Voice fingerprinting: A very important tool against crime

Abstract

In the recent world of technology, there are many methods to determine the individuality of a person. One of them is the voice - unique individual characteristic. Each person's voice is different because the anatomy of the vocal cords, vocal cavity, oral and nasal cavities is specific to the individual. Comparison of two recorded speech by means of spectrogram or voice prints for the purpose of identification is called as Voice fingerprinting. Forensic voice analysis has been used in a wide range of criminal cases such as murder, rape, drug dealing, bomb threats and terrorism. Investigator has two complementary ways of making identification through voice analysis. First, he or she will listen to the evidence sample and the sample taken from the suspect, comparing accent, speech habits, breath patterns and inflections. Then a comparison of the corresponding voiceprints is made. In this paper we discussed about the history of sound spectrogram, basic method of recording the voice & comparison, its utility in the solution of crime & admissibility in the court of law.