More than 25 wireless carriers are already testing high-speed 5G tech

Why it matters to you

The next generation of mobile networks is nearly here. A recent survey shows that as many as 25 carriers are actively testing 5G technology.

With carriers like T-Mobile pegging 2020 as the launch year for next-generation wireless networks, the dream of gigabit cellular seems further from reach than ever. But a new survey suggests that the dawn of 5G may be closer than it seems. On Thursday, research firm Viavi Solutions revealed that as many as 25 mobile operators are testing next-gen technologies.

Most of the testing remains relegated to the lab, but 12 of those carriers have progressed to field testing. An additional four, meanwhile, have publicly announced plans for 5G rollouts.

More: Intel’s new modem can deliver gigabit download speeds

The preliminary results are impressive. Five of the mobile operators have recorded data speeds of 35Gbps or more in 5G trials — fast enough to download a 5GB movie in roughly a second. Etisalat recorded the highest speed with 36Gbps, and Ooredoo the second-highest at 35.46Gbps. Optus, M1, and StarHub reached 35Gbps. And others reported speeds of up to 2Gbps.

They aren’t the only ones. NTT DoCoMo, in partnership with Chinese phone maker Huawei, achieved peak download speeds of more than 3Gbps during trials earlier this year. Samsung researchers in South Korea managed downloads of up to 1Gbps. And at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, AT&T said it expected its network to deliver speeds of 1Gbps thanks to “optimizations” and “thousands” of new antennas.

Other carriers are testing high-speed, next-gen connectivity in real-world environments. Verizon began deploying 1Gbps networks in select cities earlier this year, and Sprint said that it would deliver 1Gbps speeds in 2017. T-Mobile, meanwhile, claims that it’s the only carrier in the U.S. to have measured 1Gbps on its existing network.

More: Sprint will demonstrate gigabit connectivity at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona

It’s worth noting that most smartphones today can’t reach gigabit speeds, but new chips will change that. Intel recently announced the XM 7650, a new modem that delivers downloads up to 1Gbps across all carriers in the U.S. And Qualcomm’s X16 modem, which powers ZTE’s recently announced Gigabit-capable concept phone, can handle up to 1.2Gbps.

“The pace of 5G development is already beyond the expectations of many observers,” CTO  of Viavi Solutions Sameh Yamany said in a press release. “Now, as the technical delivery of data is starting to coalesce, it is time to think ahead to how future 5G networks can manage the disparate requirements of high data rates, very low latency applications and large-scale IoT services, while maintaining quality of service.”

Text and shop: You will soon be able to browse for stuff within the Viber app

Why it matters to you

The new shopping feature is Viber’s way of hoping people spend more time within the app,

You can talk, you can text, and now, you can shop, all within Viber. The instant messaging and VoIP app is the latest to adopt the trend of allowing for more and more in-app activity to take place. Already, a number of similar messaging platforms have made it easy for users to send money, purchase goods, and otherwise live their lives without ever leaving the app.

Viber’s new “instant shopping” feature will allow you to search for goods within the application and is slated to become available to U.S. users on March 6 in beta. Users in other countries will see a rollout take place throughout the rest of the year. Upon launch, you will be able to shop on Macys.com and also Rakuten.com — Rakuten is the company that owns Viber, so this may be an interesting experiment as to how the company’s various holdings can benefit one another.

More: Viber app offers free calling for those affected by immigration ban

More ecommerce marketplaces are expected to become available ahead of the March debut.

We should point out, however, that unlike apps like WeChat, you cannot actually buy an item within Viber. Once you found something worth opening your wallet for, you have to head to the third-party seller to complete the transaction. The end goal, however, a spokesperson told Venturebeat, is to make the entire experience native to the messaging app.

“Messaging is just starting its journey on mobile devices,” Viber CEO Djamel Agaoua said. “By adding ecommerce capabilities, Viber is bringing a solution for mobile shoppers to share their passion with the people that matter to them in a couple of taps. This is just the first step in a very exciting journey we’re about to take with our users, and it’s only going to get better as we add more partners and gather more feedback.”

OptiTrack’s new tracking system could cause arena-style VR market to explode

Why it matters to you

This new tracking system for virtual reality could increase the number of theme park-style arena-sized VR experiences relatively soon.

