A comparative study of audio latency feature of Motorola and Samsung mobile phones in forensic identification

Background: In forensic science the process of proving authenticity of audio recording plays an important role. In recent times, Forensic experts mostly receives digital recording for authentication as compared to analog recording. A digitally altered audio signal, leaves no visual indications of being tampered, and it will be indistinguishable from an original audio signal. Objective: To highlight the significance of latency feature of mobile phone handsets in forensic science via comparing input audio latency feature of Samsung and Motorola mobile phone in two audio formats. Methods: In this work two wellestablished and most used brands of mobile phones were considered for comparison: SAMSUNG and MOTOROLA. In the present paper, the digital audio samples have been recorded using 20 mobile phones of various models from two different makes i.e. SAMSUNG and MOTOROLA, in two audio formats i.e. WAV and 3GP. Audio samples were then analysed using Adobe Audition 3.0 software for the input audio latency feature of mobile phones and compared. Findings: Input audio latency value of digital audio recordings can be helpful in forensic identification of make and model of source mobile phone. Novelty: A new technique in digital forensics, to classify the given audio samples on the basis of input audio latency feature and identifying the make of source mobile handsets. Keywords: Authentication; digital audio; forensic science; adobe audition; mobile phone