Title: Speaker identification from the sound of the human breath,
Abstract: This paper examines the speaker identification potential of breath sounds in
continuous speech. Speech is largely produced during exhalation. In order to
replenish air in the lungs, speakers must periodically inhale. When inhalation
occurs in the midst of continuous speech, it is generally through the mouth.
Intra-speech breathing behavior has been the subject of much study, including
the patterns, cadence, and variations in energy levels. However, an often
ignored characteristic is the {\em sound} produced during the inhalation phase
of this cycle. Intra-speech inhalation is rapid and energetic, performed with
open mouth and glottis, effectively exposing the entire vocal tract to enable
maximum intake of air. This results in vocal tract resonances evoked by
turbulence that are characteristic of the speaker's speech-producing apparatus.
Consequently, the sounds of inhalation are expected to carry information about
the speaker's identity. Moreover, unlike other spoken sounds which are subject
to active control, inhalation sounds are generally more natural and less
affected by voluntary influences. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate that
breath sounds are indeed bio-signatures that can be used to identify speakers.
We show that these sounds by themselves can yield remarkably accurate speaker
recognition with appropriate feature representations and classification
frameworks.