Although virtual reality has become a huge business within the home since early 2016, there is also a growing market for theme park-scaled arenas offering premium VR experiences. A great example is the Ghostbusters: Dimension experience at Madame Tussauds in New York City, which combines physical and virtual worlds together for an immersive experience at $55 per adult. There is a tracking system that keeps up with all the head-mount displays (HMD) and fake weapons and that is where OptiTrack comes in.

The company launched a new VR-tracking system on Thursday that is expected to create a boom in the theme park-scaled VR arena market throughout 2017 and 2018. It’s called OptiTrack Active and throws out the reflectors used in older systems to track objects and users. Instead, the new system relies on embedded infrared LEDs and small, high-resolution cameras/trackers that can be mounted essentially anywhere.

More: Facebook and Oculus are working on gloves for finger tracking in virtual reality

To better understand what is going on, let us back up for a second. Arena-sized VR experiences require the user to wear an HMD that is tethered to a backpack-style PC. A typical shooter scenario would have the user wear the HMD, the backpack PC, fake body armor, and a fake weapon. These items would include reflectors arranged in unique configurations so that the cameras and tracking system can keep up with each individual object.

But that setup can be a problem when VR experiences require large stationary objects and multiple rooms. According to OptiTrack, this “passive” system is great for research VR and experiences with lots of open space.

However, with OptiTrack Active’s infrared LEDs, the system can track people and objects based on pulses not seen by the human eye. The system relies on one matchbox-sized printed circuit board installed on each device to be tracked, which controls up to eight LEDs. The system also includes a base station installed at the center of the VR experience that keeps the LEDs synced with OptiTrack’s new low-latency Slim 13E cameras, or the Prime 13W cameras.

One of the benefits of using the new tracking system is that developers can design a single HMD, weapon, or other object that can be manufactured over and over. By contrast, with the previous passive system, each object design could generally look the same overall, but each one was essentially a single manufactured design due to their unique (and costly) reflector configurations.

“We heard the market loud and clear — the leaders in the out-of-home VR space wanted all the tracking performance that OptiTrack systems deliver, but with a way that allows them to build and deploy 500 identical HMDs, not 500 slightly different configurations. The result is the best active tracking system ever built and the lowest cost to rollout to dozens of sites” said Brian Nilles, OptiTrack’s Chief Strategy Officer.

OptiTrack will showcase its Active VR tracking system during GDC 2017. Hopefully, the launch will mean thrill seekers will see more theme park-style VR arenas pop up across the nation over the course of 2017.

OptiTrack’s new tracking system could cause arena-style VR market to explode

Why it matters to you

This new tracking system for virtual reality could increase the number of theme park-style arena-sized VR experiences relatively soon.

Although virtual reality has become a huge business within the home since early 2016, there is also a growing market for theme park-scaled arenas offering premium VR experiences. A great example is the Ghostbusters: Dimension experience at Madame Tussauds in New York City, which combines physical and virtual worlds together for an immersive experience at $55 per adult. There is a tracking system that keeps up with all the head-mount displays (HMD) and fake weapons and that is where OptiTrack comes in.

The company launched a new VR-tracking system on Thursday that is expected to create a boom in the theme park-scaled VR arena market throughout 2017 and 2018. It’s called OptiTrack Active and throws out the reflectors used in older systems to track objects and users. Instead, the new system relies on embedded infrared LEDs and small, high-resolution cameras/trackers that can be mounted essentially anywhere.

More: Facebook and Oculus are working on gloves for finger tracking in virtual reality

To better understand what is going on, let us back up for a second. Arena-sized VR experiences require the user to wear an HMD that is tethered to a backpack-style PC. A typical shooter scenario would have the user wear the HMD, the backpack PC, fake body armor, and a fake weapon. These items would include reflectors arranged in unique configurations so that the cameras and tracking system can keep up with each individual object.

But that setup can be a problem when VR experiences require large stationary objects and multiple rooms. According to OptiTrack, this “passive” system is great for research VR and experiences with lots of open space.

However, with OptiTrack Active’s infrared LEDs, the system can track people and objects based on pulses not seen by the human eye. The system relies on one matchbox-sized printed circuit board installed on each device to be tracked, which controls up to eight LEDs. The system also includes a base station installed at the center of the VR experience that keeps the LEDs synced with OptiTrack’s new low-latency Slim 13E cameras, or the Prime 13W cameras.

One of the benefits of using the new tracking system is that developers can design a single HMD, weapon, or other object that can be manufactured over and over. By contrast, with the previous passive system, each object design could generally look the same overall, but each one was essentially a single manufactured design due to their unique (and costly) reflector configurations.

