<title>Audio processing technology for law enforcement</title>

Abstract

The Air Force Research Laboratory Multi-Sensor Exploitation Branch (AFRL/IFEC) has been a Department of Defense leader in research and development (R&D) in speech and audio processing for over 25 years. Their primary thrust in these R&D areas has focused on developing technology to improve the collection, handling, identification, and intelligibility of military communication signals. The National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center for the Northeast (NLECTC-NE) is collocated with the AFRL Rome Research Site<SUP>d</SUP> at the Griffiss Technology park in upstate New York. The NLECTC-NE supports sixteen (16) states in the northeast sector of the United States, and is funded and supported by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ). Since the inception of the NLECTC-NE in 1995, the AFRL Rome Research Site has expanded the military applications of their expertise to address law enforcement and corrections requirements. AFRL/IFEC's speech and audio processing technology is unique and particularly appropriate for application to law enforcement requirements. It addresses the similar military need for time-critical decisions and actions, operation within noisy environments, and use by uncooperative speakers in tactical, real-time applications. Audio and speech processing technology for both application domains must also often deal with short utterance communications (less than five seconds of speech) and transmission-to-transmission channel variability.