User acceptance of voice biometrics in managing the physical access to a secure area of an international airport

摘要

Voice biometric systems are going to be increasingly used in real-life scenarios, in substitution of or in combination with other ways to verify a person's claimed identity. This paper is a field study exploring the acceptance of a voice biometric system by the end-users. We address a scenario where voice authentication is used by authorised personnel to physically access a secure area within an Italian international airport. The innovative features of the biometric technology take account of extreme environmental noise conditions and several spoofing countermeasures. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology is adopted as a reference framework to assess the impact on end-users operating under strong security constraints. Personnel reactions are captured by questionnaires, whereas expected benefits are identified against the running reliability (system performance automatically detected). For these aims, the observation design is addressed by issues of Acceptance and Perception of Security. The results show how the system works in a real-life scenario, even under simulated attacks, and to what extent it is accepted by both the Business User and the authorised personnel participating in the trial.