Signal and Image Processing for Biometrics

Chapter 7Voice Biometrics: Speaker Verificationand Identification ¹

 

 

 

7.1. Introduction

With the development of language technologies, it has become possible to vocally interact with computer networks in order to receive various services. The increasing popularity of such services ensures that these machines often use the identification of speakers in order to be able to reject intruders and impostors [CAM 99]. In this context, the voice is seen as a practical biometric means because it allows the remote authentication of the speaker via the telephone network. Security and intelligence services, as well as the judiciary, are also interested in this automatic authentication by voiceprint when it comes to identifying people from audio records [DRY 06, NUA 12]. In the field of e-business, voice biometrics is now considered as a solution that is both reliable and simple, allowing secure transactions. The example of Voice Pay company [VOI 12] is so inspiring because financial transactions are allowed via cell phones using only the “voice signature”.

The speech signal is a rich source of information, not only with respect to the language spoken and the message conveyed, but also with respect to the features specific to the speakers. In fact, the peculiarities of the vocal tract combined with those of the glottal source induce specific variations that can be exploited by an automatic system to identify a given speaker [BEI 11].

7.1.1. Voice biometric techniques

The different applications ...