VocalPrint: A mmWave-Based Unmediated Vocal Sensing System for Secure Authentication
Huining Li, Chenhan Xu, Aditya Singh Rathore, Zhengxiong Li, Hanbin Zhang, Chen Lu Song, Kun Wang, Lü Su, Feng Dan Lin, Kui Ren, Wenyao Xu · IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing · 2021
With the continuing growth of voice-controlled devices, voice metrics have been widely used for user identification. However, voice biometrics is vulnerable to replay attacks and ambient noise. We identify that the fundamental vulnerability in voice biometrics is rooted in its indirect sensing modality (e.g., microphone). In this paper, we presentVocalPrint, a resilient mmWave interrogation system which directly captures and analyzes the vocal vibrations for user authentication. Specifically,VocalPrintexploits the unique disturbance of the skin-reflect radio frequency (RF) signals around the near-throat region of the user, caused by the vocal vibrations. The complex ambient noise is isolated from the RF signal using a novel resilience-aware clutter suppression approach for preserving fine-grained vocal biometric properties. Afterward, we extract the vocal tract and vocal source features and input them into an ensemble classifier for authentication.VocalPrintis practical as it allows the effortless transition to a smartphone while having sufficient usability due to its non-contact nature. Our experimental results from 41 participants with different interrogation distances, orientations, and body motions show thatVocalPrintachieves over 96 percent authentication accuracy even under unfavorable conditions. We demonstrate the resilience of our system against complex noise interference and spoof attacks of various threat levels.