Removing Authentication Hurdles with Voice Biometrics

When it comes to customer service, consumers are taking charge. When they pickup the phone they want to get answers - fast. But are consumers really getting the results they want the way they want them? A recent consumer survey of attitudes around present-day caller authentication systems shows this stage of the customer journey is neither quick nor convenient. To the contrary, the majority of respondents are frustrated with today’s automated authentication approaches.  But it’s not all a bad news story. The same survey highlights where companies can - and must - make improvements.

Give your customers what they want? It’s the number one thing businesses have to do to drive positive results and create lasting loyalty. But companies don’t have to jump through hoops to delight their customers. A good customer experience is one that keeps it simple, removing all the obstacles that waste people’s time or tax their patience. Success is all about delivering convenience every step of the customer journey.

Customer service is a critical stage in this journey, and one where companies can do a lot to remove the roadblocks that prevent customers from achieving what they set out to do in the first place. Whether the customer picks up the phone to ask some basic information, or just wants to connect with a ‘human’ to resolve a customer care issue, it’s the company that can remove the friction that is best positioned to delight - and keep - the customer.

Providing good customer service is key, but there are many ways to achieve this goal.

In an effort to streamline the process after a caller contacts the business many companies have implemented automated systems. The purpose of these speech-enabled IVRs is to identify and authenticate the caller quickly and effectively before routing the call to the right resource.

While these caller authentication solutions may tick all the boxes, the bigger question remains: Do they truly satisfy the customer? 

Speech Technology Group out of San Diego, California thinks so. They provide premise-based and hosted voice biometrics and voice signature solutions, that prevent fraudulent transactions in hundreds of companies across the nation. 

In May Opus Research, in conjunction with Nuance Communications, commissioned Coleman-Parkes Associates to find out.

Easy does it

The research firm surveyed 1,000 individuals who had recently used their telephone for customer care to assess their attitudes toward speech enabled systems for authentication and gain insights into the features and functionality  customers would consider ideal.

Among the findings, a whopping 85 percent of respondents said they were dissatisfied with today’s automated authentication systems and approaches. “It’s not that customers don’t understand or appreciate the requirement for a system that verifies who they really are,” explains Dan Miller, Opus Research Senior Analyst, Conversational Commerce. “They do indeed want a high level of security, but they also want an authentication process that is effortless.”

By way of background, most authentication systems require the caller to provide some sort of identifying information, such as a PIN, password or other personal information such as birth date or hometown.

Miller argues that this approach is flawed on two counts. One, the information the caller customarily offers is has “little real security value” - and consumers know that. “Identity theft makes people feel vulnerable.” On top of this feeling is the realization that personal information is easy to take from computer records or just by connecting the dots in what people say in their social networks. “This creates a real requirement for a more secure authentication systems.”

Two, these systems put the pressure on the caller to remember his or her password, pin or personal information. “The problem with this approach is the burden it puts on the caller to remember and recite this key information,” Miller says. “It’s human to forget and, in the case of passwords, people prove all to human.”

And that leads to another almost emotional issue respondents have with current authentication systems.

Forgetting the information, which respondents said often happens, sends them on a trip around the system that costs them even more time and patience. “People are most peeved at this point because they have failed to authenticate on the first attempt - and people generally don’t like to fail, ” Miller observes. Adding insult to injury, the caller is now moved on to an alternative authentication method that often requires the caller to provide a live agent with additional information or answers to security questions. “And this is largely regarded as a waste of time.”

Get to the goal

Each shopping journey may start on a mobile app or Internet website, but when customers get to the point that they want to pick up the phone and talk to somebody, they mean business. As Miller puts it: Callers understandably have little patience with “obstacles on the road to successful task completion.”

Interestingly, it’s the youth that have the most issues with current authentication methods. Specifically, callers across the 18-24 age group “show the least patience and the strongest desire to get to an agent - and get things done,” Miller says. Older respondents also have problems with authentication schemes that put the burden on them to provide PINs or other forms of personal information. “As people get older, they are more prone to forget important information. So, they, too, want a process that is easy and effortless.”

