Subject: New Biometric and Voice Recognition E-Voting System Assists Blind
and Partially Sighted People to Participate Fully in the Internet Voting
Experience


 > Yahoo News
 > Wednesday, December 10, 2003
 >
 > New Biometric and Voice Recognition E-Voting System Assists Blind and
Partially Sighted People to Participate Fully in the Internet Voting
Experience
 >
 > The state of Geneva assisted by its two technology partners, HP and
WISeKey have taken the e-voting project interoperability and accessibility
to the next level through the integration of biometric and voice recognition
technology.
 >
 > So far traditional e-voting systems prevented blind & partially sighted
people from participating fully in the Internet voting. Even in the
traditional physical polling booth situation, blind & partially sighted
people have had to be assisted to make their vote.
 >
 > To solve this problem the Geneva State authorities have been investigating
alternative voting methods that might make the process of placing a vote
easier and more convenient for blind & partially sighted people. "This
experience is also a great model for developing countries where illiterate
people could use this technology to vote electronically," said, Chancellor
Robert Hensler.
 >
 > The application presented at WSIS is a development of the Internet voting
application which the State of Geneva has already used twice successfully
this year in official ballots. The interface has been modified to support a
voice synthesizer and it can be used either in the traditional way -- using
a keyboard -- or by voice command.
 >
 > The E-Voting system authenticates the voter using a biometric fingerprint
device, guides him through the voting process with interactive audio, and
processes his desired voting choices through matching phonetic
pronunciations of simple responses such as "yes," "no," "cancel," "resume"
or "ok".
 >
 > The voice recognition system has been developed by HP to accommodate a
wide range of voices and accents of both genders. "This development
illustrates our commitment to making new technologies available to a vast
number of people of all backgrounds," said Jean-Max Arbez, HP manager for
French speaking Switzerland.
 >
 > With the WISeKey technology, the biometric match is used to release a
digital signature instead of using a password or pass phase. As the
biometric information is stored on a secure device -- a smart card or
token -- the biometric information is retained by its owner and not
centrally stored thus ensuring security and safeguarding privacy.
 >
 > The E-Voting system demonstrated in Geneva at WSIS is clear evidence that
new technologies can assist in dismantling the digital divide and make
technologies useful to all people. This is the case with this effort to
assist the blind and partially sighted people to actively enter into and
fully participate in the e-democracy world.
 >
 > "Once again, Geneva has shown its world leadership on e-voting and
e-democracy and eSecurity related technologies, following the launch at
Telecom 2003 of our Quantum Cryptography research. We are now demonstrating
how these technologies can be used to assist blind and partially sighted
people to participate fully in the Internet voting experience," said Carlos
Moreira, President WISeKey SA. "The next step that we will take is to use
these technology advances to provide access to democracy for illiterate
people through associating choices with photographs and using the biometrics
technology for lodging their e-vote," he added.
 >
 >
 >
 >
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