News and insight into biometric identification and authentication

Voice recognition holds some promise for access control

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

ASSA ABLOY Future Labs’ Derek Scheips argues for voice recognition in physical access systems citing the technology’s appeal with users, according to a Source Security article. A Unisys-sponsored survey suggests voice recognition has the highest acceptance among biometric modes followed by fingerprints and hand geometry. From this, inferences are made pointing towards convenience and familiarity driving the consumer preferences.


Other arguments for the use of voice recognition technology include its contactless nature in authenticating one’s identity, making it suitable for situations where dirt or grime are evident or environmental conditions are poor. Remote authentication is also key wherein a user may call a system on the phone to verify identity. Still, however, voice recognition faces some degree of accuracy challenges. Voice quality changes due to aging, mood or illness can affect the accuracy of a voice recognition system as well as background noise while a user is trying to authenticate.

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Auraya Systems announced the commercial release of its voice authentication solution called ArmorVox Speaker Identity System.

The solution, which was developed for system developers and call centers as either an enterprise or cloud-based solution, fuses text-independent and text-dependent voice-verification that automatically detect languages.

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Nuance Communications, a developer of voice-recognition solutions, has announced that two of its voice-recognition technologies are being integrated into a physical access control solution from security and automation technology developer FST21.

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Idesco announced that it has updated and enhanced its DESCoder software package, offering security providers and end users alike more control over their contactless access control systems.

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Viv.ie, a start-up located in Ireland working on face recognition technology, announced it is finishing a new type of facial recognition technology that does away with a number of the security pitfalls current facial recognition technology is commonly guilty of, according to a Sydney Morning Herald article.

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ValidSoft partnered with Opus Research and released a report titled “Voice Biometrics Authentication Best Practices: Overcoming Obstacles to Adoption” that predicts the technology will be deployed in payment authentication assuming the best practices it lays out are followed.

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Human recognition Systems announced a partnership with the Olive Group, a provider of safety, security and technology solutions, that will see the Olive Group distributing HRS’s solutions in the Middle East and North Africa regions.

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