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Could tattoos help catch criminals? Scientists develop algorithms to scan and identify distinctive inkings
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Could tattoos help catch criminals? Scientists develop algorithms to scan and identify distinctive inkings

Source: dailymail.co.uk


Whether its a distinctive gangland mark or a traditional rose, the police may soon be able to identify criminals using just their tattoos.

A US government agency is asking computer scientists to develop an algorithm capable of distinguishing between tattoos and sketches on paper, as well as spot the differences between similar marks.

The image-based software must also be able to work even if the inking is partially obscured, by hair or a T-shirt for example.

The Tattoo Recognition Technology - Challenge (Tatt-C) initially launched last year but it held its first workshop earlier this week.

It is being run by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (Nist) based in Maryland.

The challenge explained that: 'the activity will assess the capability of image-based tattoo recognition algorithms to perform detection and retrieval of tattoos.'

It continued the goal will be to determine which algorithms are most effective and whether any are viable for 'matching visually similar or related tattoos from different subjects, matching different instances of the same tattoo image from the same subject over time, matching a small region of interest that is contained in a larger image [and] matching visually similar or related tattoos using different types of images.'

This includes sketches, scanned print, computer graphics, or natural images.

The computer must also be able to tell whether an image contains a tattoo or not.

In total there are six teams competing in the challenge, including one from researcher company Mitre, led by Landis Huffman.

His team uses a tool known as scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT).

This algorithm was published in 1999 and Mr Huffman's software looks for various points within two photos.

It then calculates how many of those points match up.

This is similar to how fingerprints are compared by forensic teams who need to have a minimum of eight points to present a match in court.

It isn't the first time computers have been used in this way.

Software designed for this purpose has been under development since 2012 by Terrance Boult, a computer science professor at the University of Colorado.

Professor Boult worked with a team of researchers to develop a computer program that reviews body ink, scars, moles and visible skin markings in photos.

The program scans images for these identifiable skin symbols and then looks for people bearing the same markings in a photo database.

It is designed to pick up patterns in tattoos and could even link together members of gangs, who often share body tags.

And it was specifically designed to better handle low quality photos, like those taken from a smartphone.

Tattoo matching isn't as precise as biometric identification - including fingerprints and iris scans.

But Stephen Fischer, chief of the multimedia division at the US Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI's) Criminal Justice Information Services division in Clarksburg, West Virginia told Nature: 'It only needs to provide some investigative benefit to aid in narrowing down suspect lists or providing investigative intelligence related to a crime. '

Source: dailymail.co.uk

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