History of Speech and Language Technology

The History of Speech and Language Technology Project is sponsored by the Saras Institute. Our overall mission for this project is to collect, preserve and make readily available information about significant research discoveries, technical achievements and business developments in speech and language technology. We have, at present, a substantial collection of documents and artifacts from various institutions dealing with advances in this field. We are interested in identifying and preserving additional materials along these lines, especially if they might otherwise be lost or discarded. Our goal is to make information and materials readily available to anyone interested in the history of speech and language technology. A particular effort is currently being made to record interviews with seminal contributors in this field so that future generations can better appreciate the insights and perspectives that created this technology. A number of interviews have already been conducted, and brief excerpts are available online (please see our Interview List).

The Saras Institute is named for Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of learning, knowledge, and wisdom, including the invention of speech and writing.