Proof of concept Iraqi enrollment via voice authentication project

Abstract

This thesis documents the findings of the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) research team's efforts on the initial phase of the Iraqi Enrollment via Voice Authentication Project (IEVAP). The IEVAP is an Office of the Secretary of Defense sponsored research project commissioned to study the feasibility of speaker verification technology in support of the Global War on Terrorism security requirements. The intent of this project is to contribute toward the future employment of speech technologies in a variety of coalition military operations by developing a pilot proof-of-concept system that integrates speaker verification and automated speech recognition technology into a mobile platform to enhance warfighting capabilities. In this first phase of the IEVAP, NPS developed with the assistance of Nuance Communications, Inc. and the Defense Language Institute, a bilingual (English and Jordanian-Arabic) speech application that demonstrates the viability of speaker verification technology for use in operations in Iraq. Additionally, NPS conducted a test to assess the accuracy claim of Nuance's packaged speaker verification application, Nuance Caller Authentication 1.0 (for North American English). The NPS test consisted of 68 speaker enrollments and 411 speaker verification attempts. Upon completion of the test, NPS conducted a single data-point analysis yielding a system accuracy of 95.87%.