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Computational Methods for the Analysis of Footwear Impression Evidence

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Computational Intelligence in Digital Forensics: Forensic Investigation and Applications

Part of the book series: Studies in Computational Intelligence ((SCI,volume 555))

Abstract

Impressions of footwear are commonly found in crime scenes. Yet they are not routinely used as evidence due to: (i) the wide variability and quality of impressions, and (ii) the large number of footwear outsole designs which makes their manual comparison time-consuming and difficult. Computational methods hold the promise of better use of footwear evidence in investigations and also in providing assistance for court testimony. This paper begins with a comprehensive survey of existing methods, followed by identifying several gaps in technology. They include methods to improve image quality, computing features for comparison, measuring the degree of similarity, retrieval of closest prints from a database and determining the degree of uncertainty in identification. New algorithms for each of these problems are proposed. An end-to-end system is proposed where : (i) the print is represented by an attribute relational graph of straight edges and ellipses, (ii) a distance measure based on the earth-mover distance, (iii) clustering to speed-up database retrieval, and (iv) uncertainty evaluation based on likelihoods. Retrieval performance of the proposed design with real crime scene images is evaluated and compared to that of previous methods. Suggestions for further work and implications to the justice system are given.

This work was supported by the Office of Justice Programs, US Department of Justice on NIJ Award 2007-DN-BX-K135. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and not of the DoJ.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Center of Excellence for Document, The State University of New York SUNY, Buffalo, New York, USA

    Sargur N. Srihari & Yi Tang

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  1. Sargur N. Srihari
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  2. Yi Tang
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Correspondence to Sargur N. Srihari .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Software Engineering Faculty of Information and, Technical University of Malaysia Melaka (UTeM), Durian Tunggal, Malaysia

    Azah Kamilah Muda

  2. Department of Software Engineering Faculty of Info. and Comm. Tech., Technical University of Malaysia Melaka (UTeM), Durian Tunggal, Malaysia

    Yun-Huoy Choo

  3. Scientific Network for Innovation and Research Excellence, Machine Intelligence Research Labs (MIR Labs), Auburn, Washington, Washington, USA

    Ajith Abraham

  4. Dept. of Computer Sci. and Engineering Center of Excellence for Document, The State University of New York SUNY, Buffalo, New York, USA

    Sargur N. Srihari

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Srihari, S.N., Tang, Y. (2014). Computational Methods for the Analysis of Footwear Impression Evidence. In: Muda, A., Choo, YH., Abraham, A., N. Srihari, S. (eds) Computational Intelligence in Digital Forensics: Forensic Investigation and Applications. Studies in Computational Intelligence, vol 555. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05885-6_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05885-6_15

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