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- Cooper
- The Electric Network Frequency - An Automated Approach
- THE ELECTRIC NETWORK FREQUENCY (ENF) AS AN AID TO
- AUTHENTICATING FORENSIC DIGITAL AUDIO RECORDINGS – AN
- AUTOMATED APPROACH
- ALAN J. COOPER
- Metropolitan Police Service, London, UK
- alan.j.cooper@met.police.uk
- A recent forensic technique developed to establish the authenticity of recorded digital audio evidence is the Electric
- Network Frequency (ENF) Criterion. This paper confirms the applicability of the ENF criterion for use in mainland
- UK and introduces an automated approach to matching ENF estimates taken from a questioned recording to a database
- of ENF values. The signal processing procedures described have been used successfully by the Metropolitan Police
- Forensic Audio Laboratory in London to extract and match ENF data from evidential recordings.
- INTRODUCTION
- The term ‘forensic audio’ refers to audio material that
- may provide evidence in legal proceedings. The party
- introducing the recorded audio evidence must show that
- it has not been altered since the time of its production
- and this is achieved using standardised evidencehandling procedures and chain-of-custody records.
- When these safeguards fail, the reliability of the
- evidence may depend upon a technical analysis to prove
- the originality and integrity of the recording.
- The field of audio recording authenticity examination is
- a complex forensic science forming an important
- function of a forensic audio laboratory. An authentic
- recording is defined by the AES as:
- A recording made simultaneously with the
- acoustic events it purports to have recorded,
- and in a manner fully and completely
- consistent with the methods of recording
- claimed by the party who produced the
- recording; a recording free from
- unexplained artefacts, alterations, additions,
- deletions, or edits [1].
- Methods for the authenticity examination of analogue
- recordings are well established [2-4] and recently
- introduced magnetic feature visualisation techniques
- may be applied to both analogue and digital recordings
- stored on magnetic media [5,6]. However, the signal
- conditioning principles associated with digital
- recordings are completely different to that of analogue
- and additional techniques for assessing the integrity of a
- suspect recording are required [7-9]. One such
- technique is the ‘Electric Network Frequency (ENF)
- Criterion’ proposed by Grigoras [10-12].
- ENF relates to the frequency of a networked electricity
- supply transmission system. The ENF criterion is based
- on estimating the frequency of power line related
- signals that may have been recorded alongside the
- wanted audio data as a result of the digital recorder
- being connected directly to the network supply, or in the
- case of battery powered recorders, being in the
- proximity of electro magnetic fields emanating from the
- network supply.
- The ENF is not constant but changes by small amounts
- in a random fashion over a period of time, further, the
- same frequency value is experienced throughout the
- network [10]. Thus, extracted ENF data from a
- recording may be compared to a database of ENF
- information, allowing the date and time of the recording
- to be ascertained. Additionally, it may be used to
- establish if and where the recording has been edited.
- Therefore, the ENF criterion provides a powerful
- method to assess the evidential integrity of audio data
- that has been recorded onto audio, video, computer and
- telecommunications equipment [10-13].
- This paper confirms the validity of the ENF criterion for
- use in mainland UK and describes a method to extract
- ENF data from evidential recordings that allows
- automatic searching and matching of the data to an ENF
- database.
- 1
- PRINCIPLES OF THE ENF CRITERION
- Previous studies on the ENF criterion have been limited
- to transmission systems for countries in continental
- Europe who form a large single network controlled by
- the “Union for the Co-ordination of Transmission of
- Electricity†(UCTE) [14].
- The electric power transmission system in England and
- Wales, which is not part of UCTE, is run by the
- National Grid Company (NGC) [15] and connects
- power stations and substations in a high voltage network
- and distribution system known as ‘The National Grid’.
