Miller also researched how people understood words and sentences, the same problem faced by artificial speech-recognition technology.

Now advances in speech-recognition technology are making it easier to put some of those words, and many others, into type.

Lucent Technologies, a major developer of industrial-strength speech-recognition technology, has turned its attention and expertise to the consumer desktop.

A number of recent concept cars, which are showcases for manufacturers' design and technical prowess, have shown how far speech-recognition technology can be expanded.

Even with all this interest, though, companies developing speech-recognition technology are not necessarily cashing in.

It's a neat way to stretch the limits of speech-recognition technology.

In future versions, speech-recognition technology could store and display key words from past conversations.

Voice access to the Internet, along with other types of speech-recognition technology, is a growing focus of research.

Next year, though, the virtual experts will be able to converse with shoppers by using synthesized voices and speech-recognition technology.