SOUND BYTES

Jul 1, 2002 12:00 PM

Employees wishing to enter the Nuance headquarters facility in Menlo Park, Calif., can use one of two ways to gain access. They can use the standard method — which means presenting an assigned access card to the card reader adjacent to the door to unlock it. Or, if an employee has forgotten his card, he can use a voice recognition method recently installed at the facility.

HOW THE VOICE RECOGNITION METHOD WORKS

When an employee picks up a phone adjacent to the facility's entrance and dials the automated Nuance security line, a recorded voice asks: “Nuance Security. Who is this?” The employee then states his/her name and the speech recognition software checks that name in the employee database.

After finding the employee's voice print in the verification database, the system compares the phrase just spoken to a stored voice print, which is on file for every employee. The system then generates a “score.”

If a score is above a certain threshold, the system considers the speaker a valid employee, and then passes the door number and the employee's card number via standard telephone touch-tones to the access control system. It then commands an access control module to unlock the door, and the details of each event are logged.

If the score falls in mid-range, the system will ask a few more questions, such as office phone number and birth date, before verifying the employee and contacting the access control system to open the door. If the voice score is low, the system tells the person “I can't verify your voice print,” and loops back to give the employee another chance to say his/her name.

Not only is Nuance the user of the voice authentication system, it is the supplier. Nuance is in the business of speech recognition, voice authentication, text-to-speech, and voice-browsing products. The company combined its voice recognition software with a Continuum VT-1 Interactive Voice Response (IVR) module and access control system from Andover Controls Corp., Andover, Md., that opens the door after a successful voice match.

“Nuance was looking for an access control system that was extremely flexible,” says Rebecca Jew of Security by Design, a Martinez, Calif.-based consultant responsible for the engineering of the Andover/Nuance system. “Among other criteria, they wanted a system that would allow for ‘exception processing’ [which allows employees who forget access cards to still gain entry].”

Adds Torsten Zeppenfeld, manager of Nuance's Demo Systems Group: “If an employee opts to use his cell phone rather than the phone mounted next to the door, the automated voice will also ask, ‘Which door would you like me to open?’ The employee can state the name of the door or request that a list of doors be read before choosing the one he wants opened.”

The system can also be accessed remotely. For example, an employee can call from an office phone to unlock a perimeter door for an immediate vendor delivery.

AN OVERHAUL OF THE SYSTEM

The voice interface application is part of a facility-wide Continuum Security Management system recently installed by Andover representative WBE Security Control Systems, Novato, Calif. WBE replaced Nuance's existing security system with Continuum to provide access control on nine doors, alarm monitoring, and employee badging.

Says Laura Marino, senior product manager at Nuance: “After Sept. 11, corporations and especially government agencies will find the VT-1 voice interface application a valuable alternative to card-based access control into their high security areas; or they may want to use both methods for two-factor verification. Voice authentication is a biometric. Unlike cards and PIN numbers, a voiceprint cannot be stolen or transferred.”

John Morrison, WBE's project manager, adds that voice annunciation of a different sort was used in another way at Nuance headquarters. “'Door ajar' alarms are tied into Continuum DO-4 output modules,” he says. “After 20 seconds, a door left open will send an alarm, which, in turn, activates a speech processor installed near the door that says ‘Please close the door.’ If the door is not closed after an additional 20 seconds, an alarm is automatically sent to an outside alarm company, which investigates the event as a possible intrusion attempt.”

FOR THE RECORD

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Andover Controls	38
Nuance	39

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