Footy recognition: fight against crime

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netizens

Petraco, Nicholas D. K.1,2 <npetraco@jjay.cuny.edu>,Gambino, Carol, Kubic, Thomas A., Olivio, Dayhana, and Petraco, Nicholas 2010 Journal of Forensic Sciences (Blackwell Publishing Limited); Jan2010, Vol. 55 Issue 1, p34-41, 8p

Abstract
In the field of forensic footwear examination, it is a widely held belief that patterns of accidental marks found on footwear and footwear impressions possess a high degree of “uniqueness.” This belief, however, has not been thoroughly studied in a numerical way using controlled experiments. As a result, this form of valuable physical evidence has been the subject of admissibility challenges. In this study, we apply statistical techniques used in facial pattern recognition, to a minimal set of information gleaned from accidental patterns. That is, in order to maximize the amount of potential similarity between patterns, we only use the coordinate locations of accidental marks (on the top portion of a footwear impression) to characterize the entire pattern. This allows us to numerically gauge how similar two patterns are to one another in a worst-case scenario, i.e., in the absence of a tremendous amount of information normally available to the footwear examiner such as accidental mark size and shape. The patterns were recorded from the top portion of the shoe soles (i.e., not the heel) of five shoe pairs. All shoes were the same make and model and all were worn by the same person for a period of 30 days. We found that in 20–30 dimensional principal component (PC) space (99.5% variance retained), patterns from the same shoe, even at different points in time, tended to cluster closer to each other than patterns from different shoes. Correct shoe identification rates using maximum likelihood linear classification analysis and the hold-one-out procedure ranged from 81% to 100%. Although low in variance, three-dimensional PC plots were made and generally corroborated the findings in the much higher dimensional PC-space. This study is intended to be a starting point for future research to build statistical models on the formation and evolution of accidental patterns.

toeslayer

 

I am an undergraduate podiatry student (Bachelor of Health) from the Netherlands. As the goevrnment in the Netherlands is interested in Forensic Podiatry and future applicability within the Dutch legal system, we have started doing scientific literature research in the area of Forensic Podiatry, particularly interested in the British, Canadian and American model, the history, technical research and techniques and other topics in the Forensic Podiatry area. As we are interested in exploring applicability of Forensic Podiatry in the Netherlands within the Dutch legal system, we'll have to understand Forensic Podiatry how it works in other countrys. We are going to write a thesis on this subject in which we want to give a good and overall impression of Forensic Podiatry and investigation techniques. I am still looking for more information about footwear impression evidence and identification, the science and technology of Forensic Podiatry, barefoot impressions in Forensic Podiatry, forensic methods, footprints, biomechanics, etc. I am very interested in your study, is it possible to send me more information? I would be very grateful if you could help me. Hopefully we'll be hearing soon from you. Thank you very much for your attention.

Podo-nl

 

podo-nl

I am a forensic sexologist (as well as other things) and my area of interest is paraphilic fetishism and restifism. As a freelance writer I happen accross papers of interest and pass them on in good faith.

There are several UK pods directly involved with mainstream forensic podiatry and would be able to help you. Bill Kerr is based in Edinburgh and Gordon Burrows works at Glasgow Caladonian University, both have a track record as 'expert witnesses' and Bill has several publication in the area of forensic footprints. Unfortunatley I do not have a direct contact for them but you will be able to contact Bill through Evelyn Weir <EWeir@qmu.ac.uk>; and Gordon through Christine Skinner <C.Skinner@gcu.ac.uk>.

There are several others in the UK and US with many pods now acting as 'expert witnesses.' One of the most famous trials in NZ involved the evidence from a podiatrist and of course the OJ Simpson trial had forensic podiatry input. Dr Sara Jones is based at the University of South Australia <Sara.Jones@unisa.edu.au > and is an acknowledged forensic podiatrist who is also the dorector of studies in the podiatry divison of the university.

Try contacting them and am sure they will be happy to assist you.

Cheers
toeslayer
.'

 

Thanks!