A LADY BY THE SEA

A LADY BY THE SEA

Sunday 8 November 2009

The choice of 'Daisy Bell' was a tribute to the IBM 704, which, thanks to the brilliant programmers at Bell Labs, became the first computer to sing, way back in 1962. The popular ditty from the late 19th century was chosen by geniuses John L. Kelly, Carol Lockbaum, and Max Mathews as part of a demonstration of speech synthesis.


You know I would love to get a ringtone
of "Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do?".
It would be brilliant to hear that verse
everytime my mobile phone rang. lol.

2 comments:

val said...

So that's why Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey sang that song as he was gradually disconnected!

Frances said...

I find it absolutely fascinating. The idea of a data machine converting sound into music and from there into speech.

We are talking of a time nearly 50 years ago.