More Specific Reports Coming In
Since the New Year has started, I have written a couple of pieces about projections not only for Biometrics, but also for the security industry as a whole, including the usage of smart cards, in which many people expect a huge boom, given the explosion in the e-Passport and other access entry applications. Well, today, I bring a much more specific projection for the rest of this year. It has to do with Voice Recognition, and how it will impact the wireless and mobile world ways beyond we have ever imagined.
The research has been conducted by an organization known as “Opus Research”, and here are some of their key conclusions: “The increasing use of, and security risks associated with, smartphones for payments and banking, along with heightened incidences of data theft and increasing awareness of fraud, highlight the need for banks, businesses and governments to take another look at methods of authenticating end users. It is no longer sufficient to merely secure hardware end points. Organizations want assurances that the individual at that end point is the person he or she claims to be . . . Voice biometrics has the potential to play an important role in doing this. The general public is becoming more familiar with using their voice for mobile search, device control and dictation and today's study shows how, with the proper approach, voice authentication will soon follow. Voice biometrics can act as a part of a multi-layer authentication process to help reduce fraud and to confirm that the endpoint user is genuine. Opus Research predicts that the global number of registered voiceprints will increase from 10 million today to over 25 million in 2015.” (SOURCE: http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/9502/).
My Take
Voice Recognition is something, again, I have written about before on an off in these last four years of writing. And to me, after I read the initial findings of the market research study, it came to me of no surprise that Voice Recognition will make its anticipated boom in the coming year. If you think about it, it only makes logical sense. It is very easy to use, and very easy to deploy as well. All that is needed pretty much is the requisite hardware, and this too is very inexpensive, and given the trend for miniaturization in the Biometrics industry, it is also become very small, even fit for uses in the Smartphone.
In terms of user training, there is a tiny learning curve, probably even the smallest when compared to the other Biometric technologies out there. But best of all, Voice Recognition is almost instantaneous to use for verification. The best example of this is in the financial industry. At the present time, when I call Amerprise Financial, I have to go through a number of identity checks with the operator on the other side, asking for my birthday, mother’s maiden name, social security number, account number, etc. In my opinion, minutes are wasted when I want to make a quick trade based upon how the financial markets are doing. But with Voice Recognition, not only do you not have to remember all of this cumbersome information, but within just a second, you can be verified, and make that desired trade.
Remember, in the financial markets, just a matter of minutes can me a huge profit and loss. Also, another example is your Smartphone. When you are fumbling around with it in this cold weather, do you really want to be hassled by using a fingerprint system? I would think not. Instead, speak something into your phone, and boom, your identity is confirmed. And plus, Voice Biometrics works great in a multimodal security setting, putting in the ever famous 3 factor approach. Are you an avid user of the social media sites like Twitter and Facebook?
Well, Biometrics is seeing a small but steady growth here, and watch for Voice Recognition to make its footprint here as well. Whenever something is “breaking news” in somebody’s life, they would want to automatically be logged in and post it. This is especially true of viral marketing and advertising. Just like the financial sector, any minutes wasted can mean a huge profit or loss. But always, remember in the end, the needs of the customer needs to be evaluated and in some circumstances, Voice Recognition may or may not be the best and applicable solution to be utilized.
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