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PRESS RELEASES:

New Partnership for WOLF and IFI

RECENT NEWS:

ATTENTION NURSES!

A FREE forensic training program will be held on May 5th and May 6th at the Carmel Monon Center sponsored by the Indiana Chapter of the International Association of Forensic Nurses and the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute. The conference will feature Dr. Jenifer Markowitz on May 5th presenting the role of Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners in Domestic Violence Cases. On May 6th, the IFI will present the topic of forensic photography, and Rafia Zakari will present Culture Compassion and Domestic Violence. For additional information and how to register, please submit an inquiry to dvconference.dv@gmail.com, and a brochure will be returned to you.

Strategic Alliance

In July 2009, IFI and Wolf Technical Services, Inc. agreed to join forces and to do so in a way that preserves each company’s identity.  Wolf Technical is an established forensic engineering and development company and IFI is a not-for profit training and research company.  Both will remain as such.  However, the new executive director of IFI, Mr. Joseph Ward is vice president of business development for Wolf Technical.  Mr. Herbert Blitzer, former executive director of IFI will stay on doing training and research. 
IFI is now co located with Wolf Technical and synergies are arising for both participants in the form of complementary skills and equipment.  This new website design was largely due to the expertise of Mr. Joseph Weber of Wolf Technical and several of the instructors on the new course listing are Wolf Technical employees.  IFI is starting a project for the National Institute of Standards and Technology regarding Video Quality in Public Safety, and that project will involve both IFI and Wolf Technical personnel.  So the newly formed strategic alliance is expected to produce good, synergistic gains for both companies.

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 Article Selected for Publication

In February of 2009, the special committee formed by the National Academy of Science to study the needs of forensic science released their report.  In general they found that for certain disciplines within the whole field of forensic science, more rigorous science was needed.  In particular they paid attention to image-based comparisons such as fingerprints, blood spatter, and bitemarks.  Dr. Jay A. Siegel, director of the Forensic and Investigative Science Program at IUPUI was a member of the special committee. 

In parallel with the NAS study and independent of it, the Indiana Forensic Institute was working on a project to estimate the probability of a match in bitemarks.  This project had been funded by the National Institute of Justice, a branch of the US Department of Justice: Grant # 2006-DN-BX-K252, “Probability of a Match in Bitemarks”.  That project was completed and reported at the annual educational conference of the American Academy of Forensic Science in February, 2009. 

Following the presentation, a technical paper was written and submitted to the Journal of Forensic Science.  It has now been accepted for publication in the March 2011 issue of that journal.  The title of the paper will be: A Framework for Estimating Probability of a Match in Forensic Bite Mark Identification, by Mihran Tuceryan, PhD Department of Computer & Information Science, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), 723 W. Michigan St, SL 280K, Indianapolis, IN 46202, Fang Li, PhD Department Math and Statistics, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), 402N. Blackford Street, LD270, Indianapolis, IN 46202, Herbert L. Blitzer, MBA, Indiana Forensic Institute, 9855 Crosspoint Boulevard, Suite 126, Indianapolis, IN 46256, Edwin T. Parks, DMD, MS and Jeffrey A. Platt, DDS, Indiana University School of Dentistry, 1121 West Michigan Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202

There are two key aspects to the study.  The first involves the use of three-dimensional photography and the second involves mathematics to convert image information into probability.  Typically in a bitemark case, there is a bitemark on the victim and a dental impression of the suspect’s teeth is made.  Both the impression and the bitemark are photographed and compared visually.  A specially trained dentist determines if the given teeth made the given mark.  It is a largely subjective process – which is the problem found by the special committee.  In the IFI project, the impression is photographed using a true, 3-D camera and a mathematical model of the impression is created inside a computer.  The photo of the bitemark is also entered into the computer.  The system then has the dental impression model intersect a plane at several angles and depths to create silhouettes.  Each silhouette is compared to the bite mark and the one with the best fit is selected. 
The final step is to use special mathematical formulae to determine, from the goodness of fit, the probability that the set of teeth made the bite.  The intent is to provide the forensic dentist with a tool he can use to add a probability statement to his physiological analysis and opinion.  Just what the National Academy of Sciences is seeking. 
Apart from the 3-D photography, the mathematics used to estimate a probability of a match between images is key.  The basic approach could probably be applied to disciplines such as footwear impressions, ballistics, and fingerprints.