Cirrus Logic Inc.

Cirrus Logic International Semiconductor Limited

Michael Page

Robert James Hatfield

John Bruce Bowlerwell

Willem Zwart

Alastair Mark Boomer

Ryan Roberts

John Paul Lesso

Thomas Ivan Harvey

Vitaliy Sapozhnykov

Carlos Vaquero Avilés-Casco

Nikesh Oswal

There is described a system and method for performing biometric authentication, preferably voice biometric authentication. The system has a host device such as a mobile phone and a coupled headset device. The headset device is arranged to receive audio, and to cryptographically protect the audio before transmission to the host device for verification and biometric authentication.

System and method for performing biometric authentication

A method of speaker verification comprises receiving an audio signal representing speech. While the audio signal is being received, features of the received audio signal are extracted. The extracted features, of at least a part of the received audio signal corresponding to the speech of at least one speaker, are summarised, and the summarised extracted features are stored. In response to a request for a speaker verification process relating to at least one enrolled user, the speaker verification process is performed using the previously summarised features.

Systems and methods for speaker verification using summarized extracted features

This application relates to transfer of microphone data from a microphone () to a processing module, such as voice biometric authentication module () in a secure manner, such that the receiving module can trust that the received audio is genuine. An authentication module () is configured to receive microphone data (D) representative of an audio signal received at the microphone (), and generate from the microphone data, authentication data (D) for certifying that the microphone data did pass via the authentication module. The first authentication data (D) comprises information relating to distinguishing characteristics of the audio content of the microphone data and may, for instance be an acoustic fingerprint of the audio content. The authentication data, may be cryptographically signed or encrypted and sent with the microphone audio to allow a receiver to verify that the audio is genuine and the content has not been substantially altered. The process may be robust to processing of the data that results in imperceptible changes in the audio content.

Audio data transfer

An authentication system, comprising: one or more inputs, for receiving biometric input signals from a user; a routing module, configured to selectively route the biometric input signals from the one or more inputs to one or more of a plurality of components, the plurality of components including a biometric authentication module, for processing the biometric input signals and generating an authentication result; and a security module, for receiving a control instruction for the routing module, determining whether or not the control instruction complies with one or more rules, and controlling the routing module based on the control instruction responsive to a determination that the control instruction complies with the one or more rules.

Methods and apparatus for authentication in an electronic device

Received data representing speech is stored, and a trigger detection block detects a presence of data representing a trigger phrase in the received data. In response, a first part of the stored data representing at least a part of the trigger phrase is supplied to an adaptive speech enhancement block, which is trained on the first part of the stored data to derive adapted parameters for the speech enhancement block. A second part of the stored data, overlapping with the first part of the stored data, is supplied to the adaptive speech enhancement block operating with said adapted parameters, to form enhanced stored data. A second trigger phrase detection block detects the presence of data representing the trigger phrase in the enhanced stored data. In response, enhanced speech data are output from the speech enhancement block for further processing, such as speech recognition.

Voice command triggered speech enhancement

Embodiments of the invention provide methods and apparatus for monitoring the routing configuration within an electronic device such that a biometric authentication process can be carried out without interference from other components of the device, such as may occur when the device has become infected with malware for example. The invention may provide a codec or speaker recognition processor, coupled to receive biometric input data, comprising a security module that determines whether a routing configuration complies with one or more rules. The security module may be implemented to prevent genuine biometric data from being output from the speaker recognition processor, and/or to prevent spoof biometric data from being inserted into the authentication module.

A method of sending information between first and second modules connected by a signal bus comprises generating a clock signal in the first module, and imposing the clock signal on a first line of the bus. A first pattern of bit values is transmitted from the second module to the first module on a second line of the bus, during first half-periods of each period of said clock signal. A second pattern of bit values is transmitted from the first module to the second module on the second line of the bus, during second half-periods of each period of said clock signal, wherein the second half-periods of each period of said clock signal are different from the first half-periods of each period of said clock signal. Information can then be transmitted from the first module to the second module by altering the second pattern of bit values; and information can be transmitted from the second module to the first module by altering the first pattern of bit values.

Low power bidirectional bus

A method of processing received data representing speech comprises monitoring the received data to detect the presence of data representing a first portion of a trigger phrase in said received data. On detection of the data representing the first portion of the trigger phrase, a control signal is sent to activate a speech processing block. The received data is monitored to detect the presence of data representing a second portion of the trigger phrase in said received data. If the control signal to activate the speech processing block has previously been sent, then, on detection of the data representing the second portion of the trigger phrase, the activation of the speech processing block is maintained.

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Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

Michael Page