Voice Recognition Technology – Applied by Law Enforcement Teams

Voice Recognition Technology – Applied by Law Enforcement Teams

law enforcement

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Drones fitted with facial recognition cameras and software programmed to recognise an individual’s voice in Arabic are some of the technologies that law enforcement teams may use to fight crime, as shown at the recent Emirates International Forensic Conference and Exhibition in Dubai. Experts from around the world spoke about finding criminals and scouring crime scenes for evidence with the use of technological and scientific advances.

Capt Mohammed Al Mazroui of Abu Dhabi Police told thenational.ae how officers planned to find suspects in crowds by using unmanned drones fitted with cameras that can distinguish a person’s features: “Drones are the future of crime-fighting. Soon a new drone that detects suspects’ faces will be part of the technology used by police,” he said.

Capt Abdullah Al Awadhi, a crime scene officer at the general department of criminal evidence in Kuwait, explained his use of a biometric tool to verify the identity of Arabic speakers. “Speaker recognition was tested on 78 participants and identified almost all of them”.

Hiroshi Koyanagi, the executive director of Smartmedical Corp, demonstrated the Empath system that detects a person’s mood and emotions from changes to vocal pitch, speed and volume. “This method was introduced after the earthquake in Japan and it helped in caring for victims,” he said.

Al Mazroui explained that the UAE’s police forces were using the latest technological and scientific advances to find clues from crime scenes.

“The importance of examining a crime scene is in knowing the incidents that led to the crime. experts draw up different chains of events to come up with the scenario that caused the crime,” he said. “New technologies will enable forensic experts to have better and faster access to information, to be more accurate in the identification of delinquents and minimise the possibility of wrongful accusations.”

Fahed Al Shamiri, judicial assistant at Abu Dhabi Courts, said such systems were important tools for police officers, prosecutors and judges. “My job requires me to consider all the evidence carefully and inform prosecutors or the judge. It would be impossible to identify a criminal or perpetrator without forensic science and the technology it uses,” he said.

Maj Gen Ahmed Al Mansouri, Dubai Police’s general director of forensic science and criminology, expressed his thoughts of the importance of events such as the Emirates International Forensic Conference were important in providing officers the tools to fight crime. “Experts from all over the world are invited to discuss the challenges we face in our field and to learn from their experiences,” he said.