In a bid to improve customer service, convenience and security, the new voice biometric authentication will identify users by their unique voice characteristics, and direct them to the appropriate adviser.

National Australia Bank (NAB) rolled out the voice biometric system earlier in the week, and general manager Brett Feldon said: “The new deployment at Aviva Australia shows the maturity and growing acceptance of voice biometrics by some of the world’s leading financial institutions. In an increasingly competitive environment where there is heightened pressure to provide better customer service as well as boost security by removing the reliance on PINs and passwords, we expect other global players to follow their example.”

Users must first sign up with VoicePay and create their speech signature, which is linked to their bank details.  Payments can then be made by simply calling a number and spitting some freestyle rap (not really - just your name, and ‘voice pay’).

The system is fraud-proof in that it contains technology that prevents recorded voices being used to mimic the true account holder.

Nick Ogden, founder, Voice Commerce Group, says: “Our voice signatures overcome the challenges of using other payment tokens or mechanisms because they do not require additional devices, passwords or pins and, after all, consumers now carry their own voices as well as their mobile phone wherever they go.”

Check out this video demonstration:

Working in over 50 countries, with the support of Mastercard and Visa, VoicePay is a hot new UK product to keep your eye on.

Mastercard declared “cash is dead” - but how long will plastic reign before voices and fingerprints surge to prominence?

More than 70 percent of respondents will trust banks and government agencies to ask them for biometric data for identity verification. Additionally, fingerprints nearly tied personal passwords as the primary preferred authentication method, 73 percent to 72 percent, respectively.

“Despite ongoing fears about identity theft and fraud, and a willingness by consumers to adopt biometric technology, many organizations have yet to embrace this technology as an effective way to protect data and identities,” said Mark Cohn, vice president of enterprise security at Unisys. “Risk management only gets more challenging with the current financial crisis. Sophisticated cybercriminals know how to take advantage of increasing consumer anxiety as well as perhaps weaker internal controls at banks as a result of layoffs and reorganizations. Adoption of advanced biometric technologies as a critical security measure is a possible solution, but it also must be augmented with best practices and stringent policies and procedures.”

Older and higher income groups significantly favor fingerprint scans, with 76 percent of people aged 35-49 and 50-64, and 79 percent of people earning $50,000 or more approving this verification method.

Men and women are willing to use biometrics to verify their identity at similar rates. However, women are less supportive of advanced methods such as eye scans (57 percent) and hand scans (39 percent) when compared with men, 66 percent and 47 percent, respectively.

These results are very encouraging for the future of biometrics in North America, and consequently across the world.

The growth will be supported by government identity management schemes, criminal and surveillance systems and private sector initiatives.

The worldwide market value could surpass $7 billion.

Fingerprint biometrics will spearhead growth, followed by facial and iris recognition technologies, with Asia and the Middle East marked down as the key growth areas.

Biometric technologies that will be displayed at Intersec trade fair and conference include areas such as fingerprint scan, face recognition, automated fingerprint identification systems (AFIS), live-scan, iris recognition, middleware/biometric identity management software, vein recognition, multiple-biometric, hand geometry and voice recognition.

“MorphoFace Investigate provided the evidence needed by a Superior Court Judge to determine probable cause and issue an arrest warrant,” said Eric Hess, Sagem Morpho Product Manager for Biometrics. “This sets a new precedent in Pierce County for facial recognition biometrics.”

Sagem Morpho’s MFI is a robust and scalable facial recognition application that includes case evidence management, biometric matching, and forensic evaluation tools for investigative and crime solving tasks. The automated system enables law enforcement and intelligence analysts to quickly compare photographs of suspects against large databases of images, such as mug shot, driver’s license, or terrorist watch lists, and make identifications within seconds.

Located in the Seattle Metropolitan area, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department (PCSD) became the first law enforcement agency in the United States to deploy the MFI system as part of a pilot initiated in summer 2008. PCSD’s initial evaluation included MFI’s ability to facilitate booking by providing a secondary identification method. In the booking process, PCSD uses an Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) to check if a suspect is in its criminal database and then fingerprint examiners to validate the results. The addition of the facial recognition tool for mug shot comparison allows PCSD to validate biometric identifications with a single examiner, reducing demands on staff and speeding the overall process.

“[MFI] eliminates 80 to 85 percent of the work in booking repeat offenders,” said Steve Wilkins, PCSD Forensic Investigations Manager. “Within minutes, the criminal record can be updated.”

