Speech technology has long languished in the no-man's land between sci-fi fantasy ("Computer, engage warp drive!") and disappointing reality ("For further assistance, please say or press 1 ...").

But that's about to change, as advances in computing power make voice recognition the next big thing in electronic security and user-interface design.

A whole host of highly advanced speech technologies, including emotion and lie detection, are moving from the lab to the marketplace.

"This is not a new technology," says Daniel Hong, an analyst at Datamonitor who specializes in speech technology. "But it took a long time for Moore's Law to make it viable."

Hong estimates that the speech technology market is worth more than $2 billion, with plenty of growth in embedded and network apps.

It's about time. Speech technology has been around since the 1950s, but only recently have computer processors grown powerful enough to handle the complex algorithms that are required to recognize human speech with enough accuracy to be useful.

There are already several capable voice-controlled technologies on the market. You can issue spoken commands to devices like Motorola's Mobile TV DH01n, a mobile TV with navigation capabilities, and TomTom's GO 920 GPS navigation boxes. Microsoft recently announced a deal to slip voice-activation software into cars manufactured by Hyundai and Kia, and its TellMe division is investigating voice-recognition applications for the iPhone. And Indesit, Europe's second-largest home appliances manufacturer, just introduced the world's first voice-controlled oven.

Yet as promising as this year's crop of voice-activated gadgets may be, they're just the beginning.

Speech technology comes in several flavors, including the speech recognition that drives voice-activated mobile devices; network systems that power automated call centers; and PC applications like the MacSpeech Dictate transcription software I'm using to write this article.

Voice biometrics is a particularly hot area. Every individual has a unique voice print that is determined by the physical characteristics of his or her vocal tract. By analyzing speech samples for telltale acoustic features, voice biometrics can verify a speaker's identity either in person or over the phone, without the specialized hardware required for fingerprint or retinal scanning.

The technology can also have unanticipated consequences. When the Australian social services agency Centrelink began using voice biometrics to authenticate users of its automated phone system, the software started to identify welfare fraudsters who were claiming multiple benefits -- something a simple password system could never do.

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council has issued guidance requiring stronger security than simple ID and password combinations, which is expected to drive widespread adoption of voice verification by U.S. financial institutions in coming years. Ameritrade, Volkswagen and European banking giant ABN AMRO all employ voice-authentication systems already.

Speech recognition systems that can tell if a speaker is agitated, anxious or lying are also in the pipeline.

Computer scientists have already developed software that can identify emotional states and even truthfulness by analyzing acoustic features like pitch and intensity, and lexical ones like the use of contractions and particular parts of speech. And they are honing their algorithms using the massive amounts of real-world speech data collected by call centers.

A reliable, speech-based lie detector would be a boon to law enforcement and the military. But broader emotion detection could be useful as well.

For example, a virtual call center agent that could sense a customer's mounting frustration and route her to a live agent would save time, money and customer loyalty.

"It's not quite ready, but it's coming pretty soon," says James Larson, an independent speech application consultant who co-chairs the W3C Voice Browser Working Group.

Companies like Autonomy eTalk claim to have functioning anger and frustration detection systems already, but experts are skeptical. According to Julia Hirschberg, a computer scientist at Columbia University, "The systems in place are typically not ones that have been scientifically tested."

According to Hirschberg, lab-grade systems are currently able to detect anger with accuracy rates in "the mid-70s to the low 80s."

They are even better at detecting uncertainty, which could be helpful in automated training contexts. (Imagine a computer-based tutorial that was sufficiently savvy to drill you in areas you seemed unsure of.)

Lie detection is a tougher nut to crack, but progress is being made.

In a study funded by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Homeland Security, Hirschberg and several colleagues used software tools developed by SRI to scan statements that were known to be either true or false. Scanning for 250 different acoustic and lexical cues, "We were getting accuracy maybe around the mid- to upper-60s," she says.

That may not sound so hot, but it's a lot better than the commercial speech-based lie detection systems currently on the market. According to independent researchers, such "voice stress analysis" systems are no more reliable than a coin-toss.

It may be awhile before industrial-strength emotion and lie detection come to a call center near you. But make no mistake: They are coming. And they will be preceded by a mounting tide of gadgets that you can talk to -- and argue with.

Don't be surprised if, some day soon, your Bluetooth headset tells you to calm down. Or informs you that your last caller was lying through his teeth.

Forget everything you know about home networking. There's a new wireless frequency called 802.11N that is poised to kick down your door and spread hi-def content through your home up to five times faster than your 802.11G-is-for-geriatric model. Yeah, you'll need a new wireless card to take full advantage of the improved speeds, but, as long as you get a router that broadcasts on both G-friendly 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, this rising tide lifts all boats: Your old hardware will benefit with longer range as well.

