In:
PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science (PLoS), Vol. 16, No. 8 ( 2021-8-18), p. e0255630-
Abstract:
Footprints are left, or obtained, in a variety of scenarios from crime scenes to anthropological investigations. Determining the sex of a footprint can be useful in screening such impressions and attempts have been made to do so using single or multi landmark distances, shape analyses and via the density of friction ridges. Here we explore the relative importance of different components in sexing two-dimensional foot impressions namely, size, shape and texture. We use a machine learning approach and compare this to more traditional methods of discrimination. Two datasets are used, a pilot data set collected from students at Bournemouth University (N = 196) and a larger data set collected by podiatrists at Sheffield NHS Teaching Hospital (N = 2677). Our convolutional neural network can sex a footprint with accuracy of around 90% on a test set of N = 267 footprint images using all image components, which is better than an expert can achieve. However, the quality of the impressions impacts on this success rate, but the results are promising and in time it may be possible to create an automated screening algorithm in which practitioners of whatever sort (medical or forensic) can obtain a first order sexing of a two-dimensional footprint.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
1932-6203
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0255630
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0255630.g001
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0255630.g002
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0255630.g003
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0255630.g004
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0255630.g005
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0255630.g006
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0255630.t001
DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0255630.t002
Language:
English
Publisher:
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Publication Date:
2021
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2267670-3
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