John Makhoul

Prototype telephone for the Network Voice Protocol, signed by John Makhoul

John Makhoul is a Lebanese-American computer scientist who works in the field of speech and language processing. Dr. Makhoul's work on linear predictive coding was used in the establishment of the Network Voice Protocol, which enabled the transmission of speech signals over the ARPANET.[1] Makhoul is recognized in the field for his vital role in the areas of speech and language processing, including speech analysis, speech coding, speech recognition and speech understanding. He has made a number of significant contributions to the mathematical modeling of speech signals, including his work on linear prediction, and vector quantization. His patented work on the direct application of speech recognition techniques for accurate, language-independent optical character recognition (OCR) has had a dramatic impact on the ability to create OCR systems in multiple languages relatively quickly.[2]

Dr. Makhoul is a Chief Scientist at BBN Technologies, where he has led several successful research projects including the DARPA GALE program.[3]

  1. ^ "Linear Predictive Coding and the Internet Protocol, A survey of LPC and a History of Realtime Digital Speech on Packet Networks" (PDF).
  2. ^ "Citations for ISCA Medalists".
  3. ^ Anderson, Nate. "Defense Department funds massive speech recognition and translation program".