Firm restores film critic's voice

Feb 19 2010

A legendary US film critic has been given his voice back thanks to a British research team, it was revealed.

Roger Ebert, 67, lost the ability to speak almost four years ago, following life-saving cancer surgery. He has since relied on hand-written notes, a form of sign language and a basic voice synthesiser to communicate.

Now a company based at the University of Edinburgh is using new computer technology to let him communicate with his own voice once again. Scottish firm CereProc is the company behind the development.