Ideal scenarios

So, what do customers really want out of their customer care experience? The survey results provide some important clues that Miller says should be used in designing secure and convenient authentication systems in the future.

“Respondents told us they want frictionless, speedy service,” Miller explained. This is where voice biometrics can come in to deliver simple and secure authentication, saving customer the hassle of having to provide personal information because their individual voice - not what they know - verifies who they are.

In Miller’s view, the advantage of voice-based authentication is that it can help people accomplish their goals in “a way where their security is assured and they can also be sure they aren’t wasting their time in the process.”

And companies shouldn’t take the customer requirement for a simple yet secure method of caller authentication too lightly. According to the survey, respondents already indicated that they were prompted to provide a PIN or some other form of information for 83 percent of the calls they made.

That number is sure to “skyrocket,” a development that should force companies to rethink their approach to authentication now, rather than later. The advance of mobile and services such as mobile commerce, mobile banking and healthcare will further increase the demand for simple and secure authentication. In fact, it is  recognition of this mobile-megatrend that Opus Research has renamed Miller’s area of subject expertise “Conversational Commerce.”

Moving ahead, Miller is convinced that strong identification is key to trusted communications. And, since services such as commerce will take place on mobile devices, it follows that there will be a significant increase the conversations that take place between people and companies. “Customers want - and will demand - simple and secure services that accommodate their needs and schedules, not just those of the vendors.”

Source: community.nuance.com

via http://www.speechtechnologygroup.com/speech-blog - When it comes to customer service, consumers are taking charge. When they pickup the phone they want to get answers - fast. But are consumers really getting the results they want the way they want them? A recent consumer survey of attitudes around present-day caller authentication systems shows this ...

Ford will bring Microsoft powered Sync in-car voice recognition to the UK next year

Microsoft's powerful speech recognition and text-to-speech technology will assist Ford drivers in the UK…

Source: google.com

            

An enhanced version will debut in the Ford Focus electric car

By Lee Bell

Thu Aug 30 2012, 19:15

BERLIN: AUTOMAKER Ford has announced that it will bring its in-car voice recognition technology called Sync to the UK next year in its Ford Focus electric car.

Announcing the news at the IFA electronics expo in Berlin today, MD of Ford Research Pim Van Der Jagt said an enhanced version of the software, which so far is employed only in cars in the US, will feature in the car when it debuts in Europe.

Ford Worked in partnership with Microsoft, which helped develop the software. Van Der Jagt said the next generation Sync software, dubbed My Ford Touch will “turn cars into mobile WiFi hotspots”.

My Ford Touch will use Bluetooth connectivity with a driver’s smartphone so that they can make hands free calls, but what Van Der Jagt described as unique was that drivers will be able to open text messages and warnings and read them via text-to-speech. “You can also automatically reply to it with voice control,” Van Der Jagt added.

Sync with My Ford Touch also introduces more voice commands on a large 9in interactive display, allowing the driver to download pictures, play videos (but only allowed while stationary), and add pictures to phone contacts as well as music album art so it is displayed while being played.

“The Sync voice control is best system around and will now come to the EU in nine major European languages,” Van Der Jagt said. “Whats different from previous generations is that it also understands natural voice speeds - say ‘play Bruce Springsteen’ and it will look into [its] library and play it.”

Along with the Sync and My Ford Touch software, there’s also an “Emergency Assistance” feaure bundled free of charge. If you get into an accident, it will automatically make an emergency call for you and tell the operator your location, asking for support to come.

Though Sync will be rolled out in Europe in the Ford Focus electric car to begin with, Ford insists this is just a starting point, and said it is preparing to launch Sync technology throughout its entire global portfolio.

“We hope to have nine million systems driving around globally by 2015,” Van Der Jagt added.

via http://www.speechtechnologygroup.com/speech-blog - Microsoft's powerful speech recognition and text-to-speech technology will assist Ford drivers in the UK… Source:  google.com              An enhanced version will debut in the Ford Focus electric car By Lee Bell Thu Aug 30 2012, 19:15 BERLIN: AUTOMAKER Ford has announced that it will bring its in-c ...

