Hawking's speech software goes open source for disabled

The system that helps Stephen Hawking communicate with the outside world will be made available online from January in a move that could help millions of motor neurone disease sufferers, scientists said Tuesday.

The wheelchair-bound theoretical physicist, who shot to international fame in the 1980s with his book "A Brief History of Time", hailed the decision by US tech giant Intel at a press conference in London.

"By making this technology freely available, it has the potential to greatly improve the life of disabled people all over the world," said Hawking, his words relayed by the robotic voice of his computer .... http://phys.org