Advances in ENF Database Configuration for Forensic Authentication of Digital Media

Grigoras C, Smith J, Jenkins C. Advances in ENF Database Configuration for Forensic Authentication of Digital Media. In: AES Convention 131. Audio Engineering Society; 2011. Paper 8492. Available from: https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=16018

@inproceedings{Grigoras2011_16018,
  author = {Grigoras, Catalin and Smith, Jeffrey and Jenkins, Christopher},
  title = {{Advances in ENF Database Configuration for Forensic Authentication of Digital Media}},
  booktitle = {AES Convention 131},
  note = {Paper 8492},
  year = {2011},
  month = oct,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  url = {https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=16018}
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - Advances in ENF Database Configuration for Forensic Authentication of Digital Media
AU  - Grigoras, Catalin
AU  - Smith, Jeffrey
AU  - Jenkins, Christopher
T2  - AES Convention 131
M1  - Paper 8492
PY  - 2011
DA  - 2011/10/06
UR  - https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=16018
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - When building an Electric Network Frequency (ENF) database for forensic purposes, ensuring that the recorded signal satisfies standards for forensic analysis is crucial. The ENF signal shall be free of clipping and lossy compression distortions, the signal to noise ratio shall be as high as possible, and the acquisition system clock shall be synchronized with an atomic clock. Using an ENF database to compare reference and questioned ENF involves precise measurements of amplitude, spectrum, and zero-crossings in order to accurately time-stamp, discover potential edits, and authenticate digital audio/video recordings. Due to the inherent differences in electronic components, building multiple ENF probes to create multiple databases with matching waveforms can be challenging. This paper addresses that challenge and offers a solution by using MathWorks MATLAB to calculate the best combination of components and produce graphical displays to help give a visual aid to the outcome in order to build a high quality ENF probe. This paper also addresses the challenge of establishing a fail-safe database to safely store the accurately acquired ENF information. This paper concludes that a reliable ENF database is mandatory for both scientific research and for forensic examination.
ER  -