Audio forensic investigations may require interpretation of recordings containing gunshot sounds. These sounds are notable because of their impulsive nature: very high sound pressure and very short duration compared to other sounds relevant to forensic analysis. In this paper we examine the acoustical characteristics of muzzle blast sounds from two handguns: a Glock 19 pistol and a Ruger SP101 revolver. The muzzle blast sound of each handgun was recorded at several azimuth angles between 0 and 180 degrees with respect to the barrel using a quasi-anechoic methodology. Compared to the pistol, the revolver exhibits a more complicated acoustical pattern due to sound emanation from two sources:  the cylinder-barrel gap and the muzzle.

Authors: Maher, Robert C.; Routh, Tushar
Affiliation: Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA
AES Conference: 2017 AES International Conference on Audio Forensics (June 2017)
Paper Number: 4-1
Publication Date: June 6, 2017 Import into BibTeX
Subject: Signal Analysis
Permalink: http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=18748

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