Likelihood ratio-based forensic voice comparison on L2 speakers: A case of Hong Kong native male production of English vowels

Daniel Frost, Shunichi Ishihara

    Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

    2 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This study is a pilot research that explores the effectiveness of a likelihood ratio (LR)-based forensic voice comparison (FVC) system built on non-native speech production. More specifically, it looks at native Hong Kong Cantonese-speaking male productions of English vowels, and the extent to which FVC can work on these speakers. 15 speakers participated in the research, involving two non-contemporaneous recording sessions with six predetermined target words - “hello”, “bye”, “left”, “right”, “yes”, and “no”. Formant frequency values were measured from the trajectories of the vowels and surrounding segments. These trajectories were modelled using discrete cosine transforms for each formant (F1, F2 and F3), and the coefficient values were used as feature vectors in the LR calculations. LRs were calculated using the multivariate-kernel-density method. The results are reported along two metrics of performance, namely the log-likelihood-ratio cost and 95% credible intervals. The six best-performing word-specific outputs are presented and compared. We find that FVC can be built using L2 speech production, and the results are comparable to similar systems built on native speech.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages39-47
    Number of pages9
    Publication statusPublished - 2015
    Event2015 Australasian Language Technology Association Workshop, ALTA 2015 - Parramatta, Australia
    Duration: 8 Dec 20159 Dec 2015

    Conference

    Conference2015 Australasian Language Technology Association Workshop, ALTA 2015
    Country/TerritoryAustralia
    CityParramatta
    Period8/12/159/12/15

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