IMAGE QUALITY CRITERION FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF FACES - LAW ENFORCEMENT STANDARDS PROGRAM

• NCJ Number: 13389
• Author(s): G T YONEMURA
• Date Published: 1974
• Length: 41 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Justice; US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Corporate Author: US Dept of Justice
• Sale Source: Superintendent of Documents, GPO; National Technical Information Service; National Institute of Justice/
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE STANDARD PREPARED BY NATIONAL BUREAU STANDARDS

Annotation

TECHNICAL REPORT DETAILING RESEARCH AND RECOMMENDED EVALUATION CRITERIA FOR IMAGE INTENSIFICATION EQUIPMENT.

Abstract

IN THIS TECHNICAL REPORT, THE LAW ENFORCEMENT STANDARDS LABORATORY EXAMINES THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE HUMAN ABILITY TO IDENTIFY FACES IN AN IMAGE AND THE PERFORMANCE OF IMAGE INTENSIFICATION EQUIPMENT, SUCH AS NIGHT VISION DEVICES. SPECIFICALLY, THE RESEARCH WAS DIRECTED TOWARD RECOMMENDATIONS CONCERNING AN IMAGE QUALITY CRITERION FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF FACES IN A PHOTOGRAPH. THE STUDIES INCLUDED A LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONTROLLED EXPERIMENTS WITH 144 OBSERVERS. PHOTOGRAPHS OF TEN FACES--EACH DEGRADED AT TWELVE SUBJECTIVELY EQUAL STEPS--WERE SHOWN TO THE OBSERVERS WHO PICKED THE LEVEL OF DEGRADATION JUDGED 'GOOD ENOUGH' FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES. AN AVERAGE ACCEPTABLE DEGRADATION LEVEL WAS DETERMINED AND THE CORRESPONDING PHOTOGRAPHS WERE MICROPHOTOMETERED AND QUANTIFIED INTO MODULATION TRANSFER FUNCTION (MTF) AND ACUTANCE MEASURES. IT IS THESE TWO INDICES, MTF AND ACUTANCE, WHICH ARE RECOMMENDED AS ALTERNATIVE CRITERIA FOR SPECIFYING THE REQUIRED PERFORMANCE OF IMAGING DEVICES. THE REPORT DETAILS FULLY THE ABOVE EXPERIMENTATION AND PRESENTS MINIMUM ACCEPTABLE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS FOR DIFFERENT FACE SIZES AND VIEWING DISTANCES. (SNI ABSTRACT)