“We heard the market loud and clear — the leaders in the out-of-home VR space wanted all the tracking performance that OptiTrack systems deliver, but with a way that allows them to build and deploy 500 identical HMDs, not 500 slightly different configurations. The result is the best active tracking system ever built and the lowest cost to rollout to dozens of sites” said Brian Nilles, OptiTrack’s Chief Strategy Officer.

OptiTrack will showcase its Active VR tracking system during GDC 2017. Hopefully, the launch will mean thrill seekers will see more theme park-style VR arenas pop up across the nation over the course of 2017.

Samsung: New Exynos 9 processor nearly halves power consumption, ups performance

Why it matters to you

Samsung’s latest, greatest chip could appear in your next Galaxy smartphone, and is primed for the future with support for gigabit LTE and ultra-high resolution video.

Samsung on Thursday unveiled its next-generation Exynos 9 series mobile processor, which may power versions of the company’s upcoming Galaxy S8 smartphone. Dubbed the 8895, the South Korean firm’s newest system on chip (SoC) is its first built to take advantage of state-of-the-art 10nm FinFET process technology, resulting in a claimed 40 percent reduction in power consumption while achieving 27 percent greater performance compared to the outgoing 14nm construction.

The 8895 boasts an octa-core, 64-bit CPU, combining four of Samsung’s second-generation, custom-designed cores with four Cortex-A53 cores for performance and efficiency, respectively. Heterogeneous architecture means all cores can interact and share tasks simultaneously, enabling faster calculations for artificial intelligence and machine learning.

More: Samsung Galaxy S8 rumors and news leaks

The CPU accompanies ARM’s Mali G71-MP20 GPU, good for a 60 percentgain in performance over its predecessor, according to Samsung. Minimizing latency for 4K virtual reality applications was reportedly one of the key goals for the Exynos 9’s graphics capabilities.

The processor’s party piece, however, might be its wireless modem. Samsung says the 8895 is the world’s first mass-produced SoC to support gigabit downloads over LTE with the help of carrier aggregation. While no domestic carrier can push data at quite that speed yet, many expect to deliver 1Gbps connectivity to customers in select markets by the end of the year.

In addition to download speeds that aren’t really possible yet, the 8895 is also built to take advantage of multimedia content that isn’t really common at this time. The advanced multiformat codec enables playback and recording of 4K content at up to 120 frames-per-second. The chip can power front and rear cameras at a maximum of 28MP each, and sports two image signal processors — one for high quality, the other to conserve power.

Samsung’s processor also features a dedicated vision processing unit for purposes like object recognition and motion detection. Meanwhile, a security processing unit handles fingerprint and iris recognition for device security, as well as mobile payments.

Samsung says the 8895 is in production now, though it hasn’t officially stated which devices it will launch in. In the past, the company’s flagship Galaxy S smartphone line has launched Qualcomm Snapdragon- and Exynos-powered variants simultaneously, so there is a precedent if Samsung decides to go that route. Earlier rumors indicated it might opt for another, more powerful 9 series chip, dubbed the 9810, which has not been announced. Samsung has teased that more Exynos information will be revealed at Mobile World Congress next week.

Apple reportedly has five groups working on wireless charging technology

Why it matters to you

Future Apple products, including the next iPhone, may not need wires to charge.

If you purchased an Android smartphone in the past two years, chances are it supports wireless charging. Samsung, HTC, and Motorola are among the industry heavyweights that have thrown support behind so-called contact-based charging. One notable and historic holdout is Apple, but that may soon change. According to Reuters, the iPhone maker has as many as five different groups within the company working on wireless charging technologies.

The products, assuming they see the light of day, will power future iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and other devices. At least one is expected to conform to Qi, the wireless charging standard backed by a group of more than 200 companies. But it’s not clear if it will be compatible with chargers from other companies — the Apple Watch and Apple Watch Series 2 use a proprietary standard that only works with the included charging puck.

More: Apple iPhone 8 rumors and news

The report lends credence to an earlier report. Japanese blog Mac Otakara suggested Apple was developing a separate, contact-based wireless charging accessory similar to what ships with the Apple Watch.

