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28 southwest july 2016
Dear Editor,
Thank you for sharing the work of Rupal
Patel on the VocalID project [“The Human
Voice Is the Organ of the Soul,” May 2016].
By the end of the article, I was blinking back
tears. Our voice is so important to our identity,
our definition, and our personality when
it’s there. I was naïve to the impact of it not
being there, both for the voiceless and also
for their loved ones. This story was breathtaking!
How wonderful that Rupal Patel is
“mixing colors to paint voices!”
Diane Zeigler
ARLINGTON, TEXAS
/ We were pretty misty-eyed, too, Diane.
Hear
Rupal’s own voice by searching for her on
TED.com.
THE IMMORTAL PAUL
On a flight back from D.C.,
I browsed through the
article “The Human Voice
Is the Organ of the Soul.”
I sat upright and began
reading in detail when I
saw “Perfect Paul” mentioned.
I was an education
specialist for Digital
Equipment Corporation
back in the 1980s, and I
had the good fortune of
being assigned to develop
a training manual for
DECtalk, a revolutionary
device at the time that
could read text or typed
input and translate it to
human speech. I met Dr.
Dennis Klatt, the technology
specialist for DECtalk,
a couple of times. Each
time I was struck by how
hard it was to hear him.
Then a more experienced
team member clued me
in: Dr. Klatt was dying
of throat cancer. In an
incredibly ironic twist of
fate, Dr. Klatt’s voice was
disappearing. DECtalk had
a number of voices: male,
PHOTOGRAPHY BY DESIREE ESPADA (MAGAZINE)