More Voice Experts Heard From

Chuck Rudd of The Daily Caller quotes a couple of voice matching experts who are deeply skeptical of the matches claimed by the Orlando Sentinel experts in the Zimmerman/Martin shooting. He also gets some "don't quote me by name" cheap shots from other experts and one for the laugh track from the Sentinel's expert, Tom Owen.

The new experts are Dr. Rose of Australia, who was a big deal in a New Zealand case involving a Mr. Bain, and Dr. James Wayman of the San Jose State University:

Dr. James Wayman, a San Jose State University expert in the field of speech science, told The Daily Caller that he questions the grounds on which Owen based his analysis.

Wayman also said he would be willing to testify against the admissibility of Owen’s findings on the grounds that they don’t meet the criteria required for evidence in federal courts.

“There is no history of, or data on, the comparison of a questioned scream to a known speech sample,” Wayman said.

The problem, he said, is that the two voice samples were recorded in difficult acoustic conditions over different cell phones.

“Even if we were to have Mr. Zimmerman recreate the scream under identical conditions with the same cell phone,” Wayman explained, “it would be difficult to attribute the scream to him without a sample of a similar scream from Mr. Martin under the same conditions. This is clearly not possible.”

The laugher from Tom Owen is this:

Reached for comment, Owen told TheDC that he has conducted his own study — “The Owen Study” — of more than 400 different pitches, screams, and voice disguises. The study is unpublished.

Strong stuff!  It won't be admissible in court, but we will keep it in mind.

The DC lets us down at the close:

One voice authentication expert whose work is commercial in nature told TheDC that screaming, stress, and a recording’s audio quality can “wreak havoc” on voice biometric software and its ability to interpret data.

And speaking of Owen’s findings, another industry insider said that “a legitimate biometrics expert would likely refute the contentions” and suggests that these were “incendiary publicity plays.”

Meow!  But the DC should have noted this March 8 2012 press release rolling out Tom Owens new software.  And it can be yours for $4,995!  Any speculation as to whether this was a cheap publicity stunt would be answered, or at least, enhanced to a scientific certainty.

Geez - muckrakers these days...

Still, Mr. Rudd managed to talk to a few experts, some on the record - with this old post, all I did was find some websites of experts explaining their requirements and noting the implausibility of matching speech to screams.

AND JUST ONE MORE THING:  CNN aired a new interview with the same witness who basically told Anderson Cooper last week that it was too dark for her to see anything. In the new interview she saw a great deal, and turns out to be the 911 caller who recorded the gunshot.  The witness insists she heard a young man screaming.  Ms. Cutcher says the same thing ("“It sounded young.  It didn’t sound like a grown man is my point"), as does Ed Primeau, the Orlando Sentinel's other expert (remember, the one who matched the scream to Martin's voice without ever having heard Martin's voice - he said it was a young man screaming, as if the 17 year old 6'3" Martin's voice hadn't changed.)

At this recent post in an update marked INGENIOUS I laud the, well, ingenious suggestion of a commenter who reminded us that a 13 year old boy was watching much of the scene from 20 yards away and got on the phone with a 911 dispatcher afterwards.  The notion - the kid was screaming and didn't even realize it, or has blocked what would be a terrifying memory.  He says he missed part of the final scene because his dog ran off, but that psychological symbolism is transparent.

Well - if we ever reach the point where this scream testimony is relevant inside a courtroom the prosecution need to plan for the likelihood that the defense will raise this third screamer as a possibility.  The prosecution will then need to explain that it is not reasonable to believe that a terrified thirteen year old could be mistaken about whether he screamed or not.  Good luck.  Maybe Martin, Zimmerman and the kid were all screaming - I don't think the audio experts are going to sort this out.

SO WHO IS LARGER: Great courtroom moments to come:

"I know it was very dark, but I really would have to say that I thought it was the larger person on top," the witness said, referring to the heavier build of Zimmerman.

Craig Sonner, another Zimmerman attorney, questioned how the witness could determine the identities of those on the ground at that time of night and from her vantage point.

"I think it was dark, and I don't think she's sure what she saw," Sonner said.

Well, it was dark, Martin was in a hoody which is probably baggy, so riddle us this - who looks bigger, the 6'3" 150 pound guy, or the 5'9" 170 pound guy?

Comments

[MJW]

According to the Wikipedia article on voice change, full adult pitch usually occurs at about the age of 15. If that's accurate, Martin, at 17, probably had reached his adult pitch. Martin's 21 year old brother has a deeper voice than the rather high-pitched Zimmerman, which suggests Martin's voice was also likely higher.

As I mentioned previously, I think if the screams on the 911 tape matched Martin, the family would have already released a recording of his voice to Owen.

[MJW]

...which suggests Martin's voice was also likely deeper.

[faketony]

My theory is Zimmerman is an asthmatic; years of inhaler use destroys the bass in a voice, makes it crack and the worse thing, every asthmatic knowns they have 10 seconds to defend themselves before they "run out of air"..., hence the gun.