- The NGC also operate electricity interconnection
- AES 33rd International Conference, Denver, CO, USA, 2008 June 5–7
- 1
- Cooper
- systems linking the transmission network in England
- and Wales to the transmission systems in Scotland and
- direct current inter-connectors with France and Northern
- Ireland [16]. A map of the high voltage network
- distribution in the UK (275 kV or above) is shown in fig
- 1 [17]. The majority of power introduced into a
- network comes from turbines which drive alternating
- current generators. The turbine’s speed of rotation
- determines the ENF and standards adopted by countries
- worldwide are based on either 50 Hz or 60 Hz
- transmission systems; in the UK and Europe the ENF is
- 50Hz while in North America it is 60 Hz. An electrical
- distribution network, or grid, is organised and powergenerating facilities distributed in a way that allows the
- grid operators to cope with wide changes in the
- dynamics of supply and demand. Within a network, the
- generating systems operate in synchronicity, and the
- ENF will remain constant if the sum of all loads and
- losses equals the total generation of the network [18].
- When there is not enough power available to meet the
- demand on the grid, the generators all slow down
- together and the ENF falls, conversely, if the demand
- for power drops the generators speed up and the ENF
- increases. If the average rate of demand on the system
- differs from the average rate of supply in any given
- period, the network operators will be presented with a
- change in frequency for which it must immediately
- compensate by shedding load for under-frequency or
- shedding generation for over-frequency [18]. System
- frequency will therefore vary around the 50 or 60 Hz
- target and the network operators have statutory
- obligations to maintain the frequency within certain
- limits. For the NGC this is +/- 0.5 Hz, however, it is
- normally kept within more stringent 'operational limits'
- which are set at +/- 0.2 Hz [19].
- The Electric Network Frequency - An Automated Approach
- The Metropolitan Police Forensic Audio Laboratory has
- been collating a database of ENF estimates for over four
- years. The database located in London has been used to
- corroborate the date and time of both test and evidential
- recordings made in places located around England
- Wales and Scotland. A typical histogram produced
- from one month of ENF data is shown in fig 2, the
- distribution is Gaussian having a mean of 50 Hz and a
- standard deviation of 0.06 Hz.
- Mean=50 Hz
- STD=0.06 Hz
- Frequency
- Fig 2: Histogram of ENF data taken from the archive
- for November 2006. A Gaussian distribution has been
- overlaid for reference.
- ENF components may find their way onto a recording
- due to poor power supply regulation, earth loops
- between recording equipment or more likely via
- inductive coupling of ENF currents into high gain
- recorder circuitry as the result of electromagnetic fields
- emanating from recorder power supply components
- such as transformers. In the same way, battery powered
- recorders may have ENF signals induced from nearby
- mains-operated equipment.
- The recorded ENF signal may contain harmonics with
- one or more of the harmonics having a higher power
- than the fundamental. These harmonics may also be
- used for analysis; however, frequencies above the third
- harmonic are unlikely to be useful due to masking
- caused by lower frequency acoustic signals [20].
- In summary, the synchronicity of the generators produce
- a uniformity of ENF across any geographic part of the
- grid, and over a period of time the dynamic behaviour
- of the supply and demand provides a unique ENF
- deviation pattern. The combination of these two factors
- makes the ENF a powerful forensic tool when an audio
- recording has captured the ENF as a by-product of the
- recording process.
- Fig 1: High voltage power line distribution across
- England, Wales and Scotland [17].
- AES 33rd International Conference, Denver, CO, USA, 2008 June 5–7
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- 2
- SIGNAL PROCESSING OF ENF SIGNALS
- AN OVERVIEW
- To date there have been three main methods used to
- extract ENF data from an evidential recording:
- ‘time/frequency domain analysis’ based on the
- spectrogram, ‘frequency domain analysis’ based on
- selecting the maximum magnitude of a series of power
- spectrums calculated from consecutive time segments of
- data, and ‘time domain analysis’ based on zero crossing
- measurements of a band-pass filtered signal, [10-12].
- For all methods, the results reported have relied on a
- visual comparison of the extracted data to a database of
- ENF information. Visual searching may therefore
- require many hours of work on the part of the examiner,
- making an automated search process attractive.
