Crime-fighting Tool Identifies Suspicious Individuals at Crime Scenes

It's become a standard plot device of television detective shows: criminals returning to the scene of the crime. And law enforcement officials believe that perpetrators of certain crimes, most notably arson, do indeed have an inclination to witness their handiwork. Also, U.S. military in the Middle East feel that IED bomb makers return to see the results of their work in order to evolve their designs.

Now a team of University of Notre Dame biometrics experts are developing a crime-fighting tool that can help law enforcement officials identify suspicious individuals at crime scenes.

Kevin Bowyer and Patrick Flynn of Notre Dame's Computer Science and Engineering Department have been researching the feasibility of image-based biometrics since 2001, including first-of-their-kind comparisons of face photographs, face thermograms, 3-D face images, iris images, videos of human gait, and even ear and hand shapes.

While attending a meeting in Washington, D.C, Bowyer listened as military and national security experts discussed the need for a tool to help identify IED bombers in the Middle East.

He decided to join forces with Flynn and Jeremiah Barr, a doctoral student in computer science and engineering, to tackle the challenge he heard expressed at the Washington meeting. The researchers developed a "Questionable Observer Detector (QuOD)" to identify individuals who repeatedly appear in video taken of bystanders at crime scenes.

The challenge was especially daunting because the researchers lacked a data base to compare faces against. Also, many times crime scene videos are shot by witnesses using handheld videos and are often of poor quality. Additionally, many criminals try to disguise their appearance in various ways.

In response, the Notre Dame team focused on an automatic facial recognition tool that didn't need to match people against an existing database of known identities. Instead, Bowyer, Flynn and Barr create "face tracks" for all individuals appearing in a video and repeat the process for all available video clips. The face tracks are compared to determine if any faces from different video clips look similar enough to match each other. When the technology spots a match, it adds it to a group of video appearances featuring just that person. In this way, it attempts to cluster together the pieces of different video clips that represent the same person.

An individual is considered suspicious if he or she appears too frequently in the set of videos. The "too many" number is determined by law enforcement officials based on the number of crimes and videos available.

Although the technology shows great promise, Bowyer, Flynn and Barr admit they still have serious technical challenges they are working to overcome. Optimum facial recognition technology requires high quality lighting and video resolution, which is often unavailable at crime scenes. Also, people may not be looking directly at the camera in video of crowds of bystanders. And the identification of a questionable observer becomes more computationally demanding in cases where there a large number of videos to be analyzed.

The researchers are confident, however, that these challenges can be overcome and are continuing to work to improve their system. They are also confident that civil liberties concerns are minimized and positive social benefit is invovled, given that the tool helps officials identify individuals by their actual presence at multiple crime scenes rather than by suspicion.

Featured

  • Until We Meet Again

    A short three years ago we were all pondering whether to attend any tradeshows all thanks to COVID-19. Sorry to bring that nightmare up again, but it seems that little pandemic is in the rear-view mirror, and it’s time to meet again. Read Now

    • ISC West
  • Cyber Hygiene: What it Looks Like for IoT Devices

    Cyber Hygiene: What it Looks Like for IoT Devices

    For our second pillar about the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) Pillars of Security, we are going to discuss what cyber hygiene looks like for IoT devices. Read Now

  • ISC West Announces 2023 Keynote Series Speaker Lineup

    The International Security Conference (ISC), in collaboration with premier sponsor Security Industry Association (SIA), announced five of this year’s ISC West Keynote Series speakers. ISC West will kick off its annual conference on March 28 (SIA Education@ISC: March 28-30 | Exhibit Hall: March 29-31) at the Venetian Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada. Read Now

    • ISC West
  • Accelerating Security Modernization

    In recent years, the term “digital transformation” has been one of the most frequently used buzzwords across industries. On its most basic level, it refers to the reimagining of how an organization leverages its technology systems to improve business processes. Read Now

Featured Cybersecurity

New Products

  • SAFR® from RealNetworks

    SAFR® from RealNetworks

    A unique feature in SAFR version 3.4 is its ability to automate alerts to security personnel when a spoofing attempt or a fraudulent attempt to gain access is detected. 3

  • VideoEdge 2U High Capacity Network Video Recorder

    VideoEdge 2U High Capacity Network Video Recorder

    Johnson Controls announces a powerful recording solution to meet demanding requirements with its VideoEdge 2U High Capacity Network Video Recorder. This solution combines the powerful capabilities of victor with the intelligence of VideoEdge NVRs, fueled by Tyco Artificial Intelligence, for video management that provides actionable insights to save time, money and lives. 3

  • ALTO Neoxx Electronic Padlock

    ALTO Neoxx Electronic Padlock

    Built to withstand all access control needs, the tough new SALTO Neoxx electronic padlock takes security beyond your expectations. 3