Film critic Roger Ebert says company restores his ‘voice’ with recordings from DVD tracks

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Roger Ebert gets ‘voice’ grandkids can recognize

CHICAGO — Film critic Roger Ebert says computer programmers have captured his voice from movie commentary tracks so he can type what he wants to say and listeners hear a voice that sounds like him.

Ebert lost his ability to speak after surgery for cancer. He writes in Sunday’s Chicago Sun-Times that a Scottish company has helped him regain a voice his grandchildren can recognize.

Ebert recorded commentaries for DVD movies before he lost his voice. A Scottish company called CereProc (SAYR’-uh-prok) blended digital recordings of Ebert speaking to make his text-to-audio voice.

Ebert writes that the voice will be heard predicting Oscar winners on a segment of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” airing Tuesday.

He says he may be able to use the voice for radio and Webcasts.

Information from: Chicago Sun-Times, www.suntimes.com/index