Samsung introduces Drive Link - Articles

No you can keep your eyes on the road with the Text to Speech system by Samsung that reads your email and text messages out loud…

Source: google.com

Are you one of the millions of people who can’t keep their hands off of their smartphone while driving? If you answered yes, then Samsung has an app designed specifically with you in mind – Drive Link. Drive Link’s user interface is specifically designed with distracted drivers in mind.

I’ll admit it, in this technology connected world, I can’t keep my hands off of my smartphone, especially when I am driving. I try to limit myself to just reading emails and texts at stop lights, but many times I feel the need to respond to a text or an email. I can usually get away with “safely” responding using the voice-to-text feature on SwiftKey 3. So now Samsung has me intrigued with the Drive Link app they are going to be releasing soon. Samsung has designed Drive Link to conform to the strict standards developed by the Japanese Automotive Manufacturers Association. According to Samsung, the Japanese Automotive Manufacturers Association has created some of the strongest driving standards worldwide.

Drive Link employs a simple design which was created to be quick and intuitive for people who are always on the move. The app features large buttons and a straightforward menu structure. Once the app is loaded, the user receives weather and calendar data on the home screen. By using a supported Samsung smartphone, and if the car is equipped, the app syncs with the vehicle’s head unit using MirrorLink. Developed by the Car Connectivity Consortium, MirrorLink is the new standard for connectivity between mobile devices and vehicle head units. According to Samsung, the Car Connectivity Consortium is an industry body comprising most major smartphone and vehicle car manufacturers including GM, Toyota, Honda, Volkswagen, Daimler, and Hyundai. The following head units will work with Direct Link: JVC’s KW-NSX1, Alpine’s ICS-X8, and Sony’s XAV-701BT, XAV-741 and XAV-601BT. The main functions and usability of Direct Link focus on navigation, music playback and Text-To-Speech. Text-To-Speech is the most interesting as a user can opt to have their text and emails read aloud while driving, thus eliminating the need to take one’s eyes off the road. The feature will be available in the following languages: English (both U.S. and U.K) French, Italian, German, and Spanish. There is even a feature to have social media updates read aloud while driving.

The app will be launching on the Galaxy S III, with other Samsung models running Android 4.0 or above to follow. The app will available for download via Samsung Apps.

via http://www.speechtechnologygroup.com/speech-blog - No you can keep your eyes on the road with the Text to Speech system by Samsung that reads your email and text messages out loud… Source:  google.com Are you one of the millions of people who can’t keep their hands off of their smartphone while driving? If you answered yes, then Samsung has an app d ...

Apple Battles With Android-Centric MirrorLink For Control Of Connected Car

A behind the scenes look at some of the in-car speech recognition initiatives. …

Source: ZDNet

Android often gets criticized for fragmentation. But the connected car market has it beat by a mile, with literally dozens of competing telematics platforms, each with its own code and quirks for developers to wrestle with.

At the Charged: Electric Vehicle Symposium Silicon Valley held last week on SAP’s Palo Alto campus, I learned a few things which left me unoptimistic that things are changing anytime soon.

The good news: carmakers are eager to garner more apps. You have Nissan, which is introducing the 8th generation of its NissanConnect system that includes integration with Google local search and Pandora music. Or BMW, which is working with developers on 100 apps today for its car computing platform, according to Andreas Winckler, a senior advanced technology engineer in the BMW Group’s Silicon Valley office. And there’s even this juicy rumor about Tesla Motors and the telematics system in its Model S Sedan that I heard from a source at a rival electric car maker.

 

Credit: Shutterstock.com

Usually, as a particular market matures, platforms tend to consolidate around a few winners. That creates scale and helps enable the hockey-stick-like growth of ecosystems that we’re witnessing today around iOS, Android and, potentially, Windows 8.

That sort of consolidation isn’t happening with cars. If anything, the number of platforms is continuing to expand, as automakers continue to create different platforms for different models.

“We’re really at the ground floor,” said Kal Mos, senior engineering director at Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America. “I’d compare it to the early years of the PC and the Internet.”