- The methods described in this paper are based on a
- frequency domain approach. Producing a practical
- method for automatically searching and matching the
- ENF requires the resulting data from a Fast Fourier
- Transform (FFT) to be reduced so as to minimise the
- computational overheads of the search routine. The
- obvious method is to use an algorithm that stores only
- the peak value of the frequency estimate taken over a
- well-defined bandwidth.
- Two related problems are encountered when extracting
- ENF data from evidential recordings. The first relates
- to the precision of the measurements on the ENF
- signals. This is limited not only by practical
- considerations, but additionally by the time-bandwidth
- product in Fourier Transformation theory known as the
- ‘uncertainty principle’, which states that you can not
- obtain arbitrarily high resolution in both the time and
- frequency domains simultaneously, making low
- frequency signals that vary with time very difficult to
- estimate [21]. The second being that in general the
- recorded ENF signal energy is usually small, producing
- frequency estimates that are susceptible to error due to
- noise. A number of signal processing techniques have
- been proposed to help overcome the limitations of the
- Fourier transform uncertainty principle, including those
- based on parametric frequency estimators [21], zero
- padding/interpolation schemes [22] and signal
- derivatives [23].
- The paper is split into three parts. The first part
- introduces a method for ENF extraction for
- database/archiving purposes that allows a commercially
- available real time FFT analyser and peak frequency
- data logger to be used. Suitable time and frequency
- resolution are obtained by using a technique that trades
- time for bandwidth. The second part describes a
- method for ENF extraction from evidential recordings
- based on an overlapping Short Time Fourier Transform
- (STFT) combined with a peak interpolation scheme
- [22], allowing good time and frequency resolution for
- minimal computational overheads. The third part
- describes the automated matching process of the
- The Electric Network Frequency - An Automated Approach
- extracted data from the evidential recording to the
- archive of database ENF values, and is based on a
- simple Mean Squared Error (MSE) search. Both the
- extraction and matching algorithms have been
- developed using MathWorks MATLAB.
- 3
- PRODUCING AN ARCHIVE OF ENF
- ESTIMATES
- The archiving process to be described produces ENF
- estimates every 1.4 seconds at a spectral resolution of
- 0.0009 Hz and along with associated time for each
- estimate, stores them to a simple text file which has the
- start date of the file contained in a header. Each file
- will contain approximately one month of ENF data,
- allowing the automated searches to be carried out using
- easily manageable data sets.
- Transformation to the frequency domain is achieved
- using a standard FFT having inherent time and
- frequency resolution trade-offs. In practice, this means
- that suitable frequency resolution requires a very long
- length of signal. A method has been used that provides
- acceptable time and frequency resolution by increasing
- the analysis bandwidth for a directly proportional
- reduction in the analysis time window. This is achieved
- by making the original ENF sine-wave signal nonlinear, producing higher order harmonic components.
- The analysis is carried out using one of these ENF
- harmonics, where compared to the fundamental, its
- frequency will have a directly proportional increase in
- bandwidth, and for a given frequency resolution will
- require a directly proportional reduction in FFT size and
- therefore a directly proportional reduction in the amount
- of input data required. Thus allowing proportionally
- more ENF estimates to be made over a period of time.
- The non-linearisation process is achieved using a simple
- pulse generator locked to a full wave rectified signal
- taken from the output of a step-down transformer
- connected directly to the electrical network. The output
- of the locked pulse generator is then fed to a high
- quality 16 bit PC soundcard. The impulse response of
- the soundcard will be convolved with the incoming ENF
- locked pulses which in the frequency domain produces a
- spectrum consisting of a set of harmonically related
- frequencies under an approximate sin x/x envelope. The
- full-wave rectification produces even order harmonics
- only. It is expected that the ENF frequency will
- normally be within the range 49.5 Hz to 50.5 Hz [19].
- The harmonic of the fundamental 50 Hz signal chosen
- for analysis is the 100th, equating to a centre frequency
- of 5 kHz and at this frequency the bandwidth of interest
- will be between: 49.5 × 100 = 4950 Hz and
- 50.5 × 100 = 5050 Hz, a one hundred-fold increase.
