Offers a non-technical overview of all the major areas in the computer processing of human speech: speech recognition; speech synthesis; speaker recognition; language identification, lip synchronisation; and co-channel separation. The text's intuitive approach uses illustrations, analogies, and both historical and state-of-the-art descriptions to explain relatively complex concepts. Specifically, it helps the reader learn the professional jargon used in different areas of speech processing, evaluate speech processing systems for specific applications, understand how the various technologies of speech processing actually work, identify practical applications for speech technology in the commercial world, and relate speech technology to actual spoken language.