7. An apparatus, comprising: a storage device configured to store a plurality of portable voice profiles; and a computer-based system coupled to the storage device, the computer-based system including (1) a speech recognition engine configured to convert a voice signal to text, the speech recognition engine including speaker identification logic configured to analyze the voice signal to identify the speaker and then dynamically select a particular portable voice profile associated with the identified speaker, in real-time, from the plurality of portable voice profiles; (2) a local group manager configured to manage access privileges to a local user's portable voice profile according to connections between a local user of the apparatus and other members of a group to which the local user belongs and instructions of the local user; and (3) a local voice profile manager configured to receive the plurality of portable voice profiles, each portable voice profile associated with a speaker and including speaker-dependent data accessible to a plurality of speech recognition engines through an interface, the speaker-dependent data to enhance an accuracy with which each speech recognition engine in the plurality of speech recognition engines recognizes spoken words in a voice signal from a speaker associated with a portable voice profile, wherein at least one of the plurality of portable voice profiles includes data derived from use with a variety of speech recognition engines.
7. An apparatus, comprising: a storage device configured to store a plurality of portable voice profiles; and a computer-based system coupled to the storage device, the computer-based system including (1) a speech recognition engine configured to convert a voice signal to text, the speech recognition engine including speaker identification logic configured to analyze the voice signal to identify the speaker and then dynamically select a particular portable voice profile associated with the identified speaker, in real-time, from the plurality of portable voice profiles; (2) a local group manager configured to manage access privileges to a local user's portable voice profile according to connections between a local user of the apparatus and other members of a group to which the local user belongs and instructions of the local user; and (3) a local voice profile manager configured to receive the plurality of portable voice profiles, each portable voice profile associated with a speaker and including speaker-dependent data accessible to a plurality of speech recognition engines through an interface, the speaker-dependent data to enhance an accuracy with which each speech recognition engine in the plurality of speech recognition engines recognizes spoken words in a voice signal from a speaker associated with a portable voice profile, wherein at least one of the plurality of portable voice profiles includes data derived from use with a variety of speech recognition engines. 19. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the speaker-dependent data of each portable voice profile is derived without explicit training and is updated over time.