IBM is now testing speech technology that can verify speakers' identities over the telephone, even if they're not speaking their native languages.
On the eve of the SpeechTek trade show, which begins today and runs through Thursday in New York, Brian Garr, IBM's director for enterprise speech, said the company is likely to release products with the speaker verification feature "within the next 12 months."
Speaker verification, also known as voice-print recognition, can be used by companies to authenticate customers over the telephone and serve as a spoken equivalent to a password. If and when laws adapt, it could also eventually serve as a legal proxy for a written signature.