Apple AirPort Extreme

Simple, elegant, clean -- the AirPort Extreme is definitely straight outta Cupertino. It not only looks perfect in the living room (we perched it neatly atop the Xbox 360), but gushes N like a geyser over medium distances. Additions like dual-band operation, along with shared printer/hard-drive support make the AirPort a solid choice for novices and intermediates. But Apple's conservative balance of speed, range and user friendliness might be off-putting for extreme high-speed junkies or those who need a lot of range.

WIRED: Clean-cut, living room-friendly design. Rock star mid-range performance when streaming audio and video. Setup and admin tools simple enough for your parents. Offers both shared disk and printer options through its USB port.

TIRED: Long-range throughput can get sketchy. A smidge on the pricey side. No simultaneous 2.4 GHz/5 GHz broadcasting. Only three gigabit ethernet ports. Minuscule configuration changes require a full reboot.

Price/maker: $180, Apple

Linksys WRT600N

(Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com)

You shouldn't have to hide your router … unless it looks anything like the WRT600N. But if you can stop making fun of the satellite dishes for a second, you're in for a treat. Superb long-distance performance and a solid data rate makes this box great for combinations of video streaming, VOIP and game console use. Our only problem? The WRT600N would occasionally throw a hissy fit and kick all our devices off the network. This only happened occasionally, but it was enough to make us wonder if it took the satellite dish remarks to heart.

WIRED: Storage Link feature lets you attach a hard drive for networked storage. Broadcasts on 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz simultaneously. Supports security options for separating older B/G and N devices. Best long-range performance, and it's no slouch at close and medium ranges either.

TIRED: Something that costs $180 should not look this stupid. You can't control the transmit power, which can be handy if you like to micromanage operating temperature and range.

Price/maker: $180, Linksys

D-Link DIR-655 XtremeN

Our first impulse was to damn this router to the Xtreme hell from which it came. Then we got over the cheesy name, and discovered a machine we actually liked -- for indoor use, at least. The DIR-655 did really well in close- and medium-range tests, but when we tried to go mobile, things got choppy. It's one thing to provide us with speedy connectivity at our desks, but some of us have to hide in the garage to watch Battlestar Gallactica, OK?

WIRED: Great balance between price and features. Delivered fastest prioritized streaming-video traffic. Package includes drywall anchors for mounting. Four gigabit LAN ports.

TIRED: Setup is counterintuitive. Weak long-distance data transfer. Only transmits on the 2.4-GHz band, which doesn't take advantage of N's ability to dodge a crowded spectrum by jumping to channel 5. USB port is only for wireless configuration settings -- not attachable storage. Looks like it might probe you in your sleep.

Price/maker: $140, D-Link

NetGear WNDR3300

NetGear definitely got the memo: When it comes to interference-free web surfing, you can't go wrong with dual bands. However, it's tough to say whether NetGear really understood said memo. This bargain-priced router can transmit over both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands simultaneously, but even with its whopping eight (!) internal antennas, it lagged behind everyone else in the class. Delving into the administrative tools revealed more letdowns, like how you can only get N while you're broadcasting on both channels simultaneously, a problem because it cuts your data stream on either frequency in half.

WIRED: Bargain priced. Hidden antennas make for a clean design. Optional stand keeps unit from heating up. Idiot-proof admin tools accessible via routerlogin.com.

TIRED: Looks like a blinged-out ice cream sandwich. Drags on long distance and multistory data transfers. No gigabit ethernet ports. Clunky install wizard requires disabling your existing router. Occasionally stops broadcasting and requires a power cycle.

Price/maker: $110, Netgear

Belkin N1

We've got some beef with the N1. Sure, it boasts a phenomenal broadcast range. The embedded LCD screen and swank black chassis? Sexy as hell. But the lack of N-only operation? Unforgivable! The router clocked decent speeds in mixed 802.11B/G/N use, but lagged compared with the N-only throughput of other contenders. In the end, the score is clear -- the N1 is less for kilobit-counting speed demons, and more for image-conscious networking n00bs.

WIRED: Stylish design. User-friendly CD-less setup. Outstanding broadcast range. Offers WEP, WPA and WPA2 protection. LCD screen displays everything from time and date to data-transmission details. Gigabit ethernet ports.

TIRED: Priced for style, not performance. Mushy, unresponsive buttons. No N-only operation. Molasses-slow reboot times.

