Voice Biometrics and Large-Scale Deployment Challenges

The article deals with voice biometrics integration but many of the points made in the article apply to facial recognition as well. There's a real difference between finger and iris deployments where the user, by interacting closely with the biometric sensor, takes a lot of chaos out of the environment, and face and voice applications where the software must make sense of a more "real world" i.e. chaotic environment.

Real skill is required in order to deploy a system that can account for users that only occasionally interact with these systems and then do so from any number of environments. There's a real art to deployments where the biometric identification involves non-habituated users in a non-standard environment.

Tips for a Successful Voice Biometrics Deployment (Speech Technology)

Naturally, all deployments are different. This holds true for almost all software. It becomes unique once it becomes part of a bigger ecosystem, call centers particularly, and voice biometrics especially. Voice biometrics has to be carefully tailored. The voiceprints that make up the core of its authentication processes are heavily shaped by the regionalisms and demographics of the end user base, as well as modality. A company that receives calls mostly from Texans who are 65 and older would have to be tuned very differently from an organization that gets mobile app hits from California businessmen and women.

Selecting a vendor marks the beginning of a long conversation and process. To build a successful voice biometrics deployment, a company must know who its customers are, what its business value is, and how its information is secured. Therefore, it is critical that all appropriate stakeholders be part of the conversation.

The author, Eric Barkin, brings plenty of insight into the security, organizational planning and technical integration of voice biometrics — insight that applies to meeting other business challenges, as well.

h/t @voicevault