TiVo partners with Pindrop for voice authentication

TiVo has announced a global partnership with fraud detection and voice authentication firm Pindrop.

The partnership will see the companies collaborate with a “streamlined content discovery experience for consumers, unlocked through voice AI.”

This translates to voice authentication technology which, the companies say, will allow OTT streaming devices, platforms and services to provide a more engaging user experience via speech recognition. Pindrop, which provides its tech to a number of leading banks, says that its tech analyses more than 250 biological and behavioral voice characteristics including frequency and tone.

TiVo will integrate this tech with its Conversation Services product which allows devices to distinguish between household members and change behaviour accordingly.

Tivo senior director of product and conversation services Jon Heim said: “Contextual awareness is key when engaging users through a Natural User Interface. Beyond just understanding what was said, we want to understand the context of the situation to drive intelligent system behavior in the moment. The ability to distinguish between different members of a household based on their voice is an example of this contextual awareness, enabling us to provide an unprecedented level of personalisation through an experience tailored to that specific person.”

Vijay Balasubramaniyan, Pindrop CEO, said: “We believe that with our state-of-the-art voice authentication technology combined with TiVo’s expertise in the OTT video space, we’ll be able to unlock new experiences for consumers across the globe… and we’re just getting started.”

The companies will announce the first TiVo enabled product with Pindrop’s tech “in the coming months” while developers can request access to Pindrop’s technology now.