Interviews

Voice to verify

by Mark Rowe

A smartphone security product has been selected by the UK Ministry of Defence. The MoD ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) development contract could see a possible saving of money from a reduction in issue of phones to staff.

Voicekey Limited – a spin out from Nottingham Trent University (NTU) has created artificially intelligent software, based on a mathematical model of the human brain, which uses the features of an individual’s voice to verify an individual’s identity. This means that the vocal characteristics of a user can be identified through a smartphone or telephone handset, making it possible to quickly verify security clearance and allow access to sensitive military computer systems.

Voicekey, based at Nottingham Trent University’s Centre for Innovation and Technology Exploitation on the Clifton campus, has recently received funding from the Nottingham Technology Grant Fund (N’Tech), to help market the product. Geared towards the growing life science, digital content and clean technology sectors, the fund is run by Nottingham City Council and was launched in April 2013. The programme is for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within the greater Nottingham area, to support business.

Using this grant, Voicekey aims to significantly grow its turnover in 2014/15 and is looking to create several full time equivalent jobs in the next few months.

Founder and former-director of the Centre for Innovation and Technology Exploitation, Dr Tony Allen, has been an academic at Nottingham Trent University for 15 years and is an expert in artificial intelligence using neural network systems. Dr Allen invented the technology behind Voicekey, which the University patented in 2009. He continues to work at the University while managing the growth of the Voicekey business.

The Voicekey BYOD works by adding a third level of security to the two levels already on smartphones. Dr Allen said that the two current security levels are based around “something you have” and “something you know” – basically, your unique phone ID and your unique password. The new development is based on “something you are” – your voice characteristics.

Dr Allen added: “The Voicekey system uses neural connections similar to those used in the human brain. However, where the human brain has billions of neurons, Voicekey uses only hundreds. It’s a unique system and nothing like it has been developed anywhere else in the world. We’re picking up a lot of interest from a number of business and industry sectors internationally.”

Professor Yvonne Barnett, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research at Nottingham Trent University, said: “Dr Allen’s leading-edge research in computing science is an excellent example of how many of our University academic researchers work with a range of funding bodies, business and industry sectors – nationally and internationally – to secure the effective translation of their research findings into real-world applications.”

In addition

Voicekey has recently won a Technical Strategy Board contract to support its mobile commerce developments. The makers say that Voicekey software would benefit shops, supermarkets and call centres. In shops the company uses a QR code – a two-dimensional bar code – generated by Voicekey, so shoppers can scan securely scan and buy goods using only their smartphone.

Call centres could use the Voicekey voice recognition system, rather than manual based user authentication.

The company is also in talks on a multilingual voice biometric for online gaming in Japan.

N’Tech is part of the £50m Nottingham prospectus, the city’s package to attract investment to boost Nottingham’s economy. N’Tech’s grants are funded solely through the Government’s Regional Growth Fund (RGF).

Nottingham City Council has secured £10 million from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund for grants to help fast track development plans of businesses based in the city. The funding can provide grants of £20,000, up to £1 million per successful company to support business growth and expansion.

Councillor Nick McDonald, Portfolio Holder for Jobs and Growth, added: “One of the principal reasons we set up the N’Tech Fund is to encourage local businesses to develop ground-breaking new technologies. This is exactly what Voicekey are doing. The good news is that there is still funding available and we urge businesses who are thinking ahead to their developments in 2014 to make an application. The process is streamlined and applications are reviewed on a monthly basis – this could be exactly the start to the New Year that your business needs.”

Jeremy Hague, head of business development at Nottingham Trent University, said: “The University is pleased to support Regional Growth Fund through N’Tech in Nottingham and we’re especially pleased that one of the University’s spinouts was able to benefit from the funding and grow its business in the city.”

The N’Tech fund has so far had 25 successful applications across the digital content, life sciences and clean technology sectors and awarded grants to the value of £2.2m.

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