The authors of this series have been hand-selected. They comprise some of the most outstanding scientists -drawn from academia and private industry -whose research is marked by its novelty, applicability, and practicality in providing broad based speech solutions. The SpringerBriefs in Speech Technology series provides the latest findings in speech technology gleaned from comprehensive literature reviews and empirical investigations that are performed in both laboratory and real life settings. Some of the topics covered in this series include the presentation of real life commercial deployment of spoken dialog systems, contemporary methods of speech parameterization, developments in information security for automated speech, forensic speaker recognition, use of sophisticated speech analytics in call centers, and an exploration of new methods of soft computing for improving human-computer interaction. Those in academia, the private sector, the self-service industry, law enforcement, and government intelligence, are among the principal audience for this series, which is designed to serve as an important and essential reference guide for speech developers, system designers, speech engineers, linguists, and others. In particular, a major audience of readers will consist of researchers and technical experts in the automated call center industry where speech processing is a key component to the functioning of customer care contact centers.Amy Neustein, Ph.D., serves as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Speech Technology (Springer). She edited the recently published book "Advances in Speech Recognition: Mobile Environments, Call Centers and Clinics" (Springer 2010), and serves as quest columnist on speech processing for Womensenews. Dr. Neustein is Founder and CEO of Linguistic Technology Systems, a NJ-based think tank for intelligent design of advanced natural language based emotion-detection software to improve human response in monitoring recorded conversations of terror suspects and helpline calls. Dr. Neustein's work appears in the peer review literature and in industry and mass media publications. Her academic books, which cover a range of political, social and legal topics, have been cited in the Chronicles of Higher Education, and have won her a Pro Humanitate Literary Award. She serves on the visiting faculty of the National Judicial College and as a plenary speaker at conferences in artificial intelligence and computing. Dr. Neustein is a member of MIR (machine intelligence research) Labs, which does advanced work in computer technology to assist underdeveloped countries in improving their ability to cope with famine, disease/illness, and political and social affliction. She is a founding member of the New York City Speech Processing Consortium, a newly formed group of NY-based companies, publishing houses, and researchers dedicated to advancing speech technology research and development.