SPOT VIEW OF CHAPTER 14 OF FORENSIC SCIENCE

QUESTION DOCUMENT EXAMINATION

QUESTIONED DO CUMENT
EXAMINATION

TYPEWRITING, TYPEW RITTEN TEXT, TYPEW RITER

RIBBON COMPARISON

PRINTER AND COPIER PRINTOUT

EXAM INATIONS

HANDWRITING
ANALYSIS

SHOEPRINT AND TIRE THREAD

EAXAMINATIONS

COM PU TER
FORE NSICS

VOICE PRIN T
ANALYSIS

OTHER FOREN SIC IDEN TIFICATIONOVERVIEW

6. Voiceprint Analysis

Voiceprint identification can be defined as a combination of both aural

(listening) and
spectrographic
(instrumental) comparison of one or more
known voices with an unknown voice for the purpose of identification or
elimination.
The fundamental theory for voice identification rests on the premise that
every voice is individually characteristic enough to distinguish it from others
through voiceprint analysis. There are two general factors involved in the
process of human speech. The first factor in determining voice uniqueness
lies in the sizes of the vocal cavities, such as the throat, nasal and oral
cavities, and the shape, length and tension of the individual's vocal cords
located in the larynx. The vocal cavities are resonators, much like organ
pipes, which reinforce some of the overtones produced by the vocal cords,
which produce formats or voiceprint bars. The likelihood that two people
would have all their vocal cavities the same size and configuration and
coupled identically appears very remote.

Points of Consideration on Voiceprint Analysis:

Spectrographs is the instrument that converts sound into a visual
graphic representation.
Vocal mechanism is the combination of vocal cavities and
articulators. Vocal cavities are throat, nasal, and oral cavities formed
by positioning of tongue, while articulators are lips, tongue, soft plate

and jaw muscles. It is said that person has unique combination, and
thus unique vocal mechanism.
Process of analysis denotes that recordings are compared to see
similarities and differences in voices. Recordings that are identical in
word content are best, otherwise longer recordings are needed. The
analyst must listen to the voice and see the spectrograms:
Aural/Spectrographic Method
Under Aural/Spectrographic Method, the analyst begins with
recordings of the suspect and recordings of the voice to be identified
said evidence must be examined and determined to be sufficient for
analysis. There are two stages of the aural and visual analysis; First,
the Aural Stage- the analyst listen carefully to single speech sound and
sound combination; Second, the Visual Stage- the spectrogram of the
unknown speaker and that of the suspect are compared.
There are Five Standard Conclusions to be taken into consideration,
positive identification - at least 20 similarities and all differences
accounted for, probable identification - less than 20 similarities and no
unexplained differences, positive elimination - differences or more exist
and cannot be explained away, probable elimination - when recorded
text is limited or of low quality, no decision - when insufficient or too
few common speech sound.
Frye Standard: The accuracy of voiceprint analysis varies from case
to case. There are debate in courts about the "general acceptance" of
voiceprint analysis in the scientific community. Because of this, courts
are sometimes hesitant to accept spectrograms as evidence.
Voiceprint analysis today: it was used last March 2003 to determine
if a broadcast was Saddam Hussein or a double, it can be use also in
identifying speakers in intercepted terrorist messages. And also Garci
Case- the alleged scam in the 2004 Presidential Election.

7. Other Forensic Identification - Overview

Other forensic identification includes but not limited to the
following: Firearms- this can be identified by ballistics from the marks
on the bullets they fired and on the bullet cartridges; Paper
shredders- this can be potentially identified in a similar way, by
spacing and wear of their blades; Social networks-this can be
discovered by network analysis of banking, telecommunication and
postal records; Radio transceivers- can be potentially identified by
minute variations of their output signal; Cars- car plates can be
verified from LTO records; Computers- can be identified through
internet often identified by their IP address or MAC address; Filmsmanufacturers and film distributors may intentionally leave subtle
forensic markings on their products to identify them in case of piracy
or involvement in a crime, like watermark, digital watermark.

8. Computer Forensics

Computer forensics is used in many areas. In civil law for

discrimination and harassment cases, by insurance companies for
workman's compensation cases, by corporations for trade secret
misappropriations, and in criminal law mostly for drug and
embezzlement record-keeping and child pornography. As mentioned
previously, this is a loosely related, developing specialty area. It is
most closely related to typewriting comparison. The FBI has, for many
years, maintained typewriter databases, and watermarks. Computers
and computer printouts also leave a trail that can be followed, whether
it's from something simple like how full or dry a printer ink cartridge is,
to the various alignments and misalignments of dot matrix and laser
printers, to fiber analysis of the paper used, computer crime specialist

utilize some of the same age-old techniques that typewriting analysts

used as well as other investigative methods.
A computer forensics expert will have experience on a wide
variety of hardware and software. Unlike paper evidence, computer
evidence exists in many forms, with earlier, alternate, and backup
versions of each and every file somewhere on the hard drive and
frequently unknown to the user.
The process of examining a suspect computer system is as follows;

Prepared by:

Joeban R. Paza
BL-3

Secure/protect the system from further use, damage, or

corruption
Discover all files, including hidden and encrypted ones
Recover all(or as many as possible) deleted files
Reveal all hidden, temporary, and swap files
Access all protected or encrypted files
Analyze all uncollected or 'slack' spaces on a disk
Print out an overall analysis of the system, listing all files
Formulate an opinion of the system layout, file structure, and
any attempts to hide, delete, protect, or encrypt information.