55 research outputs found

    A Survey on Ear Biometrics

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    Recognizing people by their ear has recently received significant attention in the literature. Several reasons account for this trend: first, ear recognition does not suffer from some problems associated with other non contact biometrics, such as face recognition; second, it is the most promising candidate for combination with the face in the context of multi-pose face recognition; and third, the ear can be used for human recognition in surveillance videos where the face may be occluded completely or in part. Further, the ear appears to degrade little with age. Even though, current ear detection and recognition systems have reached a certain level of maturity, their success is limited to controlled indoor conditions. In addition to variation in illumination, other open research problems include hair occlusion; earprint forensics; ear symmetry; ear classification; and ear individuality. This paper provides a detailed survey of research conducted in ear detection and recognition. It provides an up-to-date review of the existing literature revealing the current state-of-art for not only those who are working in this area but also for those who might exploit this new approach. Furthermore, it offers insights into some unsolved ear recognition problems as well as ear databases available for researchers

    EXPLORING THE PROBATIVE ROLE OF SOME UNDERUTILIZED ‘FORENSIC MARK EVIDENCE’ IN SAFE JUSTICE DELIVERY: A GOLD MINE FOR THE DEFENCE LAWYER?

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    Forensic evidence such as deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), fingermarks, anthropological evidence, and often document-related evidence is consistently used in Ghana’s criminal jurisprudence. However, the forensic application of some impression/trace-related evidence notably lip print, ear print, and footprint in the Ghanaian criminal justice system is challenging. The recent mention of footprint evidence in the ongoing case involving the death of a Member of Parliament in Ghana, Mr. J. B. Danquah, opens a new vista for the use of such underutilized forensic evidence in Ghanaian courts. This paper discusses some selected impression-related evidence, highlights their potential application in forensic investigation and safe justice delivery, and further informs defence lawyers on what to look out for when evaluating such forensic evidence to avoid the miscarriage of justice in criminal cases

    Inter- and intra-individual variation in earprints

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    The feasibility of earprint individualization depends upon the amount of variation in prints of different ears, but also upon that in prints of a single ear. In order to determine the limits to intra-individual variation, we need to explore its potential causes. As the amount of force that is applied by the ear to the listening surface influences the appearance of the earprint, we investigated factors potentially affecting this force, such as the level and frequency of a target sound, and the level of ambient noise. We also investigated whether presence or absence of a target sound was of influence. Additionally, we explored if the duration of listening, and whether the ear had been recently cleaned or not, affected the appearance of an earprint. To evaluate the extent to which features may vary with passing time, we further attempted to determine the rate of growth of the external ear during adult life. As a next step, we then compared realistic intra-individual variation in earprints with a very small degree of inter-individual variation, i.e., that in prints of identical twins. To do so, we explored a method to fully automatically analyze prints. To our knowledge, this was the first time that any method capable of fully automated earprint comparisons has been described.LEI Universiteit Leidenniet-projectgebonden outpu

    Earprint and fingerprint patterns among two ethnic groups in South Southern Nigerian

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    The study investigated earprint and fingerprint patterns among the Urhobos’ and Ibos’ residing in Warri, South Southern Nigeria. The  study was a descriptive crossectional study which involved 40 Urhobos’ and 40Ibos’, aged 18years and above. Ear and fingerprint patterns were obtained with a Hewlett placard G4010 Photo scanner. Chi square test was used for categorical variables and a T test was used to compare means of dermatoglyphic variables. Statistical evaluation was done using SPSS 20 Software Version. Significance was accepted at  P<0.05 Findings showed that the ulnar loop was predominant while the radial loop was least observed in the studied population (70%,1.3%). Earprints that were common in the studied population were Type V and VI (7.5%, 38.8%). Type VII and VIII were frequent in the Ibos’ while Type I and III were perculiar with the Urhobos’ (X2 = 2.804; P = 0.903). The arches found on the left fingers were significantly  different among the two ethnic groups (p= 0.003). There was also a significant difference in fingerprint patterns observed on the left  middle and little finger alongside AFRC of the right and left little finger among the respective tribes (p=0.009; 0.012; 0.031; 0.007). Sexual dimorphism was observed in fingerprint patterns and TFRC among the Ibos’ (p=0.001; 0.001). Ear and fingerprint patterns vary among ethnic groups and can be used in criminology and forensic science. &nbsp

    Police Science Technical Abstracts and Notes

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    The CSI Effect : Exposing the Media Myth

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    Forensic speaker recognition

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    The aim of forensic speaker recognition is to establish links between individuals and criminal activities, through audio speech recordings. This field is multidisciplinary, combining predominantly phonetics, linguistics, speech signal processing, and forensic statistics. On these bases, expert-based and automatic approaches have been developed to analyze the speaker's utterances on recordings, usually originating from anonymous calls, wiretapping procedures, and covert audio surveillance. Most of the forensic laboratories still opt for either of these two approaches, even though, in many respects, they appear to be complementary. The main requirements for these methods are independence to the text, ability to handle minimal length recordings, and a superior robustness regarding noise, transmission channels, and other variations of the recording conditions. Forensic speaker recognition can be considered a forerunner in the implementation of a logical inference framework to estimate the value of the evidence from the analytical results. The limits of forensic speaker recognition are the absence of a fixed and known number of highly discriminatory features in speech, the limited quality of the audio recordings captured in forensic conditions, and the application of recognition approaches in the absence of any known underlying model that accurately represents the speaker-dependent information

    Conceptualising forensic science and forensic reconstruction. Part I: A conceptual model

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    There has been a call for forensic science to actively return to the approach of scientific endeavour. The importance of incorporating an awareness of the requirements of the law in its broadest sense, and embedding research into both practice and policy within forensic science, is arguably critical to achieving such an endeavour. This paper presents a conceptual model (FoRTE) that outlines the holistic nature of trace evidence in the ‘endeavour’ of forensic reconstruction. This model offers insights into the different components intrinsic to transparent, reproducible and robust reconstructions in forensic science. The importance of situating evidence within the whole forensic science process (from crime scene to court), of developing evidence bases to underpin each stage, of frameworks that offer insights to the interaction of different lines of evidence, and the role of expertise in decision making are presented and their interactions identified. It is argued that such a conceptual model has value in identifying the future steps for harnessing the value of trace evidence in forensic reconstruction. It also highlights that there is a need to develop a nuanced approach to reconstructions that incorporates both empirical evidence bases and expertise. A conceptual understanding has the potential to ensure that the endeavour of forensic reconstruction has its roots in ‘problem-solving’ science, and can offer transparency and clarity in the conclusions and inferences drawn from trace evidence, thereby enabling the value of trace evidence to be realised in investigations and the courts
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