 For would-be developers, that means extra work and less potential revenue. Would you rather invest your time building an app with, at best, several hundred thousand potential customers, or several hundred million?

Conflicting Efforts To Unify Market

As I’ve noted, the way to create scale and attract developers would be for carmakers to de-emphasize their own platforms in favor of established mobile ones. 

Indeed, there are two main new efforts to do just that.

(Some commentators below brought up QNX Car, which is used as an underlying platform by a number of carmakers. QNX is for in-car head units, not for mobile-car integration, though the latest version does allow mirroring of mobile devices. Also, QNX, as BlackBerry PlayBook owners know, doesn’t have a deep base of apps today like iOS or Android.) 

The first is led by Apple, which wants to integrate its iOS devices more deeply into the existing computers of each automaker. The ‘Eyes Free’ technology would allow drivers to control apps via Apple’s Siri voice-recognition feature, or via steering wheel dashboards.

Apple usually keeps all news close to the vest, including partnerships. Here is a rare example of it appearing to do the opposite. According to Fast Company:

At WWDC, Forstall promised that “a number of auto manufacturers have already committed to delivering eyes-free Siri integration in the next 12 months.” Yet of all of the automakers that Apple featured (Mercedes, BMW, GM, Land Rover, Jaguar, Audi, Toyota, Chrysler, Honda), just a few could confirm they were indeed working on delivering the technology within that timeframe. One automaker even seemed unaware that Apple had held an announcement.

“We haven’t seen the statements attributed to Apple and we have nothing to announce at this time,” a Chrysler spokesperson said by email. When pressed, the spokesperson would only add that “Chrysler does not comment on future product plans.” 

The second effort is a technical framework called MirrorLink that would define how smartphone and tablet apps are displayed and controlled via an in-car touchscreen. Created by the Car Connectivity Consortium, MirrorLink is backed by 75 companies that represent 70% of the car market and 60% of the smartphone market (including major Android makers Samsung, HTC and LG).

MirrorLink’s interoperable standard would make it easier and faster for mobile developers to write car-friendly apps. The Samsung Galaxy S III isNokia had the first mobile device to support MirrorLink (followed by Samsung with its Galaxy S III), while Sony has released five MirrorLink-compatible car audio head units.

The problem is that there are key holdouts, including major carmakers like Nissan (“we’re not on the Consortium at this point, though we’re keeping an eye on it,” said Koji Doda, research and partner manager for Nissan North America), mobile platform vendors like Google and Microsoft and the biggest holdout of all, Apple.

Too Much Empowerment?

On a technical level, one source claimed there are two potential negatives with MirrorLink: its Android-centricity (despite Google’s lack of official involvement with MirrorLink), and the narrow bandwidth channel defined by MirrorLink between device and car screen, which could hurt multimedia apps.  

Even carmakers that are officially supporting MirrorLink express ambivalence over ceding control to mobile devices and potentially degrading its brand.

Car makers “have to take responsibility for everything that appears on the car,” explained Alex Keros, manager for advanced vehicle and infrastructure policy at General Motors Corp. 

Agreed BMW’s Winckler: “We want to control the user experience. It’s still a BMW.”

Others cite the potential for mobile ads to distract drivers and cause accidents.

“You can’t clutter the screen with mobile ads,” Mos said. “So if car apps are not ad supported, you need to find a way to pay for it.”

Meanwhile, leaders like BMW are ambivalent about MirrorLink because it hampers their ability to innovate.

“Often times it’s the slowest party that gets to define the spec,” Winckler said. He also decried the resulting reliance on fragile mobile devices.

“If you’re in Los Angeles and leave your smartphone in your car on a sunny day and come back, see what works: [the BMW car computer] or the smartphone,” he said.

As a result, BMW will offer nominal support for mobile-centric efforts like MirrorLink, while continuing to build its own car computers that only offer “controlled openness” to developers. That means handpicking mobile developers and parceling out access privately.

“We will never have an open API,” Winckler said.

Even Mercedes-Benz, which is a leading backer of MirrorLink, will continue to hedge its bets and invest heavily in its own platform, said Mos.