Qi’s an excellent fit for a smartphone. As Mac Rumors notes, it is capable of scaling from less than one watt of power to more than 2,000 watts. As of July, there were more than 140 smartphones, tablets, and other devices that use Qi charging. The Wireless Power Consortium, the organization which certifies new Qi implementations, includes Samsung, LG, HTC, Dell, Canon, Huawei, Sony, Qualcomm, Nokia, BlackBerry, and Sony, among others.

Plans could change, of course — Apple reportedly has as many as 10 different iPhone prototypes under development. But with production on the next-generation iPhones expected to begin as soon as next quarter, the company is likely to settle on a solution soon.

More: Apple’s latest partnership supports the iPhone 8 wireless charging rumor

Conflicting rumors suggest Apple will eschew Qi for true wireless power: Charging at a distance. In early February, Apple parts supplier Dialog Semiconductor inked a deal with wireless charging company Energous to manufacture the latter’s proprietary chip. Energous’ WattUp radio frequency technology can charge devices as far as 15 feet away from a transmitter, even when the receiving device being charged is in motion.

A previous report by KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple will use wireless charging in an upcoming iPhone in 2017 and Energous CEO Steve Rizzone hinted in the past that it partnered with “one of the largest consumer electronics companies in the world.”

Google’s Perspective tool helps clean up those ugly internet comment sections

Why it matters to you

We’ve all rolled our eyes at online comments but we may be able to make the web a friendlier place with Perspective.

If you’re looking for a human cesspool, there is no better place to visit than the comment section of a YouTube video, a news article, or really, just about any anonymous public forum. But now, Google might have something of a solution. It’s called Perspective and it is a new technology from Google and Jigsaw (an Alphabet company focused on security) that employs machine learning to identify toxic comments. Once these comments are identified, publishers or users can start to weed them out.

According to a Google blog post announcement, 72 percent of American internet users have seen online harassment, and nearly 50 percent have experienced it themselves. “This problem doesn’t just impact online readers. News organizations want to encourage engagement and discussion around their content, but find that sorting through millions of comments to find those that are trolling or abusive takes a lot of money, labor, and time,” Google noted. “As a result, many sites have shut down comments altogether. But they tell us that isn’t the solution they want. We think technology can help.”

More: You can now pay YouTube to pin your pithy comments in live-stream chat rooms

So what exactly is this technology? The new technology looks into various comments and compares them to previous content that has been considered “toxic” by human reviewers. This allows for Perspective to assign a score to new comments, and as it is exposed to more and more information, it gets better at identifying the trash.

Once toxicity scores have been assigned, Perspective allows publishers to decide what to do with this information. “For example, a publisher could flag comments for its own moderators to review and decide whether to include them in a conversation. Or a publisher could provide tools to help their community understand the impact of what they are writing,” Google explained.

Already, a version of Perspective is being tested with the New York Times, where it is helping a team of human moderators sift through comments in a  more efficient manner. But moving forward, Perspective wants to do more. “[The technology] is about more than just improving comments,” Google concluded. “We hope we can help improve conversations online.”

Google’s Perspective tool helps clean up those ugly internet comment sections

Why it matters to you

We’ve all rolled our eyes at online comments but we may be able to make the web a friendlier place with Perspective.

If you’re looking for a human cesspool, there is no better place to visit than the comment section of a YouTube video, a news article, or really, just about any anonymous public forum. But now, Google might have something of a solution. It’s called Perspective and it is a new technology from Google and Jigsaw (an Alphabet company focused on security) that employs machine learning to identify toxic comments. Once these comments are identified, publishers or users can start to weed them out.

According to a Google blog post announcement, 72 percent of American internet users have seen online harassment, and nearly 50 percent have experienced it themselves. “This problem doesn’t just impact online readers. News organizations want to encourage engagement and discussion around their content, but find that sorting through millions of comments to find those that are trolling or abusive takes a lot of money, labor, and time,” Google noted. “As a result, many sites have shut down comments altogether. But they tell us that isn’t the solution they want. We think technology can help.”

More: You can now pay YouTube to pin your pithy comments in live-stream chat rooms

So what exactly is this technology? The new technology looks into various comments and compares them to previous content that has been considered “toxic” by human reviewers. This allows for Perspective to assign a score to new comments, and as it is exposed to more and more information, it gets better at identifying the trash.

Once toxicity scores have been assigned, Perspective allows publishers to decide what to do with this information. “For example, a publisher could flag comments for its own moderators to review and decide whether to include them in a conversation. Or a publisher could provide tools to help their community understand the impact of what they are writing,” Google explained.

