Scientists aim to make catching crooks a shoe-in

Published on 15 Mar 2007

Researchers at Queens University Belfast are developing a system that will allow police officers to accurately match footprints found at a crime scene against a database of footware, reports The Engineer Online.

Current technology means that once a plaster cast of a footprint has been taken it must then be matched by eye against thousands of recognised prints. This process is incredibly time consuming and can prove inaccurate. If tests prove successful then the whole process of collecting and analysing prints could be digitised. Dr Ahmed Bouridane, leader of the project, explains:

"We are using image transformations that grab the features of a shoeprint at different resolutions, scales and orientations,' he said. 'There's no need for any pre-processing of the image.' The transformations automatically 'clean up' the print, 'correcting' for blurred or scuffed marks and spotting when there are inclusions such as stones.
"Then we take some of the discriminating characteristics of the print's pattern, such as circles, rectangles or zigzags. These can be compared automatically with those stored in the databases to come up with an answer."