Britain's University of York has launched a major study into voice biometrics and identity that will compare the performance of different methods for forensic speaker comparison – contrasting the linguistics and phonetics approach to automated speaker recognition.Entitled “Voice and Identity – Source, Filter, Biometric”, the three-year project has been awarded funding of £892,000 from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).”The ultimate goal is to improve methods in forensic voice comparison, taking a major step towards the development of a methodology that is more transparent, validated, and replicable,” said the study's organisers.Led by Professor Paul Foulkes, the results are expected to be of particular importance in the applied domain of forensic speech science – forensic voice comparison (FVC) is increasingly called for in courts worldwide.These comparisons are made between the voice of a suspect, and a voice recorded in criminal activity, such as covert surveillance of drug deals or terrorist plots.”There is a growing consensus that an integrated approach is needed for significant progress to be made towards a more reliable and robust procedure for FVC,” writes the project proposal.However, its findings will also likely be applicable to the range of other applications voice biometrics has had in recent years, such as contact centres.
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