(July 16, 2009) Professor Richard Sanders’ work in audio forensics has been instrumental in helping national and international investigations in well-known cases including the JonBenet Ramsey and Kobe Bryant investigations, as well as the Columbine High School shootings and the Oklahoma City bombing trial. Now, new funding in this field will enable increased knowledge while fostering a new generation of experts in the field of media forensics – the study of audio and video ‘fingerprinting.’
Sanders and the University of Colorado Denver’s College of Arts & Media recently received a third Federal Earmark Grant of $500,000 for the National Center for Media Forensics (NCMF) established in 2007. The monies will fund the center through its startup period. The 2009 grant is handled through the National Institute of Justice and demonstrates the support the federal government has in funding the center and its goals of employing research and education to strengthen forensic science in the United States. Total support in Earmark Funds to the NCMF totals nearly $1.2 million.
“This funding creates a wonderful opportunity for us to establish a cutting-edge forensics center fostering innovation for the development of new knowledge, applications, methodologies, products and services relating to media forensics,” said Sanders.
The center will establish cross-disciplinary, inter-institutional collaborations for research in forensic sciences and homeland security, thereby improving opportunities for research while increasing the diversity of students seeking graduate degrees from the UC Denver College of Arts & Media. It also opens up advanced career opportunities for Colorado researchers in forensic sciences, biometrics and new collaborations with the University of Colorado Denver’s health sciences programs on the Anschutz Medical Campus.
Jeff Smith, associate director of the NCMF, has been working with Sanders since 2005, engaged in research, grant writing and helping plan the future educational programs. Smith has published several research papers on voice identification and is considered a leading expert in the area. “Rich is growing the staff of the NCMF through my appointment, as well as Leah Haloin as the center’s coordinator,” Smith said. “Now that we have a strong staff assembled, the next step is program implementation.”
The NCMF recently moved into its new space in the 1800 Grant St. building where CU President Bruce Benson has his office. The center is in the process of outfitting its 6,500 square feet with state-of-the-art equipment and tools used in media forensic investigations. The location is spacious enough to facilitate high-level hands-on training, while intimate enough for one-on-one interaction between faculty and students. The facility includes a 21-workstation classroom in addition to five labs for more in-depth training and group work.
The new Law Enforcement Training program is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2010 with a series of introductory workshops. The NCMF is currently seeking funding to make this program available nationwide through online distance learning.
The graduate program in media forensics will begin in the fall of 2010 and will offer hands-on training in audio, video and computer forensics methods and applications. Classes will be taught by on-site faculty as well as world-class guest lecturers. The degree will culminate in a research thesis representing the desired focus area.
The Federal Earmark funds advance equipment and programmatic development that will allow UC Denver to increase both graduate and post-graduate research and interest in functional applications of media forensics techniques. This includes real-time voice identification involving biometrics for voice-only applications (such as tracking a convict’s phone use in jail or when impersonators access bank or private information over the phone or computer) as well as in combination with other biometrics such as facial recognition and fingerprints, among others. A series of Electric Network Frequency (ENF) databases Sanders is working to create will cover the entirety of North America. It is his hope that it will one day be possible to go to the NCMF to see if a recording of unknown date matches the database by extracting electric network frequency components out of the recording and then tracking the variations.
Other support for the NCMF comes from UC Denver, the international Audio Engineering Society (AES), the American College of Forensic Examiners Institute (ACFEI), the American Board of Recorded Evidence (ABRE) and the Rocky Mountain National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC).