Eugenia San Segundo Fernandez
Research Associate

Profile

Biography

My main research interests lie at the intersection of forensic speech science, sociolinguistics, phonetics and phonology. My doctoral research focused on the voice study of similar-sounding speakers (monozygotic and dizygotic twins, as well as non-twin siblings) with the aim of evaluating the robustness of different voice features for forensic comparison under challenging conditions. I tackled this question from a threefold perspective: study of formant dynamics in vocalic sequences, analysis of glottal/phonatory features, and use of an automatic speaker recognition system.

My current activity as Postdoctoral Researcher in the project Voice and Identity – Source, Filter, Biometric further explores the performance of different methods – both acoustic and perceptual – for speaker comparison. I also have a special interest in developing reliable perceptual evaluations of voice quality for forensic usage.

Career

• University of Salamanca
  BA in English Studies (2003-2007)
  BA in Hispanic Studies (2004-2008)
• Spanish National Research Council & Menéndez Pelayo International University
  MA in Phonetics and Phonology (2008-2009)
  PhD in Speech Sciences (2010-2014)
• University of York
  Postdoctoral Research Associate (2015-present)

Research

Overview

My main research interest is Forensic Speaker Comparison, from an acoustic perspective as well as from an auditory-perceptual point of view. Since May 2015 my research activity focuses on the project Voice and Identity – Source, Filter, Biometric in which I collaborate as a full-time Postdoctoral Researcher. Before I have worked in some other research projects, with several international collaborations. I was Principal Investigator of the project Forensic comparison of Spanish twins and non-twin brothers funded by the International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustics (IAFPA).

Projects

Voice and Identity – Source, Filter, Biometric

• Investigators: Paul Foulkes, Peter French, Philip Harrison, Vince Hughes, Eugenia San Segundo Fernández
• Funder: AHRC

The aim of the project is to compare the performance of different methods for forensic voice (or speaker) comparison – from linguistics and phonetics, acoustics, and automatic speaker recognition (ASR) – on the same set of recordings. We will explore the performance of the methods to assess their relative strengths, the consistency of their results and error patterns, and thus the potential for different methods to be integrated into a single framework. The ultimate aim is to improve methods in forensic voice comparison, taking a major step towards the development of a methodology that is more transparent, validated, and replicable. This outcome will benefit academics and forensic practitioners, the public, judicial systems, and investigative/security agencies.

Past projects

• Detection of Neurological Disorders by means of Phonation Correlates obtained after inverse filtering of the glottal source – Universidad Politécnica de Madrid – 2013-2015
• Forensic comparison of Spanish twins and non-twin brothers – Spanish National Research Council & University of Marburg – 2011-2014
• Cualidad Individual de la Voz en la Identificación de Locutor – Spanish National Research Council – 2010-2013
• Stress Typology – University of Delaware – 2011-2012
• Incorporation of forensic analysis techniques as part of an automatic speaker recognition system – University of New South Wales – 2010-2011