s a really cool story that’s probably going to change a lot of other people’s lives who deal with similar unfortunate circumstances. Ebert appeared on Oprah this week to showcase the new technology, as well as give his Oscar predictions; which should be considered definite locks.

I’ve always had great respect for Roger Ebert. When a new film is released, I go to his website first just to gauge what to expect. He’s the most rationale and intelligent analyzer of film today, which is why movie-goers should care about this promising time in his troubled life. Check out this pretty sweet video from CBS News that shows just how Ebert got his new voice.

Also check out this video featuring Ebert showing the new technology with his wife Chaz.

What Do You Think? Discuss.