Acoustic-phonetic Analysis and Elaboration of a Protocol for Speaker Comparison in Forensic Cases

• Grant number: 16/09530-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: September 01, 2016
• End date: August 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Linguistic Theory and Analysis
• Principal Investigator: Plinio Almeida Barbosa
• Grantee: Plinio Almeida Barbosa
• Host Institution: Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem (IEL). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Ana Carolina Constantini

Abstract

This project proposes to analyze a parallel recording of both forensic and lab speech by means of three main techniques: sociophonetic, acoustic-phonetic and perceptual. The parallel corpus includes recordings from forensic cases from the database of the Escola Superior do Ministério Público de São Paulo, a close-copy of this recording obtained in high signal-to-noise ratio conditions as well as the acoustic degradation of this close-copy recording to simulate the environmental conditions of the real case. This project is original in terms of research in this area in Brazil at least for two reasons. First, it will investigate the additional role of rhythmic and voice quality parameters for Speaker Comparison (SC), Second, all tasks will be carried out in narrow collaboration with two speech therapists who work as technical assistants in the Escola Superior do Ministério Público de São Paulo. A broad set of acoustic, sociophonetic and perceptual parameters will be investigated aiming at proposing a protocol for forensic analysis for experts with different backgrounds working for the Ministério Público. (AU)