tech

Nagoya Univ, Fujitsu develop world's 1st technology to analyze phone conversations

12 Comments

Nagoya University and Fujitsu on Monday announced their successful development of the world's first technology to analyze phone conversations to automatically detect situations in which one party might "overtrust" the other party. Specifically, this is the kind of situation in which an individual may have a diminished capacity to objectively evaluate an explanation being given by the other party.

By combining this technology for detecting situations of overtrust from voices over the phone with the detection of characteristic keywords, Nagoya University and Fujitsu have also developed basic technology for detecting remittance-soliciting phone phishing scams. Starting this month, a prototype of this technology deployed in mobile phones will undergo verification testing in collaboration with National Police Agency of Japan (the National Police Academy) and The Bank of Nagoya, Ltd.

Research was conducted as part of the "Modeling and Detecting Overtrust from Behavior Signals" research area led by Kazuya Takeda in the research project "Creation of Human-Harmonized Information Technology for Convivial Society" under the direction of Yoichi Tokura, Research Supervisor, in the Core Research of Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST) program of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), for which a press release was issued in November 2009.

Background

There are limits to human powers of perception and judgment. When overwhelmed with information that may be distressing, some individuals, without knowing it, may have a diminished capacity to objectively evaluate information provided by another party—a situation known as overtrust. In situations of overtrust, there is the risk of believing everything another person is saying, even in cases of remittance-soliciting phone phishing scams, for example. In order to prevent such scams, there is a need to detect such situations and provide appropriate support. Technological Issues

To be able to detect a situation of overtrust that results with distressing information from another party, speech recognition systems have been used with technology that is able to detect when special keywords are included in a conversation. When a person is subject to psychological stress, however, the person's voice can become indistinct, making methods that rely on keyword detection alone insufficient in terms of detection accuracy. Developing a way to detect situations of overtrust with a high degree of accuracy even under these types of circumstances has, therefore, posed a challenge.

Newly Developed Technology

When a person is subject to psychological stress because the other party is conveying distressing information, situations of overtrust can occur. To address this issue, Nagoya University and Fujitsu developed the world's first technology that can infer situations of overtrust by detecting changes in voice pitch and level.

In a test using this technology to detect remittance-solicitation phone phishing scams, it was demonstrated that situations of overtrust could be detected with over 90% accuracy, resulting in the impending creation of basic technology for detecting situations of overtrust.

In preventing remittance-solicitation fraud, a serious social problem, effective methods are believed to entail support in detecting remittance-solicitation phone phishing scams and alerting the intended victim as well as alerting the intended victim's family or other objective third-party member.

© Japan Today

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12 Comments
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I see... from point of innocence this technology is great indeed, but what it can be used is not that great anymore. Still I understand this world is pursuing their goal in monopolizing everything they can; even something that doesn't, and never was belonging to them. Its sad to see that everyone is loosing their sight of what is right.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

maybe its just new spy tech for Facebook

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Wow. That engine would always go crazy on my phone calls with Japanese service providers, who are too obsessed with themselves that they don't manage to use simple and a little slower Japanese if I ask them. Leaves me mostly replying hai,hai for most of their rapid gibberish.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

1984

2 ( +4 / -2 )

As always, a bunch of negative nancies.

"Why not just ask the American FBI about NarusInsight?" Sure, I have no doubt the FBI will share every technology they have with anyone who asks, LOL.

"Why don't Japanese scientists do something that will actually help the world? "

Some of them do actually. Why don't you do something that helps the world instead of complaining on JapanToday ?

1 ( +6 / -5 )

So... it's a lie detector for phones...?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I guess Nagoya Univ. and Fujitsu never heard of NSA.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

From the brief description this sounds like it's some sort of software app that a person would install on the phone. There would be no privacy issues, however, I agree with Smithinjapan that the logistics of actually making this work are truly incredible.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Great investment. So who cares? Why don't Japanese scientists do something that will actually help the world? If you are diminished to the point that you think it is a good idea to send someone who you talked to over the phone money, then you should not be living on your own. I do not have much sympathy for people who lose money in phishing scams. Financial Darwinism if you ask me.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

Umm,

I'm hoping it's illegal for a third party to tap into a phone conversation without a warrant or the express consent of both parties.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

And it works by counting the number of times はい is said.....

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

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