- After each Fourier transform the peak frequency is
- selected from within the band of interest, building a
- vector of peak frequency estimates representing the
- changing pattern of the ENF. The resulting frequency
- AES 33rd International Conference, Denver, CO, USA, 2008 June 5–7
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- The Electric Network Frequency - An Automated Approach
- estimates are then simply scaled back down to the
- baseband, achieving the same frequency resolution as
- would normally be obtained for 100 times the data
- length, thus allowing 100 times more ENF estimates for
- a given time period. The FFT, frequency windowing,
- peak picking and storage operations are all carried out
- in real time using Sound Technology Inc, SpectraLab
- software, running under Microsoft Windows XP. The
- overall process is described by fig 3.
- In practice the ENF signal to noise ratio (SNR) ranges
- from between 50 dB to 70 dB [18] and using the nonlinear technique described, the 100th harmonic still
- produces a signal to noise circa 45 dB. Therefore, the
- proposed technique produces negligible estimation error
- due to noise.
- 240v rms
- 50 Hz
- Step down
- transformer
- and rectifier
- ENF locked
- pulse
- generator
- leads to an approximately maximum likelihood
- estimator for moderate signal to noise ratios.
- 4.1 Short time Fourier transform (STFT)
- The STFT may be derived by splitting the original data
- sequence x[ n ], 0 ≤ n ≤ N − 1 , into J overlapping
- segments of length M samples:
- xm[n] = x[mL + n], 0 ≤ n ≤ M − 1
- (1)
- Where xm is the mth frame of the input signal and L is
- the number of samples advanced between each
- consecutive frame, known as the ‘hop size’. Each frame
- is then multiplied by a length M spectral analysis
- weighting window w producing:
- Sound
- Card
- Log
- power
- spectrum
- Window
- 100th
- harmonic
- +/- 50 Hz
- PC
- Peak
- detection
- and storage
- including
- date & time
- information
- Fig 3: Process for estimating and archiving ENF data.
- 4
- EXTRACTION OF ENF DATA FROM
- RECORDINGS
- The problem of extracting the ENF data from an
- evidential recording may be defined as: ‘track and
- estimate at regular time intervals a single sinusoidal
- component having a finite SNR, a relatively narrow
- bandwidth and a slow rate of change of frequency’.
- From network operational practices as described by the
- NGC [19], the total bandwidth for the ENF may be
- defined over the range 49.5 Hz to 50.5 Hz. The SNR is
- determined by the induced level of ENF into the
- recording system and the relative levels of electronic
- and acoustic noise found over the ENF bandwidth of the
- recording.
- The process must provide adequate frequency resolution
- and sampling interval between ENF estimates that are
- compatible with the archive database. This will allow a
- simple and efficient matching process to be used.
- The method chosen to track the dynamic behaviour of
- the ENF is based on the Short Time Fourier Transform
- (STFT) [24]. Peak magnitude estimation is achieved
- using a quadratic interpolation and mild zero padding
- scheme as described by Abe & Smith [22]. The process
- xm[n] = xm[n] â‹… w[n]
- (2)
- The data from the windowed frame is then extended by
- zeros using a factor of b to produce a zero-padded
- windowed frame x ′m[ n] . Converting each frame to the
- frequency domain using a length P FFT produces the
- STFT at frame m:
- Xm[k ] =
- − j 2π kn
- 1 P −1
- P
- ′
- x
- n
- e
- m
- [
- ]
- ∑
- P n=0
- (3)
- Where k is the kth frequency bin. The hop size L is set
- to match the sampling time interval of the archiving
- database (1.4 seconds) and the FFT transform size P is
- variable and dependent on a user-defined parameter D
- expressed in terms of multiples of hop size L:
- P = L â‹… fs â‹… b â‹… D
- (4)
- Where fs is the recorded data sampling rate. The STFT
- segmentation process is described by fig 4. Each frame
- is analysed to find the prominent local maximum or
- peak in the magnitude spectrum corresponding to the
- AES 33rd International Conference, Denver, CO, USA, 2008 June 5–7
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- Cooper
- The Electric Network Frequency - An Automated Approach
- ENF. The ENF peak value in any frame is unlikely to
- coincide with the exact frequency position of an FFT
- transform point. One advantage of zero padding in the
- time domain is that it increases the FFT size, making
- each FFT bin bandwidth fs/p proportionally narrower.
