Speaker identification using Ultra-Wideband measurement of voice

Abstract

Voice identification is being increasingly adopted in various domains, including security infrastructures, intelligent home systems, and personalised digital assistants. Notably, it harbours significant promise in transforming healthcare, especially in electronic health record detecting and speech impairment monitoring such as aphasia. Current strategies such as acoustic models based on deep learning, voice bio-metrics, and spectrogram analysis, have been identified with several drawbacks including vulnerability to altered voices, susceptibility to ambient noise, and the necessity for significant computational power. In response to these issues, the authors introduce a ground-breaking method of voice identification using Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology. This method capitalises on the micro-Doppler shifts associated with movements of the laryngeal prominence. The distinctive nature of these bio-metric traits related to speech production provides superior resistance against common pitfalls of voice identification. The proposed model leverages the high-resolution characteristics of UWB to register tiny variations in laryngeal movements produced during speech, thus forming a distinct voice profile for each speaker. Through rigorous testing, the proposed system demonstrated significant progress in voice identification, achieving close to 90% accuracy in controlled experimental settings. This breakthrough indicates that UWB-enabled voice identification could have a profound effect on medical applications, providing potential improvements in diagnosing, monitoring, possibly treating speech disorders, and thereby shaping a future of enhanced and secured healthcare services.