Voice biometrics are becoming an attractive mechanism for authenticating users in online and mobile environments. They may, however, not always be the best choice of authentication mechanism, depending on the performance and assurance requirements of the underlying application.
A feasibility study should always be performed on the use of biometrics before decisions are made on implementation as this can help ensure financial investment is targeted on the most appropriate choice. When biometric applications prove to be easily bypassed or ill-performing due to environmental factors, this can quickly lose consumer trust and loyalty and be detrimental to an organisation’s brand and in some cases their bottom-line.
This paper is aimed at IT practitioners tasked with implementing, or looking to use, voice biometrics as an authentication mechanism in systems or applications.
This paper should also be useful to anyone interested in learning more about voice biometrics in general, with specific focus on the relative merits and limitations of voice recognition systems.