- This produces a more densely sampled spectrum,
- providing accurate interpolation in the frequency
- domain. However, to gain reasonable accuracy, the
- zero padding factor has to be very large, resulting in a
- very high FFT size. This has obvious implications for
- processing efficiency, where time scales are increased
- according to P â‹… log( P ) .
- From eq 3, the three frequency samples expressed in dB
- from each frame as defined in a) and b) are given by:
- α = 20 log10 Xm(kβ −1 )
- (5)
- β = 20 log10 Xm(kβ )
- (6)
- λ = 20 log10 Xm(kβ +1 )
- (7)
- Total data length
- DxL
- Frame 1
- Frame 2
- DxL
- L
- Frame 3
- DxL
- L
- Frame 4
- DxL
- L
- Frame 5
- DxL
- L
- L
- Frame 6
- DxL
- L: hop size (sampling interval)
- D: Sample interval multiplication factor
- D x L: Frame length
- DxL
- L
- Frame J
- Fig 4: Segmentation and overlap scheme used for the STFT.
- 4.2 Quadratic interpolation
- In order to overcome the computational limitations of
- high zero-padding factors, a quadratic interpolation
- scheme has been used in conjunction with a low zero
- padding factor as described by Abe & Smith [22]. The
- procedure is straightforward: compute the log power
- spectrum of each STFT frame using a zero padding
- factor of 4, and then apply quadratic interpolation
- (QIFFT) to each frame as follows:
- a)
- b)
- c)
- d)
- Select the FFT bin β having maximum
- magnitude over the spectral bandwidth of
- interest (coarse estimate).
- Select the adjacent FFT bins
- β − 1 and β + 1 either side of the peak.
- Fit a second order (quadratic) model to the
- 3 values of data.
- The estimated peak value (ν ) of the
- QIFFT is the peak value of the quadratic
- model.
- Solving for the peak location ν of the quadratic model
- using α , β and λ [25]:
- 1
- α −λ
- 2 α − 2β + λ
- ν= ⋅
- (8)
- Estimation error bias inherent in quadratic interpolation
- is the difference between the true peak value and the
- peak value of the fitted quadratic model. The bias is
- reduced to acceptable levels by the application of the
- mild zero padding factor as described [22].
- 4.3 The overall extraction process
- To improve the efficiency of the processing the initial
- sampled audio data is decimated to 300Hz. This is
- followed by a band-pass filter set to the ENF frequency
- region of interest (49.5 Hz to 50.5 Hz). The time
- domain signal is then split into J overlapping frames
- and each frame processed as previously described. The
- overall extraction process is shown in fig 5.
- AES 33rd International Conference, Denver, CO, USA, 2008 June 5–7
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- The Electric Network Frequency - An Automated Approach
- Input data
- Decimation
- to
- 300 Hz
- Bandpass filter
- 49.5 Hz - 50.5 Hz
- Split data into J
- overlapping frames
- Weighting
- window
- Frame 1
- Weighting
- window
- Frame 2
- Weighting
- window
- Frame J
- Segments
- 3 to J-1
- Zero pad
- data by a
- factor 4
- Zero pad
- data by a
- factor 4
- Zero pad
- data by a
- factor 4
- FFT frame 1
- FFT frame 2
- FFT frame J
- Quadratic
- interpolation
- of peak value
- Frame 1
- Quadratic
- interpolation
- of peak value
- Frame 2
- Quadratic
- interpolation
- of peak value
- Frame J
- Vector of ENF estimates:
- f1 , f 2 , "" f J
- Fig 5: Overall ENF signal processing procedure.
