At the core of forensic firearms examinations is the ability to perform bullet-to-bullet comparisons based on microscopic surface features. Automated search and retrieval systems for the comparison of microscopic firearms evidence provide a powerful screening tool for firearms examiners. These systems enable the comparison of large amounts of evidence transforming forensic ballistic analysis from an evidence verification tool into a crime-fighting tool. This paper proposes a 3D characterization of the bullet’s surface as an alternative to a 2D characterization. The paper begins with a discussion on the development and preliminary results obtained with SciClops(tm), an automated microscopic comparison system based on the use of a 3D characterization of the bullet’s surface. This is followed by a brief background on computer-aided comparison of microscopic firearms evidence in general, their main components, and a comparison of 2D versus 3D-based data acquisition techniques. Principles applied and results obtained using 3D-based data acquisition methodologies are presented. The preliminary evaluations indicate that a 3D-based system shows considerable potential. However, in terms of performance the integration of both 2D and 3D data acquisition offers the best of both worlds. Figures and references
Downloads
Similar Publications
- Introducing "DoPP": A Graphical User-Friendly Application for the Rapid Species Identification of Psychoactive Plant Materials and Quantification of Psychoactive Small Molecules Using DART-MS Data
- Life and death: A systematic comparison of antemortem and postmortem gene expression
- Deterring Collusion - Some Experimental Evidence on the Relative Effectiveness of Changes in Detection and Sanction Levels