Analysis of reverberation time blind estimation used in audio forensics

This paper proposes an analysis of the possibility to use the reverberation time as a reliable tool in audio forensics, for detecting audio editing traces in a recording. We begin with an optimized method for the blind estimation of the reverberation time, in the presence of additive noise and we further adapt it to better serve the forensic context. Next we present several experiments which validate, through objective measurements, the estimation method we used. Finally we propose different scenarios in which we underline the opportunity to use reverberation time as a mean of detecting audio editing in a recording. The results of our incipient study showed that, within controlled conditions, the reverberation time parameter can be successfully used for detecting the existence of audio editing traces in a recording.