It`s like breathing through a straw with a fatso sitting on you.

[Danube of Thought]

It would take a bizarre jury to convict GZ of anything.

[daddy]

The incident in my link is obviously phony:

Crowd Beats, Strips & Robs Tourist On St. Patrick’s Day; Incident Caught On Camera

If there is one thing we've learned from this Trayvon incident, it is that there is no way a physically smaller black individual would attack a larger man for any reason whatever. What must be missing from this incident is racist slurs from the victim towards the youths surrounding him. Otherwise the obviously justified single punch to the face, cold-cocking the larger individual and knocking him senseless and defenseless to the ground, makes no sense whatever.

Charles Blow, help. What is the proper larger narrative?

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

FIY: This is the mindset out of the Urban Dictionary of today's lib culture:

EASTER:

The celebration in which juvenile primates hunt for the colored shells of unborn dinosaur young planted by a small, furry woodland creature all in commemoration of a middle ages cult belief that 2000 years ago a zombie walked the earth.

And when they use the word Easter in a sentence, they do not even bother to capitalize it.

I'm supposed to care that they are offended? This makes me gag.

[Danube of Thought]

Easter churchbells ringing all over Budapest. Headed up to look in ion St. Stephen's cathedral in an hour. Brisk, windy, sunny morning--40 degrees. Underway for Bratislava this evening.

[daddy]

43 degrees, sunshine, 10 am in Paris. Off to Notre Dame shortly. Morning DoT!

[daddy]

Yippee! We break the record.

Anchorage sets snowfall record.

Heaviest snowfall since the town was founded back in 1914.

[Danube of Thought]

Mornin' daddy. Pleased to report that St. Stephen's was jammed with worshipers. Now for a noon Martini, lunch and a nonny.

[Danube of Thought]

Minus 16 at Raz today.

Leads Romney by 3.

[rse]

So nice to awaken to our reports from europe.

When I think of all the cute designs google comes up with during the year, seeing that plain old logo this morning seems like a diss.

How could you not at least turn those oval o's into Easter eggs? That's not even religious.

Anyone think it will be plain on earth day?

Bet it won't be the earlier vladimir's visage either.

[Cecil Turner]

I thought that lady's story sounded like Cutcher's, but the roommate isn't mentioned and the shadow doesn't look like Cutcher's (not that either of those are dispositive). But there's zero doubt in my mind that it's this 911 call, which matches on too many details (man walking toward, flashlights, phone out window, sorry she couldn't help) to be coincidence. And it is obvious that the lady calling is, putting it charitably, confused. (And the story has changed in critical details; bottom line is that she didn't claim to've seen anything on the 911 call.)

[cboldt]

Trayvon Martin Investigation - City of Sanford, Florida

The office of the State Attorney, 4th Judicial Circuit, State Attorney Angela Corey has requested that the City of Sanford remove all reports, videos and audio pertaining to the Martin/Zimmerman case from the website. Their office has provided legal justification for the action and they believe further access to the information will have an adverse effect on their efforts to come to a resolution to this investigation.

[sbw]

St. Stephens Cathedral? Named after me?

He was stoned. And, I'm not drawing any further parallels.

Happy Easter, everyone.

[Gmax]

He is risen indeed. Good morning.

[windansea]

I am surprised none of the voice experts has discussed this.

I have a fairly deep voice, but when I scream "help" my voice has a much higher pitch.

Try it yourself.

google found this:

That property of voice which we call pitch is determined by the rate of vibration of the vocal cords. The greater the number of vibrations per second, the higher the pitch. The rate of vibration, in turn, is determined by the length and thickness of the vocal cords and by the tightening or relaxation of these cords.

Normally, women's voices are pitched higher than men's because women's vocal cords are shorter. Among individuals of each sex there are wide variations due to difference in physical structure. However, the pitch of our voices, though partly determined by nature, is not entirely beyond our control.

Remember that voice control is dependent largely upon emotional control. When you are excited or frightened, unconsciously the muscles around your voice box or larynx are tightened. The resulting tension in the vocal cords, according to the science of sound, produces a greater frequency of vibration and consequently a higher pitch. It is an indication of lack of mental poise if you habitually speak in a voice pitched too high

http://www.oldandsold.com/articles10/voice-8.shtml

[JohnFLob]

From the East Voice Biometrics web site at

http://www.easyvoicebiometrics.com/index.php?app=cms&ns=display&ref=techsupport

Their tech support guide lines seems to be a little dated: " . . .If not, tell us the product you've tried to install and the Windows version on your machine (VISTA, XP, 2K, ME, 98 SE) . . ."

For $5K I would hope that the "new" software would work on, oh I don't know, may a version or two of Windows 7. This may be only a trivial over site. However it still raises questions about thier attention to detail.

[I'm actually a Liberal so shoot me.]

Does anyone believe the story that NO video or audio of Trayvon exists? Charles Blow says the Mother told him this.