Vocal Features: From Voice Identification to Speech Recognition by Machine.

This article considers machine methods used in the collection, processing, and application of vocal recordings for speaker identification and speech recognition between 1908 and 1970. The first phonographic archives featured collections of "vocal portraits" that prompted international investigations into the essential features of human voices for individual identification. Visual records of speech later found the same applications, but as "voiceprint identification" via sound spectrography began to achieve legal and commercial success in the 1960s, the procedure attracted more widespread scientific attention, which ultimately discredited both its accuracy and its rationale.

The early history of the cochlear implant: a retrospective.

Importance: Histories of cochlear implant (CI) technology have often been inaccurate owing to the confusion of terms and anatomical situations or to biased reporting. This retrospective, published shortly after the death of inventor William F. House-and more than 50 years after placement of the first CI-offers a precise account of the early experimental period.

When mobile communication technologies were new.

In the 19th century, mechanical hearing aids opened up new possibilities for controlling sound waves and managing conversations. Components and ideals from these acoustical instruments became part of the foundation for electroacoustics, the conversion of sounds into "signals". Mechanical hearing aids also set lasting standards for portability and unobtrusiveness in the design of personal communication technology.