Germany to use voice recognition to identify refugee originsMarch 18, 2017 - 15:06 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Germany will soon use voice recognition tech to help figure out exactly where refugees came from, according to Engadget reports citing Die Welt. Though the number of asylum seekers coming to the nation in 2016 dropped significantly to 280,000 from 890,000 in 2015, there was still a backlog of 430,000 applications at the beginning of 2017. Authorities from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) are therefore hoping the technology can help dialect experts to clear that number down. The software, based on voice authentication tech used by banks and insurance, is designed to analyze the dialects of refugees based on speech samples. That indicator can then be used to help authorities figure out if the person comes form a particularly war-torn area and is thus truly in need of asylum. Experts are concerned about the accuracy of the software and that potential immigrants could be coached to game it. "I don't see how automated software can distinguish whether a person uses a certain word or pronounces it in a particular way because this is part of their own repertoire or because they were primed to do so by the interviewer or interpreter," University of Essex linguistics Professor Monika Schmid told Deutsch Welle. Instead, she believes the job is best left to BAMF's 45 linguistics experts, who cover 80 languages and have done such work since 1998. "Identifying the region of origin for anyone based on their speech is an extremely complex task," she said. "Both humans and machines can easily be wrong, but humans are probably better at realizing this." Germany will start trials of the software in about two weeks, and if everything goes to plan, will deploy it widely in 2018. As it stands, less than half of refugees are granted asylum, though nearly 60 percent get other types of protection to avoid deportation. The largest numbers have come from Syria, followed by Afghanistan and Iraq. Because of the scope of the humanitarian crisis, staff at BAMF has quadrupled over the previous year. Photo: Reuters Top stories Yerevan will host the 2024 edition of the World Congress On Information Technology (WCIT). Rustam Badasyan said due to the lack of such regulation, the state budget is deprived of VAT revenues. Krisp’s smart noise suppression tech silences ambient sounds and isolates your voice for calls. Gurgen Khachatryan claimed that the "illegalities have been taking place in 2020." Partner news Most popular in the section | Scholz hopes Armenia-Azerbaijan peace treaty will be signed this year German Chancellor Olaf Scholz hopes that a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan will be signed this year. Armenia, Russia discuss life extension of Metsamor nuclear plant Issues regarding the extension of life of the 2nd power unit of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant were discussed in Yerevan. Armenians stage more campaigns against territorial concessions to Azerbaijan Protesters blocked more roads across Armenia on Friday, April 26 in continuing attempts to scuttle territorial concessions to Azerbaijan. Czech-Armenian military cooperation discussed in Yerevan A delegation led by the Director General for the Industrial Cooperation Division of the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic visited Armenia. |