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Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft
New Research Program with Relevance for Time-Critical Cases in Law Enforcement
The Cyberagentur launches call for tenders for audio forensics to obtain location information
On February 28, 2025, the Agentur für Innovation in der Cybersicherheit (Cyberagentur) published a call for proposals for the “Audio Forensics” research program. The aim is to generate valuable investigative leads for law enforcement agencies by analyzing room acoustic characteristics. Interested parties can apply to advance research in this highly innovative field.
The Cyberagentur is initiating the research program “Audio Forensics” (AuFo), which deals with the analysis of audio data regarding their recording location. The aim is to find out to what extent room acoustic parameters can be extracted from acoustic signals and used to identify the recording location (e.g. in terms of size, geometry or composition). This could be particularly useful for law enforcement authorities in their investigations.
“Particularly in time-critical situations, such as kidnappings or hostage-takings, research into methods for analyzing poor-quality audio recordings can help law enforcement investigators in missing persons investigations,” emphasizes Olivia Gräupner, research specialist in the Secure Society department at the Cyberagentur.
In addition to reconstructing the recording location, the program also analyzes whether certain characteristics of the recording device allow conclusions about the origin of the recording. The insights gained could help to narrow down possible audio sources or extract unique identifying features.
The research is in a highly innovative area of digital forensics. While the transcription and speaker identification of audio data are already established, the analysis of meta-information to reconstruct the environment is an area that is still mostly unexplored. The program thus represents a scientific-technical high-risk research with disruptive innovation potential. The open question of whether and to what extent the developed methods can be used in a legally secure manner in criminal prosecution is also an important part of the research program.
Interested research institutions and companies are invited to apply in response to the call for tenders.
The call for tenders was published in the Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union with the tender number TED 135066-2025 (https://www.evergabe-online.de/tenderdetails.html?2&id=745084). The closing date for the call for tenders is 02.04.2025, 10 a.m. (UTC+1).
Olivia Gräupner, research specialist in the Secure Society department at the Cyberagentur
https://www.cyberagentur.de/en/press/new-research-program-with-relevance-for-tim...
https://ted.europa.eu/de/notice/-/detail/135066-2025
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