voiceprint (n)

A display of a person’s voice based upon a SPECTROGRAPHIC or similar output. The analogy is with the term ‘fingerprint’, and the claim is sometimes made that a person’s voice is as individual as fingerprints. Several legal cases have in fact used voiceprints as evidence of SPEAKER IDENTIFICATION. But, while there are several idiosyncratic features in a spectrogram of a person’s voice, it is not the case that such displays are always unequivocal indications of identity. It is difficult to visually compare and interpret sets of spectrographic features, and the limitations of the display techniques used must always be borne in mind.