Your word is your log-in, literally
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Voice recognition technology has yet to deliver anything like the "Enhance!" scene from the film Blade Runner. But voice biometric authentication does work — and Australia is a world leader.
Centrelink's call centre, which handles 33 million calls a year, has been using voice biometrics since 2005 to authenticate more than 95 per cent of callers.
The Australian company Auraya was founded in 2006 to develop that technology further, hiring the man behind it, Dr Clive Summerfield, as its chief executive. Auraya's technology is now used by some Australian banks and has been sold in the US, New Zealand, Europe and the Middle East.
In January this year, Auraya launched the ArmorVox Speaker Identity System, which wraps up the company's improved technology into software for Windows and Linux that can process 50,000 verifications per hour on an eight-core server.
ArmorVox can be delivered from customer premises equipment or the cloud, or as a hosted authentication service, and can be integrated into existing applications through a web services API.
In this week's Patch Monday podcast, Summerfield explains some of Auraya's patented technology and other tricks of the trade, and how voice biometrics can be used for security applications beyond authentication and even to support surveillance.
To leave an audio comment on the program, Skype to stilgherrian, or phone (02) 8011 3733.
Running time: 34 minutes, 23 seconds