This issue features the next installment of our regular column, "Getting to Know Your Fellow Researchers", highlighting Douglas O'Shaughnessy, who is a Professor at INRS-Télécommunications (University of Quebec) in Montreal, Canada and the author of the textbook Speech Communications: 

The IEEE annual election begins on 15 August, and the IEEE Signal Processing Society is committed to ensuring that its members are prepared with sufficient information about the candidates in order to make their best informed decisions. 

The Fellow Reference Committee is seeking nominations for three new members of the 2018 Fellow Reference Committee. The term of appointment is three years, non-renewable (1 January 2018-31 December 2020). 

When you first hear the word “biometric,” it’s likely you make the connection to human beings. By definition, biometric means “life to measure.” There are many types of biometric characteristics, such as fingerprints, faces, eyes, speech and palmprints. Commonly used for individual recognition and authentication, these biometric characteristics comprise the biometric system.