Nuance has launched a new ‘voiceprinting’ system, which it is rolling out for the UK government.
US speech recognition firm Nuance has announced the launch of a new voice authentication system, Nuance Verifier. The UK government will employ Verifier to identify and track young offenders. Voiceprinting will replace fingerprinting as a method of identification and will also be used for probation purposes and to enforce court community sentences.
Voiceprinting has many advantages over other biometric identification methods, such as facial or fingerprint scanning. Like fingerprints, voiceprints are unique, but unlike other biometric methods, they do not require specialized and expensive devices such as scanners or cameras. More importantly, individuals can be identified remotely over the phone. This reduces the need for other tracking methods such as electronic tagging, saving governments money.
While voice authentication is already used in several US correctional facilities, European governments have been slower to wake up to its possibilities. Reliability and security issues have long been obvious concerns of the government sector, but the technology is gradually maturing to bring practical solutions for common problems. The challenge is overcoming skepticism, and ensuring that solutions can be offered at justifiable cost.
Speech recognition and verification vendors should take a close look at the government sector, since government IT budgets are more recession-proof than those of private companies. Other recent examples of voice applications used in the government sector include the State of California Supreme Court’s jury management system and the Western Australian Tourism Commission’s ‘virtual call center’.
However, Nuance faces some competition for government custom. T-Netix concentrates on voice authentication solutions in the correctional facilities field, and Buytel, the Irish voice authentication ASP, has also developed hosted solutions for the government sector.
Datamonitor believes that the voice authentication market will grow at 87% per year on average from 2000 to 2006, due both to continuing improvement in the technology and to an increasing understanding of the convenience, cost and security benefits these solutions can bring. By the end of 2006, vendors’ revenues should hit $220 million.
