The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background informa tion supplied by theinventors: “In recent years, the number of small-footprint sensor-containing devices such as smart phones,wearable devices, personal assis tant devices and various other “Internet of Things” (IoT) devices whichcan be u sed for accessing a variety of remote applications have been increasing dramatic ally. Many ofthese devices comprise sensors capable of detecting voiced command s; in some cases, sensors for detectingsignals of other modalities such as dual tone multi frequency (DTMF) signals, text and the like may also beincorporated in these devices. The small-footprint devices are often designed to communicate with serverfarms of various types of services which can be used to perform app lication tasks based on the inputprovided via the devices.