Title: New methodology in facial composite construction: from theory to practice

Authors: Stuart J. Gibson, Chris J. Solomon, Matthew I.S. Maylin, Clifford Clark

Addresses: School of Physical Sciences, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NH, UK. ' School of Physical Sciences, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NH, UK. ' School of Physical Sciences, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NH, UK. ' Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK

Abstract: Existing commercial, computerised techniques for constructing facial composites generated from eyewitness memory are essentially electronic versions of the original, mechanical feature-based systems such as PhotoFIT and Identikit. The effectiveness of this feature-based approach is fundamentally limited by the witness|s ability to recall and verbalise accurate descriptions of facial features from memory. Recent advances in facial composite methodology have led to software systems that do not rely on this process but instead exploit a cognitively less demanding process of recognition. We provide a technical overview of the EFIT-V system, currently being used by a number of police services in the UK.

Keywords: E-FIT; EFIT-V; facial composites; facial construction; holistic; facial recognition; UK; United Kingdom; facial reconstruction; facial appearance; facial features; criminal investigations; global facial characteristics; whole face characteristics; face images; witness recollection.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESDF.2009.024900

International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics, 2009 Vol.2 No.2, pp.156 - 168

Published online: 03 May 2009 *

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