Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Tuesday 19 June 2018

Radio reporter regains a voice with new technology

By BRINLEY HINEMAN of the voice center at the
Associated Press Ohio-based Cleveland
ATLANTA (AP) — Two years Clinic diagnosed him with
ago, longtime radio report- tongue protrusion dystonia,
er Jamie Dupree encoun- a rare neurological condi-
tered what others in his tion that causes the tongue
profession might see as an to protrude and the throat
insurmountable challenge: to close when the brain
He lost his voice. sends the signal to speak.
The 54-year-old veteran po- "He said it was so rare that
litical newsman for Cox me- he had no doctors to rec-
dia found a workaround: ommend for further treat-
He focused on text-based ment," Dupree said.
reporting and communi- In December 2017, Rep.
cated with interview sub- Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, of Mi-
jects through notecards. ami, Florida — who's known
But being unable to speak Dupree for more than two
was not just a problem in decades — rallied for his
his profession; it affected cause on the House floor.
every area of his life. The publicity surrounding
Now, with the help of tech- the speech led to talks with
nology, he can "speak" CereProc. Normally, to cre-
again. CereProc, a Scottish ate a voice, CereProc cli-
company that creates text- ents have to record them-
to-speech technology, has In this Aug. 2, 2017 photo released by Jamie Dupree, Dupree, a Cox Media Group radio reporter, selves speaking, something
crafted a new voice for Du- poses in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington. impossible for Dupree.
pree: software that turns his Associated Press But he had years of audio
typed sentences into spo- recordings from his time on
ken words. a family trip to England, he disappearing entirely, he stop him from working: air.
Thanks to the tool, Dupree's told The Associated Press in said. He conducted interviews "We used his archived ra-
voice will be back on the an email interview. Based in Washington, Du- through written words and dio reports as the source
air next week on radio sta- "When I came home, it took pree had been reporting wrote, rather than spoke, material for the voice," said
tions in Atlanta; Orlando a few weeks to get better, since the Reagan era and his stories. Graham Leary, who used
and Jacksonville, Florida; and during that time, my covered every presidential Still, he wanted to find out the recordings to build
Dayton, Ohio; and Tulsa, voice just went downhill," campaign since 1992. what was happening to Dupree's digital voice for
Oklahoma. he wrote. But as the 2016 presidential him. He visited hospitals CereProc. Within weeks,
The journalist's ordeal be- His voice eventually dimin- election approached, he searching for a diagnosis. the voice was ready to
gan in April 2016, while on ished to a squeak before was voiceless. That didn't Finally, last year, the head go.q

Apple sets up iPhones to relay location for 911 calls

technological mismatch dispatched a mile or more software.
between a 50-year-old sys- away from a caller's loca- Apple expects calling cen-
tem built for landlines and tion. ters for large metropolitan
today's increasingly sophis- Apple's upcoming 911 areas to upgrade more
ticated smartphones. feature relies on technol- quickly than those in rural
An estimated 80 percent ogy from RapidSOS, a New areas.
of roughly 240 million emer- York startup. The approach Tom Wheeler, a former
gency calls in the U.S. this developed by Apple and chairman for the Federal
year will come from mobile RapidSOS sends location Communications Commis-
phones, most of which are data from an iPhone to a sion, believes Apple's new
capable of precisely track- "clearinghouse" accessible approach for locating 911
ing where their users are. to emergency calling cen- calls will set a new indus-
Emergency calling centers, ters. Only the 911 calling try standard. "This is going
however, don't get that centers will be able to see to save a lot of lives," said
detailed location informa- the data during the call, Wheeler, now a visiting pro-
In this March 15, 2018, file photo, a supervisor shows one of the tion from mobile 911 calls. and none of it can be used fessor at Harvard Univer-
maps used by dispatchers at a 911 call center in Roswell, Ga. Instead, they get the loca- for non-emergency pur- sity. He said he hopes other
Associated Press tion of the cellular tower poses, according to Apple. phone makers will follow
transmitting the call, and Individual call centers will Apple's lead.
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE ating system will automati- must rely on other meth- each have to embrace The planned changes were
AP Technology Writer cally deliver quicker and ods to figure out where the the technology required announced Monday in
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — more reliable information caller is. to communicate with the Nashville, Tennessee during
Apple is trying to drag the pinpointing the location That can take up precious RapidSOS clearinghouse. a 911 convention. They'll be
U.S.'s antiquated system for of 911 calls to about 6,300 time and often isn't very Some centers already have part of iOS 12, the next ver-
handling 911 calls into the emergency response cen- accurate, especially when the compatible software, sion of Apple's iPhone soft-
21st century. ters in the U.S. calls come from inside a according to Apple, but ware, which the company
If it lives up to Apple's prom- Apple is trying to solve a building. Emergency re- others will have to install will release in September as
ise, the iPhone's next oper- problem caused by the sponders are sometimes upgrades to their existing a free update.q