- 4.4 Noise robustness
- This section discusses the practical problem of
- estimating the peak value of a single slowly varying
- sinusoid from a finite number of noisy discrete time
- observations. The application of the band-pass filter
- provides frequency selectivity, confining the data to the
- ENF region of interest only. The band-pass filter,
- which is applied before the signal is segmented, will
- also prevent spectral leakage components produced
- from signals outside the region of interest masking the
- ENF. This allows a rectangular weighting window to be
- deployed, leading to greater noise immunity, due to it
- having the narrowest main-lobe in the frequency
- domain of all weighting windows [26].
- Stochastic noise is also a major problem for the
- extraction process, as the level of induced ENF is often
- very small. For decreasing SNR’s peak estimation
- errors increase and there is usually a point at which the
- error rises very rapidly [27]. The FFT can be very
- effective in picking out periodic components of a signal,
- even when it is affected by relatively high noise levels.
- A P point FFT may be considered as P/2 contiguous
- band-pass filters, with the bandwidth of each filter being
- dependant on the sample rate and the number of points
- used in the FFT (fs/p). Considering the noise to be
- white, a SNR improvement can be achieved by
- spreading the noise over P filters producing a noise
- power reduction Ï• of:
- ⎛1⎞
- ⎟
- âŽPâŽ
- ϕ = 10 log10 ⎜
- (9)
- Thus, within the FFT frequency bin containing a
- sinusoid, the SNR will be improved by 3dB for every
- doubling of FFT size. However, doubling the FFT size
- requires a doubling of data size and therefore a trade-off
- between SNR and time resolution between frames.
- AES 33rd International Conference, Denver, CO, USA, 2008 June 5–7
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- The Electric Network Frequency - An Automated Approach
- For typical evidential recordings, the SNR’s for ENF
- estimation needs a large frame size requiring many
- seconds of data for each frame. In the overlapping
- frame system previously described (fig 4), the sampling
- interval multiplication factor, D, is used to increase the
- transform/frame size to exploit the noise suppression
- properties of the FFT, allowing a trade-off between
- noise performance and ENF envelope resolution.
- An example of noise performance verses frame length is
- shown, where a noisy ENF signal has been extracted
- from a 6-minute long section of recording. Fig 6 shows
- an extraction using a frame length of 1 sample interval
- (D=1, 1.4 seconds), fig 7 shows an extraction of the
- same data using a frame length of 5 sample intervals
- (D=5, 7 seconds) and fig 8 shows the same data
- extracted using a frame length of 15 sample intervals
- (D=15, 21 seconds). It can be seen that increasing the
- frame length reduces the effects of the noise.
- ENF samples
- Fig 6: Frame length set to 1 sample interval.
- ENF samples
- Fig 8: Frame length set to 15 sample intervals.
- 5
- AUTOMATED MATCHING OF ENF DATA
- An algorithm is required that searches for the extracted
- ENF pattern in the archived ENF data. The process
- involves overlaying two length N vectors a and t and
- computing a metric that determines the degree to which
- the two vectors match. The metric used for this
- matching process is the mean squared error (MSE).
- The extracted data is overlaid at the start of the archive
- file and the MSE between the extracted data and the part
- of the archive that has been overlaid is calculated, the
- result is then stored. The extracted data is advanced one
- sample and the process is repeated until the extracted
- data has slid across the entire archive file. A vector of
- ‘error’ values is therefore formed and the minimum
- value is tagged as the best match. This error value
- directly indicates the start position of the match in the
- archive and therefore the date and time. The error ε is
- given by the logarithm of the MSE:
- ⎛1
- âŽN
- ε = log ⎜
- ENF samples
- Fig 7: Frame length set to 5 sample intervals.
