VVVDataCollection

Link to app in Google Play Store.

I’m conducting research for my PhD that involves collecting a number of short voice samples from people. My research is called “Vaulted Voice Verification”, or VVV for short. It would be great if you would be willing to help me by lending your voice to my data collection efforts. My research is chaired by Dr. Terrance Boult and is part of an effort by University of Colorado Colorado Springs and Securics, Inc. The app was written by Demetrio C. and myself. This research has been approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs as “Vaulted Voice Verification, IRB #13-216”.

My research looks at how well voice is suited to be used for security purposes (voice based biometric security) on mobile devices. The data samples I collect will test my hypothesis that voice is, in fact, well suited for use as a biometric identifier for Vaulted Voice Verification on mobile devices (phones, tablets and whatever else Android runs on). Images used in the app were gathered by searching various keywords at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page and other creative commons sites.

To participate in this research, you must agree to the terms and accept the consent for research. Copies of both the terms and the consent for research (which are included in the app) can be found at Terms and Conditions and
Consent for Research.

An Android 4.0+ device with a microphone is required for participation. To participate, please download the application and install it on your device. The application will walk you through the process of recording audio samples. The app is available in two locations.
You can get it from the Google Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.rcjohnson.vvvdatacollection
or
You can download the app directly from:
http://www.securics.com/~rcjohnson/VVVDataCollection.apk

After each short session, you can email the results using the email features provided in the app (sends files to voice at vast dot uccs dot edu) or you can submit them through Amazon Mechanical Turk (https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome) for a small cash incentive (cash incentive available for a limited time only). The incentive amount varies but is between $0.10 and $0.25 per session (20 audio files), or about 2 minutes worth of audio, and the app allows up to 40 sessions per device. There are 160 different audio samples to record. If you complete the full 40 sessions, you will go through the list 5 times.

I need the data to be as complete as possible. So PLEASE TRY TO COMPLETE ALL 40 SESSIONS!

Submissions are anonymous. If submitted via an email, the files are automatically processed without saving the sender information. If submitting to Amazon Mechanical Turk for the cash incentive, please sign in as a worker and then search for HITs containing “securics” or “vaulted voice verification”. Click images at bottom of page for more details on the submission process.

Here are the instructions to obtain and install the application:

Download the .apk file from one of the following addresses:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.rcjohnson.vvvdatacollection
http://www.securics.com/~rcjohnson/VVVDataCollection.apk

Install .apk file on an Android 4.0+ device with a microphone

Record audio sessions.

Each session is comprised of 20 items (a combination of images to describe, phrases to repeat and questions to answer) that require a short audio response (typically no more than 5 seconds each).

Each session should take about 2-3 minutes to complete.

The app allows up to 40 total sessions (HITs) per device.

​If using Amazon Mechanical Turk, 1 HIT will be paid per 1 session. After each session upload the resulting .inc file to Mechanical Turk results page.​ Submissions are manually verified before payment.

Your participation in this research is greatly appreciated.

thanks,