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{{B}}Credit Card .Only Works When Spoken to{{/B}} A credit card that will not work unless it hears its owner's voice could become an important weapon in the fight against fraud. The card requires users to give a spoken password that it recognizes using a built-in voice-recognition chip. The idea is to prevent thieves using a stolen card or fraudsters using someone else's credit card details to buy goods online. A prototype built by engineers at Beepcard in Santa Monica, California, represents the first attempt to pack a microphone, a loud speaker, a battery and a voice-recognition chip into a standard sized credit card. They are not quite there yet: the card is the length and width of an ordinary credit card, but it is still about three times as thick. Alan Sege, Beepcard's CEO, says the company now plans to use smaller chips to slim it down to normal thickness. The voice card is based on an earlier Beepcard technology designed to prevent fraud in online transactions. This earlier card has no microphone, but has a built-in loudspeaker that it uses to "squawk" an acoustic ID signal via a computer's microphone to an online server. By verifying that the signal matches the card details, the server can establish that the user is not simply keying in a credit card number but actually has the card to hand. 'The ID code changes each time the card is used in a pre-ordered sequence that only the server knows. This prevents fraudsters recording the beeps, noting the card details and then playing back the audible ID when they key in the details later. But this earlier technology cannot prevent fraudulent use of stolen cards. The new one can. The new voice card also identifies itself by its 1D squawk, but it will not do this until it has verified the legitimate user's spoken password. Thieves will be unable to use the card because even if they knew the password they would have to be able to copy the owner's voice with a high degree of accuracy. The challenge for Beepcard has been to develop voice-recognition and audio circuitry that can be powered by a mini battery embedded in a credit card. To maximize battery life, the electronics are only switched on when the card is being used. Pressing a button on the card's surface prompts it to utter "Say your password" in female voice. If the voice-recognition software proves that the password is authentic, it sends its ID squawk which the server then identifies, allowing the transaction to proceed. fraudster n. 骗子 beep n. (电子装置发出的)嘟嘟声 onlineadj. &adv.联机的(地)，在线的(地)；实时操作的(地) legitimate adj.合法的 fraudulent adj.欺骗性的；骗得的 prototypen.原型；样品 circuitry n.电路系统 squawk v. 粗声叫 embed v. 埋置，嵌入，插入 acoustic adj. 声音；用声波操作的 utterv. 发出(声音)，说出 verify v. 证实，核实 |