It remains a significant challenge to automatically recognise speakers who intentionally alter their voices to conceal their identities, despite the substantial progress made in automatic speaker verification systems. The intentional alteration of voice is often employed in situations such as blackmailing calls or robberies, where the offender wants to remain anonymous. One crucial step toward achieving robust automatic speaker verification systems is gaining a comprehensive understanding of how speakers modify their articulatory configurations (and subsequently, the resulting acoustic characteristics) when they change their voice. In this project, I aim to explore the speech features that are systematically altered or remain stable during intentional voice changes, specifically when speakers attempt to sound like either younger or older individuals. My focus will be on intentional voice change features in Finnish speech, utilizing a publicly available corpus that includes modal and disguised speech with age modification. The outcomes of this project are expected to have significant implications for developing reliable automatic speech verification systems, enhancing the security of voice-activated systems, forensic applications and for basic research.

2024