l, cheekbone, or jaw, transmits sounds to the inner ear through vibrations. The product, which is now available in Japan, is designed for use in crowds and other places where external noise can drown out phone sounds. VOICE INPUT Certainly, the most natural way of interacting with a machine is by voice. After all, it's the primary method people use to exchange commands and informa- tion with other people. That's why researchers are working hard to develop THE CRITICAL LAST INCH-INPUT AND OUTPUT TECHNOLOGIES voice recognition tools that will allow telecom device users to input informa- tion simply by speaking. 9.2.1 Saying It With Meaning With devices growing smaller and users becoming increasingly dissatisfied with miniature keyboards and keypads, many researchers are turning their atten- tion toward creating voice input technologies. If researchers succeed in their efforts, pressing buttons to dial phone numbers, wielding bulky remote con- trols, and typing on computer keyboards will all seem quaint within a decade, as effective and efficient voice input technology radically changes the ways people use telecommunications and computer products. "We are rapidly approaching the point where entering data to devices by voice-regardless of language or accent-will be as accurate and efficient as entering it by keypad or mouse," says Lawrence R. Rabiner, associate direc- tor of the Center for Advanced Information Processing at New Jersey's Rutgers University. When this happens, another wall between humans and machines will fall. "The idea of 'going to work' to get things done will change to 'getting things done' no matter where you are," notes Rabiner, a Rutgers electrical and computer engineering professor, former vice president of research at AT&T Labs and coauthor of four books in the fields of digital signal processing and speech processing. New technologies for compressing and transporting massive amounts of computer code, without the need for excessive network capacity, will help usher in this new age of voice con