Already, a version of Perspective is being tested with the New York Times, where it is helping a team of human moderators sift through comments in a  more efficient manner. But moving forward, Perspective wants to do more. “[The technology] is about more than just improving comments,” Google concluded. “We hope we can help improve conversations online.”

Can AI smart enough to play poker be weaponized without turning Terminator?

Last month, some of the world’s best Texas Hold’em poker players gathered at the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to take on an unusual opponent. Over the course of 20 days and 120,000 hands, they were utterly outmatched by an artificial intelligence known as Libratus.

This isn’t the first time that an AI has beaten humans in a test of wits, and it won’t be the last. Last year, Google’s DeepMind system beat champion Go player Lee Sedol in a high-profile series, and there are plans to teach AIs how to play Starcraft II.

More: IBM CEO Rometty joins calls to ensure that AI remains a positive force

However, these AIs aren’t being developed just to beat human players at games. The same groundwork that helps a computer excel at poker can be applied to all kinds of different scenarios. Right now, we’re seeing the capabilities of AIs that can think three moves ahead of their opponent — and soon, systems like these could be arbitrating matters of life and death.

Imperfect Information

Shortly after Libratus saw off its competition at the Rivers Casino, its creator, Carnegie Mellon professor Tuomas Sandholm, was interviewed about the project by Time. When he was asked about potential applications for the AI, he reeled off a list of “high stakes” possibilities including business negotiations, cybersecurity, and military strategy planning.

Libratus hit the headlines because of its ability to play poker, but it’s capable of much more than that. Sandholm didn’t spend twelve years of his life working on this project so that he could spot his friends’ bluffs when game night rolls around.

The real strength of Libratus is its capacity to figure out scenarios where information is either imperfect or incomplete. This is what sets the AI apart from the DeepMind implementation that beat Lee Sedol in Go last year. Unlike Go, a game where all information about the game state is known, Libratus had to contend with Poker, a game that revolves around incomplete information. The AI couldn’t know what cards other players had in their respective hands, and had to play around that restriction.

Sandholm described heads-up, no-limit Texas Hold’em as the “last frontier” among games that have been subjected to significant AI research. The fact that Libratus was so successful against high-level human players represents a benchmark for the problem-solving capacity of AIs working with imperfect information.

It’s no secret that AIs are getting smarter — exhibitions like last month’s high-stakes poker game are intended to publicize the most recent advances. AI has long been a touchstone for cutting-edge technology, and now there’s plenty of easily digestible evidence that points to how advanced work in this field has become. Now, we’re seeing the financial industry and the medical industry speak on how they can make these advances work for them, and they’re not alone.

The United States military is already deep in the process of establishing the best way to implement this kind of technology on the battlefield. It’s not a case of ‘if’; it’s a case of ‘how’.

Lieutenant Libratus

As it stands, the U.S. military is embroiled in a fierce discussion as to how best to use AI to wage war. Opinion is split between using the technology to aid and assist human operatives, and allowing for the creation of autonomous AI-controlled entities.

Libratus hit the headlines because it can play poker, but it’s capable of much more than that.

It’s easy to see why some are eager to pursue AI-controlled forces. On the surface, it’s a straightforward way of diminishing human casualties in combat operations. However, this type of technology must be seized from Pandora’s Box. Once it’s available to some, it’s quickly going to be adopted by all.

Whether you trust any country’s government to utilize AI-controlled forces ethically, it seems plainly obvious that allowing these weapons of war out into the open would result in heinous acts of a magnitude that we can’t even comprehend.

More: Apple will join Google, Microsoft, and IBM in the Partnership on AI

However, there’s also an argument to be made that someone, somewhere will implement this technology eventually. Ignoring advances for ethical reasons is perhaps naïve, if the results are going to end up in enemy hands regardless.

This dispute has come to be known as the Terminator conundrum, a turn of phrase that’s been used on several occasions by Paul J. Selva, the acting Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

NASA

“I don’t think it’s impossible that somebody will try to build a completely autonomous system,” said General Selva at a Military Strategy Forum held at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in August 2016. “And I’m not talking about something like a cruise missile or a smart torpedo or a mine, that requires a human to target it and release it, and it goes and finds its target. I’m talking about a wholly robotic system that decides whether or not — at the point of decision — it’s going to do lethal harm.”

Selva argued that it’s important that a set of conventions is established to govern this emerging form of warfare. He acknowledges that these rules will need to be iterated upon, and that there will always be entities that disregard any regulation — but without a baseline for fair usage, all bets are off.

