Mariah Carey wants Stephen Hawking voice machine

Singer wants 'robot voice'

Saturday, 5 January 2008

Mariah Carey has revealed she wants a text-to-voice machine like the one used by astrophysicist Stephen Hawking.

The singer, 37, reckons a 'robot voice' contraption similar to the brilliant scientist's would help her relax her vocal chords in preparation for an important concert.

'Before a big show I have to do vocal rest where I'm not allowed to speak for 2 days,' she explains.

'It's so boring having to write notes to everyone! I need Stephen Hawking's voice machine for when I'm on vocal rest.'

In fact, Mariah would like a piece of technology that plugs straight into her brain.

'I'd like a machine where I can just think and it comes out in a robot voice,' she sdmits, 'that would be amazing!'

But Mariah says she'd never want to get rid of her unique singing voice completely.

'One of the reasons for my voice is I have nodules on my vocal cords,' she tells Q.

'My mother says I've had them since I was a kid. That's why I have the high register and the belting register and I can still be husky.

'The only thing that really affects my voice is sleep. Sometimes if I'm exhausted I can't hit the really high notes.'

Stephen Hawking uses NeoSpeech's Text-to-Speech engine, VoiceText.