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Shoeprint Recognition and Analysis Technology (SPRAT)
"…There is no branch of detective science that is so important and so much neglected as the art of tracing footsteps" (Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet).
Police powers under the UK Serious and Organised Crime Bill (2005) has made shoeprint evidence comparable to that of fingerprint and DNA evidence.. There is, however, no practical technology to search shoeprints on the expected increased scale of activity. The focus of this initial study will be to address this practical need in the field of crime and will identify of suitable image processing and pattern recognition techniques for the robust analysis and matching of shoeprints.
A comprehensive, automated shoeprint system needs to consider and integrate three levels of analysis, namely:
- Global shoe properties: That is, identifying a shoeprint as, say, a heavily worn, size 12 trainer.
- Shoe classification: That a shoeprint was made by a particular make/model of shoe (e.g. an Adidas Chile Lite)
- Shoe recognition: To confirm a match between a shoeprint recovered from the scene of crime and a suspect’s property.
Each level requires a different variety of image analysis techniques from robust geometric and texture feature detectors to detailed correlation of distinctive minutiae and their spatial arrangement. These manifold challenges together with the present impoverished state of footwear analysis worldwide justifies the need for an extended feasibility study.
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