It all started with the invention of Phoneprinting. In 2011, Pindrop’s founder and now CEO, Vijay Balasubramaniyan, patented this unique technology that broke new ground in contact center fraud detection. Pindrop hasn’t looked back since. Pindrop has reached a new milestone: in 2022, a record number of 30 patents were granted, bringing us to 104 total patents awarded. These patents span over 25 jurisdictions around the globe including North America, Europe and Asia. Our patents cover a wide variety of topics in the contact center and IoT space, including audio-based fraud detection, voice authentication, voice spoofing, and device authentication.
But this is about more than just the numbers. This is about how Pindrop is constantly innovating and solving problems that will come to define the security landscape of the future. Specifically, how speech, voice manipulation and non-audio elements will interact to create more security threats and challenges for contact centers. Pindrop is already preparing for this future. Just over the last few months, Pindrop was granted patents in three new patent families:
- Caller verification via carrier metadata
- Keyword spotting
- Voice modification detection
Caller verification – Look for fraud before it happens
Pindrop’s patented technology tracks calls in real time as they come into a contact center and looks at the purported Caller ID of the call, as well as the unaltered carrier metadata, which is then used to generate risk scores backed up by proprietary risk models. With this technology, call centers can start assessing the risk of the call even before the potential fraudster has had the chance to press a button. While we had a previously patented system that analyzed carrier metadata, this new patent provides enhanced caller ID verification and spoof risk detection models that strengthen our ability to detect the fraud risk on live calls.
Keyword spotting – Focus on what as well as who
Pindrop’s patented tech leverages unsupervised keyword spotting to identify phrases or words that could connect commonalities across multiple calls or multiple fraudsters acting in unison. As fraud techniques evolve across multiple channels, keyword spotting offers one more weapon to identify concerted fraudster activity across different parts of the organization.
Voice modification detection – The era of deepfakes is upon us
A growing number of people worldwide are concerned with the risk of deepfakes and how it would affect them. Frauds have already been committed with deepfaked audio, which is created with increasingly sophisticated voice modification technologies. Pindrop’s patented tech detects voices that have been modified deliberately, either using software or through manual means. This innovation is based on models of natural human speech production, so that when voice is modified beyond what the computational models consider natural, we can identify the anomaly. We have demonstrated this ability in a recent publication at ICASSP 2021 [link] where the speech production model is able to detect modified voices with similar or better accuracy than human listeners. Not only will this technology help to detect deepfake audio more accurately but will also lead to automation and a more passive approach to risk detection.
With our additional 120+ patent applications pending, you can expect Pindrop to continue blazing this trail of innovation and help keep your contact center and your business secure from fraud.
To learn more about Pindrop’s innovations, visit pindrop.com/technologies.
