The challenges of forensic application of automatic speaker recognition

TitleThe challenges of forensic application of automatic speaker recognition
Publication TypePresentation
Year of Publication2010
Conference NameAPPLICATIONS IN LANGUAGE AND SPEECH TECHNOLOGY
Authorsvan Leeuwen, David
PublisherNederlandse Vereniging voor Fonetische Wetenschappen
Conference LocationNijmegen, The Netherlands
Abstract

Automatic speaker recognition is an area in speech technology that is enjoying increasing interest from the research community. In recent years, the application of this technology to the forensic domain is being investigated. Here the general idea is that a recording of an incriminating speech utterance can help to identify the perpetrator of a crime. The first application scenario is to use speaker recognition technology in the criminal investigation: to narrow down the search of suspects using the recording. In a second stage, the application scenario is to use the technology to produce evidence to support the hypothesis that a suspect is the source of the recording.

The speaker recognition community is in general very careful about the application of the technology to new domains, and in this presentation, some aspects of both application scenarios are put forward. The specific challenges and necessary research directions are reviewed, and where possible a comparison to current practice is made.