Voice Patterns Bio-metric Systems

Voice Patterns Bio metric Systems can also be used for user authentication. Voice Patterns Bio-metric Systems examine the unique characteristics of user’s voice.

Voice Recognition is a technology which allows a user to use his/her voice as an input device. Voice recognition may be used to dictate text into the computer or to give commands to the computer (such as opening application programs, pulling down menus, or saving work).

Older voice recognition applications require each word to be separated by a distinct space. This allows the machine to determine where one word begins and the next stops. These kinds of voice recognition applications are still used to navigate the computer’s system and operate applications such as web browsers or spread sheets.

Newer voice recognition applications allow a user to dictate text fluently into the computer. These new applications can recognize speech at up to 160 words per minute. Applications that allow continuous speech are generally designed to recognize text and format it, rather then controlling the computer system itself.

Voice recognition uses a neural net to “learn” to recognize your voice. As you speak, the voice recognition software remembers the way you say each word. This customization allows voice recognition, even though everyone speaks with varying accents and inflection.

In addition to learning how you pronounce words a voice recognition also uses grammatical context and frequency of use to predict the word you wish to input. These powerful statistical tools allow the software to cut down the massive language data base before you even speak the next word.

While the accuracy of voice recognition has improved over the past few years some users still experience problems with accuracy either because of the way they speak or the nature of their voice.

How it Works

Voice recognition technology utilizes the distinctive aspects of the voice to verify the identity of individuals. Voice recognition is occasionally confused with speech recognition, a technology which translates what a user is saying (a process unrelated to authentication). Voice recognition technology, by contrast verifies the identity of the individual who is speaking. The two technologies are often bundled – speech recognition is used to translate the spoken word into an account number and voice recognition verifies the vocal characteristics against those associated with this account.

Voice recognition can utilize any audio capture device including mobile and land telephones and PC microphones. The performance of voice recognition systems can vary according to the quality of the audio signal as well as variation between enrollment and verification devices, so acquisition normally takes place on a device likely to be used for future verification.

During enrollment an individual is prompted to select a pass phrase or to repeat a sequence of numbers. The pass phrases selected should be approximately 1-1.5 seconds in length – very short pass phrases lack enough identifying data and long passwords have too much, both resulting in reduced accuracy. The individual is generally prompted to repeat the pass phrase or number set a handful of times, making the enrollment process somewhat longer than most other bio-metrics.