Since its inception, Soundscape has invested in research that benefits and progresses forensic speech science practice. Our contributions prioritise the topics that are the most pressing for forensic speech scientists today:
Artificial Intelligence and Speech Analysis
We are interested in both the risks and the opportunities that AI presents to forensic speech science. On the one hand, our work keeps one eye on advances in generative AI and the challenges it may present to forensic speech analysis. On the other, we recognise the benefits that AI can bring, including adding transparency and trust to speech analyses.
Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues
We actively engage with the wider legal-ethical context in which we operate and have published on fundamental questions around data protection, method validation and Intellectual Property rights.
Quality and Training
As the forensic speech science ecosystem relies on the efficient and effective training of new forensic speech practitioners, we have explored the implementation of alternative training approaches. Equally, ensuring the continued competence of established practitioners has been a key focus of our work – we have actively promoted proficiency testing through publications and presentations.