Monday, August 30, 2010

ANSI Standard for Voice Biometrics

An item on SpeechTechMag.com indicates that "the American National Standards Institute has published INCITS 456: Speaker Recognition Format for Raw Data Interchange (SIVR-1), a standard governing the type and format of data that should be included with shared audio files used for speaker identification and verification." Judith Markowitz, president of J. Markowitz Consultants is the editor of the standard, which was 4 years in the making.

The types of data to be included with the file are: the bandwidth used to make the recording; date and time of the recording; type of channel that was used to record the data, such as a wireless or landline phone; information about the speaker, such as gender, age, language, and accent; the input device used; security used, such as the type of encryption; and the sampling rate. According to the article, the format is intended to be vendor-neutral.

It should be noted that, although the standard is not mandatory, it can be very useful to organizations such as military, intelligence and law enforcement that often share data about potential threats.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Competition for Authenticating Mobile Phones via Biometrics Heats Up

An August 14 item on ThirdFactor.com announced that Animetrics has released new facial recognition authentication on certain mobile phones.

According to the article, “the service, called FaceR CredentialME, is available on devices using the Android, Windows Mobile and RIM operating systems on the Sprint 3G or 4G networks and was launched in conjunction with Troy Security Solutions, a mobile products and solutions provider.”

“The biometric service allows a user to authenticate their identity via unique characteristics in their face recorded from the phone’s embedded camera for anything such as basic online services or corporate specific services. Further, the biometric authentication can be used to entirely replace standard login methods or layered on top of them as a second factor of authentication.”

This announcement comes on the heels of PerSay’s introduction of a voice biometrics solution for iPhones and Bio-Key’s upcoming release of a fingerprint biometrics solution for mobile phones.

The race is on!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Voice Biometrics is in the Army Now!

According to an item in “Government Computer News”, the United States Army is developing a major biometrics depository – including voice. The biometrics information is captured from all foreign nationals, including local nationals and third-country nationals, who are eligible to access bases in areas of conflict.

The article describes the process as follows: “It starts with the person’s employer filling out a paper application, knowing what privileges they should have and whether they should be escorted or not. That goes into an automated system along with the person’s biometric information and gets vetted against databases in West Virginia, which includes the FBI database. So then that information — hit [or] no hit — gets fed back to somebody at the local base, because every local commander gets to decide who can or can’t come on his base. And based on that information, whether it’s innocuous or whether they think it shows a threat, as well as other sources of information, they make a decision whether to allow that person on base. If they say “yes,” then the person is badged with a card that looks a lot like a Common Access Card.”

When the person arrives at the base, their card is first checked to ensure validity. Their biometrics (sample) are then compared against the biometrics (base) stored on the card to ensure that the person is who they claim to be.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

PerSay Delivers Voice Biometrics Solution for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

According to a press release, PerSay’s VocalPassword™ voice biometrics functionality is now available for iPhone™, iPad™ and iPod Touch™ applications. The voice biometrics functionality, which interfaces with a VocalPassword™ web service interface, uses a simple spoken pass phrase which enables single / multi-factor voice-based authentication. By combining it with the device ID, and / or a password, a triple-factor authentication is enabled.

Almog Aley-Raz, PerSay’s CEO, stated “iPhone and iPad users are demanding friendly Apps that utilize the most advanced technology for enhanced experience. By eliminating keyboard use, as well as the need for auto-filling names and passwords which poses a security risk, the PerSay solution provides optimal usability with maximum protection. Sensitive enterprise and personal applications, including mobile banking, social networks, payment services, membership clubs, and many more, can now provide their users with a sleek and innovative, yet strong authentication experience.”

As an iPhone user, I’m looking forward to demoing PerSay’s application
.