- i= N
- ∑ (a − t )
- i =0
- i
- i
- 2
- ⎞
- ⎟
- âŽ
- (10)
- Where ai is the i th element of the overlapped archive
- file and ti is the i th element of the extracted file, N is
- the number of samples or elements in the extracted file.
- The logarithm provides better visual discrimination
- when the errors are plotted graphically and produces
- less skew in the overall error distribution aiding
- statistical analysis.
- An example showing the results of an automated
- matching process using the techniques described is
- shown in fig 9. The extracted data is from a 70 minute
- recording produced in Glasgow Scotland UK and the
- archive produced in London England UK, a distance of
- 420 miles (676 km), the archived data has been offset
- by 0.1 Hz to aid visual comparison.
- AES 33rd International Conference, Denver, CO, USA, 2008 June 5–7
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- The Electric Network Frequency - An Automated Approach
- Archive (London)
- Extract (Scotland)
- Fig 9: Automated match found using the
- techniques described. The extracted waveform
- has been offset by 0.1 Hz to aid visual
- comparison.
- Statistically, the strength of the match may be
- ascertained by examining the minimum MSE value in
- relation to all the other MSE values obtained during the
- search of the archive. It is found that for relatively long
- recordings > 30 minutes, the error distribution may be
- close to Gaussian. From the Scotland/London example,
- fig 10 shows the standardised errors and fig 11 shows a
- histogram of the standardised errors with a Gaussian
- distribution overlaid for comparison purposes. It can be
- seen that the minimum error is >6 standard errors below
- the mean, indicating that the match has almost certainly
- not resulted by chance.
- Fig 11: Histogram of errors with a Gaussian overlay.
- As the recording length diminishes the ENF pattern
- becomes less complex. The differentiation between
- lower error values therefore decreases and the
- probability of a match occurring by chance increases.
- However, if the extracted ENF signal is of good quality,
- reliable automated matches can still be obtained with
- relatively short recording lengths. As an example of
- this, a two minute ENF extract was matched
- 6
- from 2 × 10 comparisons taken over a 36 day archive
- file and the results are shown in fig’s 12, 13 and 14.
- Over this short recording, very good visual correlation
- can be seen between the archive and extracted ENF
- values (fig 12). A high discrimination between the
- lowest error value and its nearest neighbours are shown
- in fig 13. The error distribution is shown to be skewed
- (fig 14) making statistical inference more difficult.
- However, transforming the results to Gaussian may be
- possible.
- Archive
- Extract
- point of minimum error
- Fig 10: Standardised errors showing the point of match
- being >6 standard errors below the mean.
- Fig 12: Automated match found using a 2 minute ENF
- extract. The extracted waveform has been offset by
- 0.01 Hz to aid visual comparison.
- AES 33rd International Conference, Denver, CO, USA, 2008 June 5–7
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- The Electric Network Frequency - An Automated Approach
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- The author would like to thank Dr Catalin Grigoras of
- the National Institute of Forensic Expertise in Bucharest
- Rumania for introducing him to the ENF criterion and
- for the useful discussions and exchange of ideas over
- the past several years. Thanks also to Robin How of the
- Metropolitan Police Audio Laboratory for helpful
- suggestions and feedback relating to draft versions of
- this paper.
- point of minimum error
- Fig 13: Even for a 2 minute section the minimum
- error value of the match is still well below its
- nearest neighbours.
- Fig 14: The overlaid Guassian distribution
- highlights the skew in the error histogram.
- 6
- CONCLUSIONS
- This paper further demonstrates the ENF criterion as a
- powerful methodology to authenticate digital audio
- recordings and validates its use in mainland UK by
- establishing ENF correlation over large geographical
- distances. Relatively simple processing procedures
- have been instigated allowing reliable automated date
- and time matching of extracted ENF data to an archived
- ENF file, even for a recording as low as two minutes in
- duration. Obviously, the reliability of a match
- diminishes with decreasing ENF to noise ratio and is the
- single biggest limitation of the ENF criterion. It is
- therefore anticipated that future research will target the
- development of robust and efficient ENF extraction
- algorithms.
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