Audio Forensics

Mission Statement

Audio Forensics refers to engineering and scientific analysis, evaluation and presentation of audio and acoustic evidence in a judicial inquiry normally leading towards a presentation in court. The complex challenges faced by the field transcend borders and jurisdictions, and becomes increasingly complex with the proliferation of new types of digital media. In order to establish a reliable scientific basis for the procedures and analysis of the outcomes of audio forensic analysis, the technical committee meets at AES conventions to plan conferences, workshops and tutorials; to encourage dissemination of scientific information through peer-reviewed journal and conference publications and posters; and to communicate educational opportunities in the field. Presently, the technical committee meetings for audio forensics are open to all attendees.

Areas of Concentration

• Acoustic effects on forensic audio
• Analysis and synthesis of disguised voice
• Analysis of lossy compressed audio and speech
• Audio watermarking and steganography
• Authentication of multimedia information
• Enhancement of forensic audio
• Equipment and network effects on forensic audio
• Forensic speaker recognition and voice comparison
• Forensic speech intelligibility
• Laboratory practices involving multimedia information
• Legal and regulatory issues in audio forensics
• Machine learning in audio forensics
• Speaker diarization and segmentation
• Sound scene analysis and audio source separation
• Surveillance audio recording and analysis

Current Areas Of Work

• Extend knowledge of audio forensic practice and techniques world-wide
• Identify areas requiring additional research
• Bring together professionals and students in the area of audio forensics
• Encourage publication of papers and arrange tutorials, conferences and workshops
• Support standards committees on forensic audio via fostering of refereed journal publications