Objective 1: To collect a database of recordings of Spanish twin and sibling voices which can be used for forensic voice comparison research not only in this project but also in subsequent projects. The results could be compared with what have been researched in other languages and they could also provide a new keystone/benchmark from which to advance research in following studies on twins in any language. The database could also be used in casework.

Objective 2: To determine which of the following combination of acoustic variables are the most effective for forensic comparison: (1) formant frequencies in the more frequent vowel sequences (literature review on the frequency of occurrence of vowel combinations would be necessary before), both pronounced as diphthongs and in hiatus (polynomials and discrete cosine transformations to represent formant trajectories), (2) jitter and shimmer measurements (absolute and relative jitter, Jitter RAP: Relative Average Perturbation)

Objective 3: To determine in which group of kinship pairs (monozygotic, dizygotic or siblings) the studied parameters are more useful to determine if the prevailing hypothesis is that of same origin or different).

PI: Eugenia San Segundo

Collaborators: Hermann Künzel (University of Marburg, Germany)

Dates: 2011-2013

Funder: International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics (IAFPA)

Amount: 1,650 EUR