It won’t be long before simple AI is used in warfare.

Many experts would agree that AI hasn’t yet reached the stage of sophistication required for ethical use in military operations. However, it won’t be long before simple AI can be used in warfare, even if the implementation is clumsy.

Without rules in place, there’s no way to differentiate between ethical usage, and clumsy usage. Establishing guidelines might require a dip into Pandora’s box, but you could argue that the alternative amounts to leaving the box wide open.

Advanced warfare requires advanced ethics

After Libratus dominated its opposition in Texas Hold’em, Sandholm told Time that before the contest, he thought that the AI had a “50-50 chance” to win. It doesn’t take one of the world’s best poker players to recognize those aren’t great odds.

US Army

Sandholm is likely playing up his self-doubt for the sake of the interview, but it certainly seems that he wasn’t completely confident that Libratus had victory within its grasp. That’s fine when the stakes are limited to his reputation, and the reputation of the university he represents. However, when talking about using AI on the battlefield, a 50-50 chance that everything goes to plan isn’t anywhere near good enough.

Libratus is an amazing accomplishment in the field of AI, but it’s also a reminder of how much work there is still to be done. The “imperfect information” that can impact the way a game of Texas Hold’em plays out is limited to the 52 cards in a standard deck; in combat operations, there are countless other known and unknown variables that come into play.

Once military implementation of AI becomes commonplace, it will be too late to start regulating its usage. It’s fortunate that there’s still work to be done before today’s leading AI is competent enough to answer to a commanding officer, because there’s plenty of legislative groundwork to be laid before that kind of practice can be considered ethically acceptable.

Once the military implementation of AI becomes commonplace, it will be too late to start regulating.

During the Military Strategy Forum mentioned earlier, General Selva noted that experts thought the creation of a wholly autonomous machine soldier was around a decade away. It’s perhaps relevant that when DeepMind beat Lee Sedol last year, the accomplishment came a decade earlier than expected, according to a report from MIT’s Technology Review.

Research into AI is progressing at a rate that’s surprising even to experts working in the field, and that’s great news. However, there’s a marked difference between useful progress, and technology that’s ready to do the job when lives are on the line.

Military implementation of AI will become a reality, and it’ll probably happen sooner than we expect. Now is the time to put guidelines in place, so we don’t run the risk of seeing these technologies abused once they’re advanced enough to be put in the line of fire.

Study: Accuracy of voice biometrics can diminish as we age

Why it matters to you

Biometrics are considered the one true alternative to passwords but nature may play a role in how effective voice biometrics can be.

The accuracy of detecting voice biometrics may decrease as we age according to new research from a fraud detection firm.

Pindrop presented its findings at the RSA security conference in San Francisco last week, where the firm demonstrated the existence of slight changes to the human voice’s speed and pitch over months and years. The changes are minute and wouldn’t be so obvious to our ears, but voice detection systems may be thrown off.

The researchers claimed that error rates in voice biometrics can double over a two-year period. As part of the research, principal research scientist Elie Khoury and the team studied Barack Obama’s daily addresses between 2009 and 2017 for changes in his speech patterns. They claim that his voice accuracy rating declined 23 percent over the eight years.

They further examined a two-year dataset of 122 different speakers, speaking English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, and Italian. The team found that error rates typically doubled over the two years. They also found female voices aren’t prone to as much change as male voices. Of all the demographics, men over 60 experienced the most change in the voices.

More: Australia wants to replace passports with facial-recognition technology

Aging has been deemed the main cause of the changes. We use up to 100 muscles when we speak and all muscles become weaker as we get older. “[The] vocal cords and cartilages of the larynx also change as we age,” said Khoury. Emotions, health problems, and stress can also contribute to variations in speed and pitch that can reduce biometric accuracy.

There are a number of implications that these changes in our voices could have. Numerous forms of biometrics are often seen as replacements for traditional passwords. Voice biometrics is one of these and so if a system such as phone banking, for example, uses voice authentication, it may fail.

Pindrop’s researchers also carried out an eight-month survey on customers that use phone banking. They found that 48 percent of people only called the service once over the eight-month period. In theory, a voice authentication system may eventually fail to recognize these customers over time.

Terry Nelms, director of research at Pindrop, said these findings provided additional reasons for businesses and institutions to employ multi-factor authentication rather than relying on one biometric method.