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Letter to the Editor: Voice ID — Even Without the Voice?

SUMMARY

Following a story on voice matching technology, a reader shares an anecdote about a linguist who identified a terrorist solely from the sound of him clearing his throat.

DOCUMENT’S DATE

Jan 11, 2006

PUBLICLY AVAILABLE

Aug 15, 2018

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DYNAMIC PAGE -- HIGHEST POSSIBLE CLASSIFICATION IS TOP SECRET // SI / TK // REL TO USA AUS CAN GBR NZL (S) Letter to the Editor : Voice ID -- Even Without the Voice? FROM: the editor Unknown Run Date: 01/11/2006 (S) Here's a comment on the article "Technology That Identifies People by the Sound of Their Voices" : Comment: (S) I don't know how effective automatic voice ID will become, but here's a story showing what old-fashioned voice identification by linguists can do: (C) A linguist colleague of mine once informed his supervisor that their target (I'll call him Terrorist X) had made a phone call to his accomplice, but the accomplice didn't answer. (C) The supervisor said, "If nobody answered, how do you know it was Terrorist X that was calling?" My colleague answered, "While the phone was ringing, he cleared his throat." -- "(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)." DYNAMIC PAGE -- HIGHEST POSSIBLE CLASSIFICATION IS TOP SECRET // SI / TK // REL TO USA AUS CAN GBR NZL DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108