8 research outputs found
Criminal and victim identification based on soft biometrics
No full textCriminal and victim identification is always important in forensic investigation. However, it can be a very challenging problem for identifying criminals and victims in digital media when only their non-facial body sites are available in evidence images. These criminals and victims can be masked gunmen, paedophiles, and victims in child pornographic and voyeur images.
To solve the above problem, several novel alignment and identification approaches are proposed in this thesis. Firstly, lower leg geometry is proposed as a soft biometric trait for criminal and victim identification. This study provides a foundation for further research based on body geometry. Secondly, leg geometry and hair follicles are proposed to align the androgenic hair patterns in consideration of viewpoint and pose variations, which were ignored by a recent paper suggesting androgenic hair patterns for identification. Experiments on 1,138 high and low resolution images from 283 different legs show that the proposed alignment algorithms provide improvements of 5%-10% on different experimental settings.
Thirdly, a new approach is developed to improve the identification of androgenic hair patterns significantly. In the past, it was believed that androgenic hair patterns in low resolution images are not a distinctive biometric trait because of the previous result. A new algorithm, which makes use of leg geometry to align lower leg images, large feature sets (about 60,000 features) extracted through multi-directional gridding systems to increase discriminative power and robustness, the partial least squares (PLS) method to handle imbalanced training data and to perform the multi-grid feature fusion, and scheme generating more positive samples to increase robustness against viewpoint and pose variation, is proposed. Experimental results on 1,493 low resolution leg images with large viewpoint and pose variations from 412 legs demonstrate the proposed multi-grid feature fusion algorithm provides a significant improvement.
Fourthly, estimation of soft biometric traits (e.g. height, BMI, age) is proposed. Recent studies demonstrated that soft biometric traits can be effectively estimated through comparative verbal descriptions (e.g. taller and shorter) given by witnesses. The usage of descriptions is extended to non-verbal comparative features extracted from legs for soft biometrics estimation. The proposed algorithm is examined on more than 2000 front and side leg images. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm offers comparable performance with the existing methods.
Fifthly, the distinctiveness of human skin texture is evaluated by comparing with blood vessels. Recent studies show that blood vessel patterns can be visualized in different body parts. However, their visualization methods have limitations on images with low quality and subjects with high concentration of body fat, high concentration of melanin, and dense hair. In this study, more than 6000 inner forearm and thigh images were collected from a laboratory environment and the Internet with large pose, viewpoint, resolution, and illumination variations. The experimental results indicate the potential use of skin texture for criminal and victim identification.Doctor of Philosophy (SCE
A further study of low resolution androgenic hair patterns as a soft biometric trait
No full textSoft biometric traits such as skin color, tattoos, shoe size, height, and weight have been regularly used for forensic investigation, especially when hard biometric traits, e.g., faces and fingerprints are not available. Recently, a new soft biometric trait, androgenic hair also called body hair, was evaluated. The previous study showed that low resolution androgenic hair patterns have potential for forensic investigation. However, it was believed that they are not a distinctive biometric trait because of the reported accuracy. To explore discriminative information in androgenic hair patterns, in this paper, a new algorithm, which makes use of leg geometry to align lower leg images, large feature sets (about 60,000 features) extracted through multi-directional grid systems to increase discriminative power and robustness, and class-specific partial least squares (PLS) models to utilize the features effectively, is employed. To further enhance the performance of the class-specific PLS models trained on very limited positive samples, one to three images per model in the experiments, and further enhance robustness against viewpoint and pose variations, a scheme is designed to generate more positive samples from a single image. Experimental results on 1493 low resolution leg images with large viewpoint and pose variations from 412 legs demonstrate that low resolution androgenic hair patterns contain rich information and the impression of low discriminative power on androgenic hair is due to the method used in the previous study.MOE (Min. of Education, S’pore)Accepted versio
Using Leg Geometry to Align Androgenic Hair Patterns in Low Resolution Images for Criminal and Victim Identification
No full textA Study of Distinctiveness of Skin Texture for Forensic Applications Through Comparison With Blood Vessels
No full text
A Preliminary Study of Lower Leg Geometry as a Soft Biometric Trait for Forensic Investigation
No full textDact Gene Expression Profiles Suggest A Role For This Gene Family In Integrating Wnt And Tgf-β Signaling Pathways During Chicken Limb Development
No full textBackground: Dact gene family encodes multifunctional proteins that are important modulators of Wnt and TGF-β signaling pathways. Given that these pathways coordinate multiple steps of limb development, we investigated the expression pattern of the two chicken Dact genes (Dact1 and Dact2) from early limb bud up to stages when several tissues are differentiating. Results: During early limb development (HH24-HH30) Dact1 and Dact2 were mainly expressed in the cartilaginous rudiments of the appendicular skeleton and perichondrium, presenting expression profiles related, but distinct. At later stages of development (HH31-HH35), the main sites of Dact1 and Dact2 expression were the developing synovial joints. In this context, Dact1 expression was shown to co-localize with regions enriched in the nuclear β-catenin protein, such as developing joint capsule and interzone. In contrast, Dact2 expression was restricted to the interzone surrounding the domains of bmpR-1b expression, a TGF-β receptor with crucial roles during digit morphogenesis. Additional sites of Dact expression were the developing tendons and digit blastemas. Conclusions: Our data indicate that Dact genes are good candidates to modulate and, possibly, integrate Wnt and TGF-β signaling during limb development, bringing new and interesting perspectives about the roles of Dact molecules in limb birth defects and human diseases. 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Molecular Genetics of Dupuytren´s Disease
No full textDupuytren’s disease (DD) is a fibromatosis of connective tissue within the palm of the hands. It is characterised by progressive collagen deposition that leads to hardening and thickening of the connective tissue and results in permanent contraction of affected fingers. The aetiology of Dupuytren’s disease is so far unknown and the pathogenesis is favoured by ageing, genetic predisposition, mechanic trauma and possibly other risk factors. Blood and tissue samples of over 850 German and Swiss DD patients were collected in order to analyse the genetics, gene expression patterns and the in vitro behaviour of disease tissue derived fibroblast in 2-D and 3-D models.
A genome wide association study (GWAS) with 565 unrelated DD patients and 1,219 controls was performed. Data for 5,204,451 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; 186 cases genotyped with Affymetrix Genome-Wide Human SNP Array 6.0 and 379 cases, 1219 controls genotyped with Axiom CEU 1 Array; data imputed with HapMap CEU reference panel) were analyzed for association with DD. SNP rs2290221 on chromosome 7p14, showed the strongest association signal with a p-value of 2.2x10-10 and odds ratio of 2.13. SNP rs2290221 is located intronic of the genes secreted frizzled-related protein 4 (SFRP4) and ependymin related protein 1 (zebrafish) (EPDR1).
In addition an integrative replication study with 2,325 Dutch, English and German DD cases and 11,562 controls was performed. It identified nine different susceptibility loci that showed genome-wide significance. Six of these loci contain genes known to be involved in the Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway. Again the strongest association was seen for the 7p14 locus.
Consistent with GWAS findings, a whole genome expression analysis with 12 DD primary disease tissue samples and 12 normal fascia controls revealed upregulation of the Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway and also changes in mitochondrial function and oxidative stress response in disease tissue. The Wnt signalling pathway is therefore likely to be a key player in the fibromatosis process observed in DD. Primary disease tissue derived fibroblasts at least in part retained their disease associated characteristics in vitro, they exhibited higher proliferation rates and generated strong contraction forces in 3-D collagen gels, and thus present an excellent model for investigating the mechanisms of DD in the context of aging and aging associated diseases
