The 2010 Speech Luminaries

By now the speech industry has proved itself, and yet a handful of people continue to push its boundaries, expand its reach, revise its potential, and see to it that speech becomes ubiquitous. This year’s Luminaries, chosen by the editors of Speech Technology, are just such individuals, having churned out product and service offerings that have forced the industry—and the world at large—to stand up and take notice. These visionary executives have made it so that speech technologies can no longer be ignored or relegated to a back-office function that people use only begrudgingly. Thanks to the thought leaders you’re about to meet, speech is showing up in some of the most surprising—and welcome—places.