Knock-Knock, Who’s There?

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People often use the terms “speech recognition” and “voice recognition” interchangeably, but “voice recognition” is an ambiguous term that has been used–and misused–so widely that it may be confusing. Speech recognition–or speech-to-text–takes spoken words and interprets them as text or commands. Voice recognition can refer to either the process of interpreting what is said, or it can refer to the identification of who is speaking.

The better terms for the identification type of voice recognition are “voice verification” and “speaker authentication”–which uses voice sounds for security purposes. This is possible because each individual has distinct vocal patterns called a “voice print,” which is as unique as a fingerprint.

Voice verification is used to determine the identity of a user. This is used for personal computer security systems that substitute spoken passwords for typed ones. The user answers requests for a password by speaking his or her name or some other key phrase into the computer’s microphone. The computer compares the speaker’s voice to samples of the phrase recorded earlier during a training process. The computer has to confirm or deny that the spoken sample is a match for the stored data.

Speaker authentication or identification is more complicated–it attempts to identify the speaker. Unlike verification applications where the system only has to verify that the user is who he or she claims to be, authentication systems must search a database of stored voice patterns to find a match for an unknown speaker.

For more information on voice verification and speaker identification, see the Michigan State University Biometrics Research site.


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