Forensic Voice Identification
Los Angeles, CA
Once again, the nation is left confused about the authenticity of the PML-N’s claim. The party produced an audio tape that allegedly contains a conversation between PML-Q leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and an unidentified person about a plan to sabotage the nomination of Mian Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif.
As expected, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi counter-alleged the tape to be a fake. In this day and age of digital wizardry, there shouldn’t be any ambiguity about the authenticity of such allegations.
Voice patterns of any given person are as unique as his/her fingerprints. Cheap and more powerful computers have transformed the art of ‘forensic voice identification’ into a science.
Such technology had been in use for many years by CIA and the NSA to identify, isolate and track audio signatures of people of interest out of millions of other noises. Some American police departments are even employing this technology as lie-detectors. If Pakistani agencies are still living in the Stone Age, a news outlet should be able to make a small investment in buying software like ‘VoiceVault’. Instead of guessing, such technologies should enable the media to confirm or deny such accusations.
