trol. The shrinking size of equipment will also drive the move away from hand-operated controls. "There's no room for a keypad when the device you're controlling is as small as a single key. Voice control has an advantage here because it requires virtually no physical space and we always carry our voices with us," says Rabiner. For security, new speech verification technologies will be able to analyze voices and restrict use devices to intended users only. Rabiner says he expects that within the next 5 to 10 years telephone calls will be made by name and not by number. Additionally, intelligent voice- controlled communications agents, essentially nonintrusive network-based robots, will place users' phone calls, track down the people that users need to reach, and let callers know whether these people are willing to talk. Voice- controlled agents will also help users find deals on merchandise, offer reminders about appointments and birthdays, and allow the control of house- hold and office appliances from virtually any location. As a result, a wide range of home and office devices-from coffee makers to security systems-will be network accessible and voice controllable. The distinction between work life and home life will blur as we can do what- ever we want from wherever we are at any time, says Rabiner. "Work will become something we do, not someplace we go." VOICE INPUT 9.2.2 Talking to Objects When Nassir Navab talks to inanimate objects, they usually answer him. That's because Navab, a Siemens researcher, helped develop a system that gives industrial equipment the power to vocally answer questions posed by humans. The technology is designed to provide an easy way to check on the opera- tional status of various gadgets, including valves, pumps, switches, and motors. Equipped with a wearable or mobile computer containing a built-in camera, a user could determine the status of any piece of equipment simply by walking around the factory floor. An 802.1-pound wireless network transfers data from the equipment to a c