No wonder that even developers like Barney Pell, CEO of parking payment app QuickPay, thinks it will take 5 to 7 years before these apps are truly integrated into cars in meaningful way. For mainstream mobile developers, that means one less market to write for in the near-term.

via http://www.speechtechnologygroup.com/speech-blog - A behind the scenes look at some of the in-car speech recognition initiatives. … Source:  ZDNet Android often gets criticized  for fragmentation. But the connected car market has it beat by a mile, with literally dozens of competing telematics  platforms, each with its own code and quirks for develo ...

Speech Recognition Now in the Major Leagues with Mobile Tech

An interesting look at speech recognition technology…

source: google.com

Recently, at a forum hosted by the Churchill Club of Silicon Valley in Palo Alto, C.A., reps of a speech-recognition software company, an automaker and Apple (News - Alert) co-founder Steve Wozniak sat down to discuss the important issue of where speech recognition has been, and more importantly, where’s it’s headed.

 “If speech-recognition technology were a human, it would be like a five- or six-old child. At the age of one, you can speak to a child, but you have to speak slowly and simply using small words. By five or six, it starts to better understand your words and, more importantly, your meaning,” says this eWEEK article.

Speech recognition technology can get a pretty bad reputation when it comes to the comparison of computer speech development to human speech development. Nevertheless, speech is becoming the new computer user interface, or at least according to renowned Deputy Technology editor of The New York Times Quentin Hardy, it is. Quentin also served as a moderator of the panel.

The future of voice technology can be summed up in three words; machine to human. Speech-recognition technology has found its way to evolve from a machine understanding voice commands to actually understanding the meaning and context of those commands, elaborates Ron Kaplan, senior director and esteemed scientist at well-known voice technology company, Nuance (News - Alert). Nuance’s voice-recognition technology has contributed to some of the world’s most infamous creations, such as the Siri personal assistant feature on the iPhone 4S and the MyFordTouch for the Ford Motor Co., as based on Microsoft (News - Alert) Sync.

“One of the enabling technological advances that makes more accurate speech recognition possible and makes more accurate understanding of intent possible, is the ability to accumulate large amounts of data from lots of user experiences and to sift and organize and build models from it,” Kaplan explains.

Just as a child matures and develops, so has speech-recognition technology. As eWEEK perfectly puts it, “In other words, like a child, its vocabulary and understanding grows the more it hears what people say to it.”

Siri has transformed the history of voice recognition technology, where we have seen commercials featuring celebrities ranging from Zooey Deschanel to Samuel Jackson to Martin Scorsese speaking to Siri in “natural language,” making commands ranging from traffic predictions to getting tomato soup delivered – with Siri actually understanding what they say without having to speak slow and cautiously or ask for repeats.

Siri has sparked the rise of a few related apps as well, including Nina and U.K.-based Evi. Needless to say, mobile technology is – and has been – changing the face of speech recognition technology as we know it, bringing it from the minor leagues to the sold-out stadiums.

“We’ve moved along a maturity path where … people’s expectations about what they can do with today’s technologies … [to] create its own demand,” said Dan Miller (News - Alert), senior analyst and founder of Opus Research. “And then these energetic and imaginative people can come and try to fulfill that.”

via http://www.speechtechnologygroup.com/speech-blog - An interesting look at speech recognition technology… source:  google.com Recently, at a forum hosted by the Churchill Club of Silicon Valley in Palo Alto, C.A., reps of a speech-recognition software company, an automaker and Apple ( News - Alert ) co-founder Steve Wozniak sat down to discuss the im ...

Breakfast with Google’s Search Team

If you want to learn more about the future of Google search read on…

Google’s search engineers and product managers present on how we’re moving toward building the Star Trek computer of the future. Learn about advances in the Knowledge Graph technology, the Gmail in personal results field trial, and improved speech recognition in our iOS app.To join the Gmail field trial, visit g.co/searchtrial.

To learn about the latest from the search team, visit http://www.google.com/insidesearch/.

via http://www.speechtechnologygroup.com/speech-blog - If you want to learn more about the future of Google search read on… Google’s search engineers and product managers present on how we’re moving toward building the Star Trek computer of the future. Learn about advances in the Knowledge Graph technology, the Gmail in personal results field trial, and ...

