Digital commerce firm Xura and voice tech company SpeechPro are set to pilot biometric technology which will enable businesses to use facial recognition and voice authentication within a mobile app, alongside traditional passwords.

It will target “particularly those in the financial services sector”.

The technology combines voice and face recognition, with the ability to detect facial movements, and verbal passcode entry, to authenticate transactions via voice and video.

This can be combined with one-time passcodes to mean users are “heavily authenticated”.

For example, a user can scan their face and voice using their smartphone’s built-in camera and microphone to gain access to an account or message. This ensures a user is genuine, and prevents fraudulent log-in attempts, Xura said.

SpeechPro’s VoiceKey OnePass software can be added to an app so that, under specific scenarios, such as high value money transfers, the customer must pass several unique live “anti-spoofing” tests in order to login.

SpeechPro’s technology can also recognise multiple users’ identities on shared terminals.

According to Armin Barbalata, SVP, secure communications at Xura, “security and user experience are often considered to be at odds with each other, but the use of biometrics, specifically face and voice recognition, actually makes it easier to log in, with a greater level of protection.”