Abstract

            For my science fair, I conducted an experiment to evaluate whether it is possible to distinguish between smokers and non-smokers by the sound and quality of their voice alone. Voices were evaluated by two minors, three adult voice experts and two non-expert adults. There were a total of 40 patients on the digital audio recordings: 20 smokers and 20 non-smokers. The evaluators listened to 40 digital voice recordings of a standard text and filled an evaluation sheet on smoking status and gender. The voice experts determined smoking status correctly 51% of the time (chance) and gender correctly 99% of the time. The non-expert adults were correct 60% of the time in distinguishing between smokers and non-smokers and were 99% correct in assigning gender. Minors correctly detected if the person on the recording was a smoker or non-smoker 66% of the time and if they were a male or female 97% of the time. Based on these results it seems that being a voice expert does not confer any advantage in determining smoking status. Minors and adult non-experts with no special knowledge of voice had better results.