Interesting story at vocative.com
Demonic sounds are usually related to evil spirits, but researchers have found a way to turn them into "hidden voice commands" for Android devices.
A group of Ph.D. candidates at Georgetown and University of California, Berkeley developed a series of voice commands that can be recognized and executed by smartphone virtual assistants, but not very easily by human ears.
Some of the things these hidden commands can potentially do include sending a tweet, making a phone call, or even using Venmo to transfer money. Or, in a cyberattack scenario, a hidden command could open a website that automatically downloads malware, which then leads to hackers having full control of your device.
[...] A similar situation occurred earlier this month when a child accidentally ordered a $150 doll house from Amazon by simply asking Amazon's Alexa, "Can you play dollhouse with me and get me a dollhouse?"
Those assistants need to recognize who is speaking...
(Score: 1) by pipedwho on Friday January 27 2017, @02:44AM
Interestingly, the iPhone seems to recognise the user for the "Hey Siri" part. So when I'm at home and shout out from the kitchen, "Hey Siri, set a timer for 12 minutes", only my phone responds, even though there a few other iPhones sitting next to it.
Same when I joke around at the office and shout out things like, "Hey Siri, wake me up at 4 am", or "Hey Siri, call mom".