Price/maker: $200, Belkin

The world's first drive-in movie theater opened in Camden, New Jersey, on June 6, 1933. To commemorate the birthday of this magical, endearing and disappearing brand of Americana, we're asking you to submit your best photo of drive-ins around the country.

Use the Reddit widget below to submit your drive-in photo and vote for your favorite among the other submissions. The 10 highest-ranked photos will appear in a gallery on the Wired.com homepage on Friday, June 6.

The photo must be your own, and by submitting it you are giving us permission to use it on Wired.com and in Wired magazine. Please submit images that are relatively large, the ideal size being 800-1200 pixels or larger on the longest side. Please include a description of your photo, which may include exposure information, equipment used, etc.

We don't host the photos, so you'll have to upload it somewhere else and submit a link to it. If you're using Flickr, Picasa or another photo-sharing site to host your image, please provide a link to the image directly and not just to the photo page where it's displayed. If your photo doesn't show up, it's because the URL you have entered is incorrect. Check it and make sure it ends with the image file name (XXXXXX.jpg).

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Yahoo C.E.O. Jerry Yang mapped out a scorched-earth defense against Microsoft, essentially arranging to encourage all 14,000 Yahoo employees to quit if Microsoft succeeded in buying the company earlier this year, newly released court documents suggest.

Yahoo executives also declined to tell its employees that Microsoft was prepared to offer them $1.5 billion in retention bonuses if they would stay with the company after a merger was completed, documents say.

A Delaware state court judge today unsealed a class-action complaint by two pension funds that sued Yahoo's board, claiming it failed to protect shareholders' interests after Microsoft offered to acquire Yahoo for $44.5 billion in January.

The 42-page complaint, filed by the New York class-action specialist law firm Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman, gives a window into internal discussions at Yahoo, and includes copies of internal e-mails among Yahoo executives.

The complaint asserts that the Yahoo board "handed to Yang responsibility for direct negotiations with Microsoft," and that "none of Yahoo's independent directors attended critical meetings with the company."

As early as January 31, the day Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer e-mailed his offer to Yang, Microsoft made clear it wanted Yahoo "employees to be okay" and had earmarked "$1.5 billion for the retention of employees" in addition to the "$5 billion for [the] deal," according to notes made that day by an unidentified Yahoo employee. But that fact was never conveyed to Yahoo's employees.

Meanwhile, Yang was engineering a plan for a "massive employee walkout" in the aftermath of a Microsoft takeover by offering all of Yahoo's 14,000 employees the right to quit his or her job and pocket 100 percent acceleration of their equity rights, if there was "substantial adverse alteration" of their jobs.

Yahoo's compensation consultant calculated that the proposal would cost $1.5 billion, or 3.2 percent of the transaction price. "That's nuts," he concluded in an e-mail.

A Yahoo vice president wrote that it is "a bizarre outcome if people who stick around make off worse financially than people who [are] laid off."

But another Yahoo executive, using Microsoft's four-letter stock-ticker symbol, noted that the plan "will make things increasingly more expensive for MSFT though."

The "double trigger" plan Yang supported would have first required Microsoft to pay benefits to everyone who lost their jobs as a result of the merger; a second trigger would also require severance for people who were still on the payroll if their jobs changed.

A February 14 e-mail exchange between two Yahoo executives—Gred Mrva, vice president of mergers and acquisitions, and John Dillon, senior director of integration and corporate development—shows them candidly observing they would be better off getting fired under the Yahoo.

"You and I will be f***ed as they will find a way to make us work for two more years," Mrva wrote.

Dillon responded by pointing out the double trigger also applied to change of roles. Before a deal could close, he noted, Microsoft would have to ask all remaining employees to waive their right to payment in case their job changed. "And to waive at close, they need to effectively buy us out," Dillon wrote.

The complaint also alleges that Yahoo executives compiled comparative data about similar severance plans from only three other unsolicited takeovers, and in any case never provided the information to any Yahoo director.

Chancellor William Chandler III of the Delaware Chancery Court unsealed the document despite what he said were the "defendants' strenuous arguments" that selective disclosure of the information would prejudice Yahoo at its upcoming proxy contest.

Chandler said the appropriate remedy would be for the release of more information, not less. He encouraged "defendants to release the full text of any communications they believe have been taken out of context or selectively quoted."

For its part, Bernstein Litowitz is pressing ahead with discovery, and will push to depose Yahoo director Arthur Kern, head of the compensation committee.

The lawsuit seeks to invalidate the employee severance plan and ensure that any merger deal maximizes shareholder value.

It also seeks damages if, at the end of the process, Yahoo remains an independent company with a depressed stock price.