Mechanical Talking Heads
There is a long history of attempts to build mechanical "talking heads." Speech synthesis#Mechanical devices. Gerbert (d. 1003), Albertus Magnus (1198–1280) and Roger Bacon (1214–1294) are all said to have built speaking heads (Wheatstone 1837). However, historically confirmed speech synthesis begins with Wolfgang von Kempelen (1734–1804), who published an account of his research in 1791 (see also Dudley and Tarnoczy 1950).
Read more about this topic: Articulatory Synthesis
Famous quotes containing the words mechanical, talking and/or heads:
“No sociologist ... should think himself too good, even in his old age, to make tens of thousands of quite trivial computations in his head and perhaps for months at a time. One cannot with impunity try to transfer this task entirely to mechanical assistants if one wishes to figure something, even though the final result is often small indeed.”
—Max Weber (1864–1920)
“If I tell you that I would be disobeying the god and on that account it is impossible for me to keep quiet, you won’t be persuaded by me, taking it that I am ironizing. And if I tell you that it is the greatest good for a human being to have discussions every day about virtue and the other things you hear me talking about, examining myself and others, and that the unexamined life is not livable for a human being, you will be even less persuaded.”
—Socrates (469–399 B.C.)
“No matter how deep and dark your pit, how dank your shroud,
Their heads are heroically unbloody and unbowed.”
—Ogden Nash (1902–1971)