Speech technology - the use of speech as a means of sending information to, and receiving information from computer systems has been in use as a research tool for many years. Only recently has it begun to move out of the laboratory and into commercially worthwhile applications, first with compressed and synthesised spoken messages, then with computer recognition of spoken messages, and today with diverse applications involving both recognition and reproduction of human speech. We have written this book because we believe the technology has now advanced to the point where many more...