Voice & Audio ^
A person’s voice and manner of speech develop, change and vary according to age, which alters the structure of the vocal tract, and according to educational level. Its individuality is also affected by psychological, emotional, learning-related and health factors.
These causes contribute to temporary or chronic distortion of the person’s vocal and linguistic character. In addition, both voice and sound are affected by external acoustic factors connected with the place and the conditions of recording.
Laboratory Examinations of Voice & Audio ^
By applying scientific and technical methods that are internationally recognised, scientifically documented and judicially admissible, we conduct laboratory examinations for voice and audio analysis, always in accordance with the legislation applicable to each case, concerning:
- Transcription of the content of recorded audio files and conversion of that content into written text.
- Functional and authenticity examination of magnetic and digital sound-recording media, such as magnetic tapes, videotapes, CDs, DVDs, DAT media and minidisks, in order to determine whether the sound recordings are original, continuous, unaltered and consistent with the operation of the recording device allegedly used.
- Analysis and processing of environmental noise and denoising of recordings, in order to identify background noise, such as telephone signalling or gunshot sounds, and to understand the acoustic content, including conversations and other sounds.
- Restoration or recovery of damaged sound recordings, in order to reproduce and examine the sound, where this is technically possible.
- Examinations and comparisons of voices and sounds recorded on magnetic media, whether analogue or digital, in order to assess the authenticity of the material, the direction and medium of recording, the detection of alterations, interventions and splices, and any incompatibility between sound and image.
- Comparative examination of voices and sounds, in order to identify the speaker or the source from which the sounds originate.
Image & Video ^
The term image means anything that we can see or depict.
The capture of images and video plays an important role in every person’s life. Images and video portray and record personal, social and professional moments of our lives.
Digital image and video processing is today one of the most rapidly developing fields and is mainly connected with specialised computer software. The processing and interpretation of visual information concerns applications of every kind, such as surveillance and robotics systems, multimedia, electronic libraries, digital television, telematics and teleconferencing. An image-processing system records images, processes images and extracts new images. It is particularly connected with quality improvement, denoising, restoration, compression and replacement of individual parts.
In theoretical terms, their analysis describes the analysis of characteristic image and video features, the digitisation process, image transformations, coding and transmission techniques for still and moving images, feature extraction and their classification.
By applying scientific and technical methods that are internationally recognised, scientifically documented and judicially admissible, we conduct laboratory examinations for image and video analysis, always in accordance with the legislation applicable to each case, concerning:
- Transcription of the content of video-recorded files and conversion of that content into written text.
- Functional and authenticity examination of magnetic audiovisual recording media, such as videotapes, CDs, DVDs, DAT media and minidisks, in order to determine whether the video recordings are original, continuous, unaltered and consistent with the operation of the recording device allegedly used.
- Analysis and processing of noise and video interference, including grain or visual noise such as rain and snow, in order to reveal non-visible audiovisual details, such as a vehicle registration number or a person’s characteristics.
- Restoration or recovery of damaged video and television recordings and their acoustic improvement, in order to reproduce visual and sound signals and then exploit them in the laboratory, where this is possible.
- Image-quality enhancement, in order to reveal non-visible details, such as writing recognition, shadows and similar information.
- Motion estimation in video sequences, in order to determine the movement and actions of persons.
- Detection of alterations, interventions, splices and video coding, as well as incompatibility between sound and image, including video-time error.
- Comparative juxtaposition of images, in order to identify persons and places.
- Authenticity examination of images.
