  The inspirals of compact objects into massive black holes are some of the
most exciting of the potential sources of gravitational waves for the planned
Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). Observations of such extreme mass
ratio inspirals (EMRIs) will not only reveal to us the properties of black
holes in the Universe, but will allow us to verify that the space-time
structure around massive compact objects agrees with the predictions of
relativity. Detection of EMRI signals via matched filtering and interpretation
of the observations will require models of the gravitational waveforms. The
extreme mass ratio allows accurate waveforms to be computed from black hole
perturbation theory, but this is computationally expensive and has not yet been
fully developed. Ongoing research to scope out LISA data analysis algorithms
requires waveforms that can be generated quickly in large numbers. To fulfil
this purpose, families of approximate, "kludge", EMRI waveforms have been
developed that capture the main features of true EMRI waveforms, but that can
also be generated for a comparatively small computational cost. In this
proceedings article, we briefly outline one such waveform family (the
"numerical kludge"), its accuracy and some possible ways in which it might be
improved in the future. Although accurate parameter extraction will require use
of perturbative waveforms, these approximate waveforms are sufficiently
faithful to the true waveforms that they may be able to play a role in
detection of EMRIs in the LISA data.
