Cancer-related complications resulted in the removal of Roger Ebert’s jaw in 2006. Since then he has been unable to eat or drink and communicates through a computer, in a similar fashion to Stephen Hawking.
A Scottish company has sucessfully sampled of Ebert’s voice, recorded during his many years on television. This now allows Ebert to communicate with his own voice, rather than with the tinny-sounding robotic voice he had previously employed.
Ebert debuted his new voice on the Oprah Winfrey Show earlier this week, but not before giving a touching interview.
The entire clip is below. If you’d like to see Ebert “speak” to his wife in his own voice for the first time since his jaw removal, skip to the 5:40 mark.
