Answers to Some FAQs

What is biometrics?
Biometrics is the measurement of a person’s physical and/or behavioral characteristics, such as fingerprints, iris scans, or voiceprints, to verify their identity.

What is voice biometrics?
Voice biometrics is the measurement of a person’s unique voice characteristics, or voiceprint, to verify their identity.

What is a voiceprint?
A voiceprint is a stored set of measurable characteristics of a human voice that are unique to each individual. No two individuals have the same exact voiceprint. Voiceprints can be compared with each other to positively verify a person’s identity.

What is automated speaker verification?
Automated speaker verification is the process of comparing a person’s voiceprint with a stored voiceprint to positively verify their identity. Automated speaker verification uses advanced voice biometrics technology.

Why use biometrics to verify a person’s identity?
Biometrics is the best way to verify that a person is actually the person.

Why use voice biometrics to verify a person’s identity?
Voice biometrics is an easy and natural way to verify a person’s identity. No special devices, such as readers or scanners, are required. The user simply needs access to a telephone or microphone.

Why aren’t User IDs and Passwords enough to verify a person’s identity?
Simply stated, there is no way that User IDs and Passwords can verify that a person is actually the person. In addition, User IDs and Passwords can be forgotten, shared, observed and broken.

Why not use tokens, such as smart cards, to verify a person’s identity?
Simply stated, there is no way that tokens can verify that a person is actually the person. In addition, tokens can be lost, stolen or forgotten.

What is multi-factor authentication?
Multi-factor authentication is the process of verifying a person’s identity using more than one validation factor. For example, something you know, such as User ID and Password, would be one factor. Something you are, such as a voiceprint, would be another factor.

What are the benefits of multi-factor authentication?
Multi-factor authentication greatly enhances the robustness of any security system. Even if one factor is compromised, the additional factor would still prevent security breaches.