Researchers performed edge detection and morphological smoothing operations on high-resolution images (1200 dpi) of torn duct tape edges to extract the torn-edge coordinates. The coordinates of a given exemplar and a suspect sample tear were then compared by calculating the sum of square residuals (SSR) of the two sets of coordinates, producing a single quantitative number that represented the "closeness" of the match. The analysis of 11 cohorts of 200 torn pairs yielded 2,200 total pairs with 440,000 quantitative inter-comparisons, showing that SSR values on the order of or less than 105 mm2 have high probability of being a match. In 97 percent of all examined tears, the true match had the lowest observed SSR, with false positive rates ranging from 0.5 percent for some types of hand-torn duct tape to 62 percent for scissors-cut duct tape. This work provides a starting point for quantitative assessment of the likelihood of physical end matching of duct tape without human contextual bias. 13 figures, 4 tables, and 9 references
Downloads
Similar Publications
- Human Decomposition Evaluation: A Standardized Approach for Staging and Scoring Morphological Features Using Artificial Intelligence
- Microfluidic Acoustic Trapping Prototype for Rapid Processing of Sexual Assault Evidence
- Punctuated bursts in human male demography inferred from 1,244 worldwide Y-chromosome sequences