Objective: To classify ‘habitual posture’ as a ‘unique identifier’, for forensic application to identify ‘Person of Interest’ (POI) in motion from Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) images.
Method: Following Honours study (Wright 2012) determining ‘habitual posture’ as a distinct variable of the body, possibility of it being unique will be explored through increasing subject numbers and widening population groups. Robust data will be generated and statistical correlations calculated between postural predominance for race, sex, age and somatotype. Development and trialling of novel 3D scanning techniques will determine its potential use for collecting forensic morphometric data of the body. To improve current ‘Body Mapping ‘techniques for identifying POI in motion from CCTV images, ‘Forensic Imaging’ protocols of quantifying and qualifying CCTV image distortions for forensic evidence will be investigated through case studies of known and unknown subjects.
Results: To date, assessment of subjects in motion on CCTV footage indicated that quantitative distortion is present. Preliminary distortion quantification was trialled and applied to subject data to alleviate differences between reference images and CCTV footage. The results indicated this was an unviable method, thus further research and development is required to qualify CCTV images as forensic evidence.
Conclusions: Outlining limitations of current ‘Body Mapping’ techniques for identifying POI in motion from CCTV images has led to the research and development of a novel idea of incorporating ‘habitual posture’ as a unique identifier. Preliminary studies have revealed: [1] the presence of sexual dimorphism and pure somatotypic predominance, however, increased data to explore age, race and combination somatotypes is required, and [2] the existence of variables to quantify CCTV image distortions from which to qualify CCTV images as forensic evidence.