Michigan State University researchers have created an automatic image retrieval system, whereby law enforcement agencies will be able to match scars, marks and tattoos to identify suspects and victims.
The Tattoo-ID, system – developed by a team led by Anil Jain, an MSU computer science and engineering professor – is a software program that includes an annotated database containing images of scars, marks and tattoos, provided by law enforcement agencies.
Each tattoo image in the database is linked to the criminal history records of all the suspects and convicts who have a tattoo. If users, like police officers, provide a tattoo image query, the system automatically retrieves the most similar tattoo images from the database along with the linked criminal history records.
The system matches a suspect or a victim’s distinguishing marks against a database and determines the suspect’s identity with very high accuracy. While a scar, mark or tattoo cannot uniquely identify a person, it can help the authorities narrow down the list of potential identities; it can indicate membership in a gang, social and religious group or military unit.
“The number of people getting tattoos is rapidly growing. About 20 percent of the population has at least one tattoo, and this percentage is even higher among delinquents,” Jain said. “In fact, many gangs have a unique membership tattoo. So, with the rising popularity of tattoos, it makes sense to put these markers to good use.”
Jain said that if an officer arrests a person who does not have any identifying documents and uses an alias, but has a tattoo belonging to a known gang, the tattoo gives additional evidence to identify which group this person belongs to. The system will help law enforcement agencies to quickly identify and apprehend criminal suspects.
Jain’s team is continuing its research to improve the tattoo image matching performance in collaboration with the Michigan State Police Identification Section, which has provided him access to its large tattoo image database.
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