PCSD took the MFI application a step further in September to help break up a local identity theft ring that had been stealing ATM cards and using them to withdraw money from the victims’ bank accounts. The only evidence obtained by detectives was a grainy photograph taken of a suspect by an ATM camera during one of the fraudulent transactions. Despite the poor quality of the photo, MFI searched the 350,000-mug shot digital database and returned two possible matches in less than 5 seconds.

Upon review, the detectives confirmed that both matches were the same person with a prior history of identity theft. When presented with the strong identification provided by facial biometrics and the suspect’s prior history, the Superior Court judge felt compelled to issue an order to search the suspect’s residence. At the scene, PCSD officers found sufficient evidence of identity theft - possibly involving many more victims than previously known - and placed the suspect under arrest. A trial is pending.

“The nearly 95 percent success rate of accurately identifying suspects with the MFI system in Pierce County is impressive when you consider that some of the mug shots were over 10 years old and that facial expressions run the gamut of emotions due to drugs alcohol, and illness not to mention the changes in facial hair,” said Sagem Morpho’s Hess. “Biometric facial recognition has evolved to where it has added a new dimension to evidence gathering and intelligence analysis as part of criminal investigations.”

13,000 people in 13 countries were surveyed in the poll, which found 57% of UK adults are worried about identity theft, with 63% concerned about credit and debit card fraud.

Three quarters of UK respondents would be willing to use fingerprint authentication to verify identity with banks and government agencies.  This makes Brits more open to biometric technology than any other European country.  56% would be willing to participate in hand vein biometric scanning.

“It is necessary to put in place robust safeguards at the technology level, but also to complement these through training in good practice,” said Jim Norton, senior policy adviser for e-business and e-government at the Institute of Directors.

“Recent high profile stories of data loss should strengthen the call for a balanced approach using the appropriate authentication technology, but also focusing on the right processes and behaviours.”

Long the domain of government and law enforcement agencies, biometric systems are increasingly moving into the market for personal data management and security. Laptops, mobile phones, storage drives and other personal devices will increasingly include biometric options to provide an additional layer of access security.

“Biometrics players increasingly have to support both public and private sector demand. It will be those that leverage the key biometric standards initially developed for the public sector but with scope for private sector deployments that will reap the benefits,” says ABI Research principal analyst Jonathan Collins.

Biometrics move into everyday life will help familiarize a broad population with the concept of using biometric measurements and systems to protect their own data. At the same time biometrics systems will become more and more commonplace in workplaces to protect physical and logical access to key resources.

The combined growth in both government, law enforcement and private sectors for biometrics will drive spending on biometrics systems over the next five years up to $7.3 billion by 2013, up from around $3 billion in 2008.

Although biometrics increasingly pushes into corporate and consumer deployments, traditional government and law enforcement biometrics spending will continue to dominate investment over the next five years. However, the ability to leverage technologies developed for the public sector in private sector and personal deployments will be increasingly important.

“In addition,” notes Collins, “The wide variety of biometrics technologies available including face, fingerprint, iris, hand and speech recognition systems, as well as their differing characteristics, has created opportunities for vendors and systems integrators to help customers select the correct biometric measurement or combination of measurements for any application.

Increasingly the test for biometrics players will be to understand and supply both markets with a range of suitable, secure and trusted products and systems.

• Self-burglary is really tough these days, so make sure you never get locked out of your house again!
• The SmartScan device looks deep into the innards of your finger
• Prevents fraud
• Allows the technology to work when your finger is dirty, wet, or cut
• Won’t work on a dismembered finger
• Set up as many as 50 fingerprint profiles
• Create an access schedule for each fingerprint profile
• If your children aren’t home by curfew, they will be automatically locked out
• Along the same lines, prevent your kids from getting into the house during school hours - stop them skipping classes!
• Ensure your cleaner, maid, carer etc. gets access to your home only at specified times
  
  

Check out this review of the product on Amazon - scroll down the page for an in-depth commentary on the product from one user.

HSBC will be working with Surrey-based identity management specialist OmniPerception, who have deployed their products in police forces across the UK amongst other clients.
David McIntosh, chief executive of OmniPerception, said: ‘Helping to prevent sensitive data falling into the wrong hands is clearly an important role for modern facial biometric technology.

‘By being the first to adopt facial-recognition technology for this purpose, HSBC is blazing a trail that will benefit both the banking sector and society as a whole.’

Click here to watch the video.