Agnitio
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| Company type | Acquired |
|---|---|
| Industry | Voice Biometrics |
| Founded | 2004, Acquired by Nuance Communications Inc. |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Emilio Martínez, CEO Javier Castaño, COO |
| Products | ASIS BS3 BATVOX KIVOX Verifier |
Number of employees | > 35 |
| Website | www.agnitio-corp.com |
AGNITIO S.L. was a voice biometrics technology company, headquartered in Madrid, Spain. Biometric authentication uses unique biological characteristics to verify an individual’s identity. It’s harder to spoof and considered more convenient for some users since they do not have to remember passwords or worry about passwords being stolen. Agnitio provides voice biometrics services for homeland security and corporate clients.
History
[edit]Origins
[edit]AGNITIO was founded in 2004 as a spin-off from the Biometric Recognition Group — ATVS at the Technical University of Madrid.[1] Its products are used by police departments in more than 35 countries across Europe, Asia and the Americas,[2] resulting in AGNITIO being considered a market leader in forensic voice biometrics. On October 19, 2016, Nuance Communications Inc. acquired Agnitio and then Microsoft acquired Nuance.Miller, Dan (October 19, 2016). "IAuth Chronicles: Nuance Acquires Agnitio". AGNITIO was acquired by Bigtincan in October 2020.
Market expansion
[edit]In addition to forensic applications, voice biometrics is generally considered to be one of the technologies (along with one - time PIN generators such as SecurID) suitable for strong authentication of telephone and electronic transactions. However, unlike token-based one-time PIN generators, voice biometrics does not require the user to have any specific hardware, making it more economically suitable for mass-market applications. Users simply need access to a mobile or landline telephone.[3] This makes voice biometrics a very promising technology for phone and on-line banking, as well as many other corporate voice applications and security needs. Automated password reset procedures, presence monitoring, time and attendance, call center user verification and verification based on free speech are some examples of typical applications that can be front-ended with voice biometrics.
AGNITIO's success in the homeland security market attracted venture capital funding, which was being used to enter deeper into the enterprise/corporate market. KIVOX, AGNITiO's corporate-focused offering, expands upon the inherent benefits of voice biometrics by utilizing the same core technologies found in its homeland security solutions.[buzzword]
Technology
[edit]AGNITIO develops both forensic and real time speaker identification services, such as BATVOX, as well as speaker authentication applications (see Verification vs. identification) that share the same text-independent technology core. In addition, a text-dependent, digit based voice biometric authentication service is offered for corporate implementors.
AGNITIO's core technologies were based on the NIST-evaluated,[4][5] ATVS biometrics technology, which was transferred to AGNITIO as part of its founding.
Controversy
[edit]In 2013, AGNITIO appeared in WikiLeaks Spyfiles as an example of mass surveillance technology used by world intelligence agencies. The event raised doubts about some Agnitio customers.[6][7][vague]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Agnitio: A business idea".
- ^ "Douwe Mik se incorpora a Agnitio como Vicepresidente de Creación de Negocio". Archived from the original on 2008-03-05. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
- ^ "Voice biometrics: coming to a security system near you". 14 May 2007.
- ^ "NIST: Speaker Recognition Evaluation".
- ^ "Biometric Recognition Group - ATVS: Activities". Archived from the original on 2008-02-16. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
- ^ Villa, Lucía (4 September 2013). "La empresa de espionaje española en el objetivo de Wikileaks: "Hace falta más control sobre los gobiernos"". Público. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
- ^ Del Pino, Daniel (1 December 2011). "Wikileaks revela que 160 empresas están en la industria del espionaje". Público. Retrieved 5 July 2016.