I remember using the Merlin Microsoft Agent to create speech-based "apps" in 2001, including text-to-speech as well as speech recognition. I made a SAT preparat

I remember using the Merlin Microsoft Agent to create speech-based "apps" in 2001, including text-to-speech as well as speech recognition. I made a SAT preparation that would test me by presenting a word and I had to say the meaning. I also made a Spanish learning app using Merlin, where it would read out the spanish word (in spanish!) and I would have to say the english one. It worked really well. Its been 16 years since then, and I have to say that I had expected this area to have been completely "solved" by now.