IBM making smartphone version of Watson

Here's what IBM has in stock for the mobile assistant Watson…

Source:

google.com

International Business Machines researchers spent four years developing Watson, the computer smart enough to beat the champions of the quiz show “Jeopardy!” Now they’re trying to figure out how to get those capabilities into the phone in your pocket.

Bernie Meyerson, IBM vice president of innovation, envisions a voice-activated Watson that answers questions, like a supercharged version of Apple’s Siri personal assistant. A farmer could stand in a field and ask his phone, “When should I plant my corn?” He would get a reply in seconds, based on location data, historical trends and scientific studies.

Finding additional uses for Watson is part of IBM’s plan to tap new markets and boost revenue from business analytics to $16 billion by 2015. After mastering history and pop culture for its “Jeopardy!” appearance, the system is crunching financial information for Citigroup Inc. and cancer data for WellPoint Inc. The next version, dubbed Watson 2.0, would be energy-efficient enough to work on smartphones and tablets.

“The power it takes to make Watson work is dropping down like a stone,” Meyerson said. “One day, you will have ready access to an incredible engine with a world knowledge base.”

Technical challenges

IBM expects to generate billions in sales by putting Watson to work in finance, health care, telecommunications and other areas. The computer, which 15 million people saw beat former “Jeopardy!” champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, is the company’s most high-profile product since it sold its personal-computer unit to Lenovo Group Ltd. seven years ago.

The challenge for IBM is overcoming the technical obstacles to making Watson a handheld product, and figuring out how to price and deliver it. Watson’s nerve center is 10 racks of IBM Power750 servers running in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., that have the same processing power as 6,000 desktop computers. Even though most of the computations occur at the data center, a Watson smartphone application would still consume too much power for it to be practical today.

Another hurdle: It takes a while for Watson to do the “machine learning” necessary to become a reliable assistant in an area. Watson’s deal with WellPoint was announced in September, and the system won’t master the field of oncology until at least late 2013.

Adding ‘senses’

Researchers also need to add voice and image recognition to the service so that it can respond to real-world input, said Katharine Frase, vice president of industry research at IBM.

“In 2.0, we hope to give him more senses,” Frase said. “A guy could say into his phone, ‘Here’s where I am and here’s what I see,’ lifting it up to take in images of the environment.”

IBM’s path to the mobile-assistant market contrasts with Apple’s. For one, IBM is focused on corporate customers, while Apple is targeting anyone who buys its phones.

Apple made Siri the focus of its marketing of the iPhone 4S, which debuted last year. The software is touted as a personal assistant that can answer a wide range of spoken questions - “Do I need an umbrella tomorrow?” - and put appointments in a calendar.

Siri has become a defining characteristic of the iPhone, though it’s also drawn complaints. In a June survey by Piper Jaffray & Co., Siri was found to resolve requests correctly less than 70 percent of the time.

Trudy Muller, a spokeswoman for the Cupertino company, said customers are happy with Siri and that Apple will further improve the software in the next version of the iOS operating system.

Complex questions

With Watson, IBM aims to tackle more complex questions. The program will be able to understand oncology well enough to advise doctors on diagnosis and prescriptions, said Martin Kohn, IBM’s chief medical scientist. One iPad application for Watson - a health care program developed with a Columbia University professor - is being used to demonstrate its medical capabilities for prospective IBM customers.

Adding voice recognition and other senses to Watson might be easier than adding knowledge because IBM already makes tools that understand images and natural language, Kohn said. An IBM project for the U.S. military, for example, translated English into local dialects of Arabic.

“Watson itself will not interpret images, but IBM has technology that does interpret images and numerical information,” Kohn said. “Watson 2.0 is all of these different tools, working together.”

via http://www.speechtechnologygroup.com/speech-blog - Here's what IBM has in stock for the mobile assistant Watson… Source: google.com International Business Machines researchers spent four years developing Watson, the computer smart enough to beat the champions of the quiz show “Jeopardy!” Now they’re trying to figure out how to get those capabilities ...