Image Enhancement

Techniques for Forensic

Crime Scene Investigations

By:
Jordan Wenner
Jacob Petranek
ECE 533 Project: Image Enhancement on Forensics

Introduction:

The problem with collecting forensic evidence at a crime scene is that the evidence is
often masked behind backgrounds. This makes it difficult for extracting key components
from the evidence. Often times, the background color of the crime scene can overpower
the faint detail of the evidence. Types of evidence that this can occur on is with finger
prints and shoe prints at the crime scene. To correct this problem, image enhancement
techniques can be used to obtain the relevant information that is needed for the
investigators.

The first step for image enhancement in this type of situation is to remove the regular
patterns, or the background, from the image. The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is used
to remove the regular patterns from the image. An example of removing the background
through FFT is shown in figure 1, which shows a finger print on a form of currency. By
removing the wavy parts of the currency from the image, it’s easier to collect the finger
print.

Figure 1: Image before and after FFT to remove the background.

When a FFT is not suitable to the particular situation, the background can also be
removed by finding regular patterns on the image and subtracting them from the original.
This is done by finding a number of identifying marks on each image, lining the marks
up, and subtracting the two images. An example of background subtraction is given in

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ECE 533 Project: Image Enhancement on Forensics

figure 2 and 3. This image is better suited for image subtraction than for FFT because the
background is very complex and fairly random.

Figure 2: Image before image subtraction to remove the background

Figure 3: Image after image subtraction to remove the background

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ECE 533 Project: Image Enhancement on Forensics

Once the background has been removed, there are many options to enhance the image to
obtain the best possible picture of the forensic evidence. One such method is to invert the
image and adjust it for contrast. Other corrections such as brightness and gamma
adjustments can be applied if necessary.

Approach:

The general approach of this project is to acquire digital images of a plain background
without a finger print and with a finger print. These digital images will be used to
perform image subtraction.

Another task that will be performed is to replicate the enhancement of a digital image of a
shoeprint. Two approaches will be taken to compare which one enhances the image
better. Both will be done by taking the original digital image after image subtraction, and
inverting the values. This is done because of the original image being on a dark carpet
and the shoeprint being generated from a small amount of dust. Both images will also be
stretched for contrast and have gamma corrections performed on it. The difference
between the images is that one image will use histogram equalization to compare it with
the other image that hasn’t had this effect performed on it.

Work Performed:

The first task was programmed in MATLAB and the code can be seen for this program in
appendix A.

The second task was also programmed in MATLAB and the code for the program is
shown in appendix B.

Results:

The resulting figure for the first task is shown in figure 4. This image shows two original
images, one with a finger print and one without one, and subtracting the background from
the image with the finger print. This is done in hopes of isolating the finger print from
the background so that it will be easier to see.

This process didn’t turn out as well as hoped. The reason for this is the difficulty of
exactly lining up these images to do an exact pixel by pixel subtraction. In order to get
the pixels to line up correctly, the images must be taken at the exact distance and the
exact same shape. The original two images weren’t the same size, resulting in the left
one being cropped down to the pixel size of the left image. This resulted in parts of the
background still being present after image subtraction.

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ECE 533 Project: Image Enhancement on Forensics

Another approach that could have been used in doing background subtraction would have
been to make a finger print on an even background. However, by doing this, the exercise
would have been trivial and the desired results would have been easy to get.

Figure 4: Results from image subtraction

The resulting figures for the second task are shown in figure 5 and 6. The images in
figure 5 show image subtraction, with gamma correction and contrast stretching to further
enhance the image. The images in figure 6 go further than the ones shown in figure four.
The images in figure 6 do image subtraction, contrast stretching, gamma correction, and
histogram equalization. The shoeprint that shows up best with gamma correction occurs
at using a correction value of 2.1.

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ECE 533 Project: Image Enhancement on Forensics

Figure 5: Image Subtraction with gamma correction

Figure 6: Image subtraction, gamma correction, and histogram equalization

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ECE 533 Project: Image Enhancement on Forensics

Discussion:

Originally, our plan was to take a forensic image and perform use FFT and image
enhancement to get similar outcomes that have been achieved by the Image-Pro Plus
application available through MediaCybernetics. However, in performing a FFT on the
images posted on MediaCybernetics website, we were unable to get the same results the
company was. We did not take initially take into account that we would need to know
exactly what frequencies would need to be eliminated through a FFT and IFFT process to
eliminate the background. For this reason, we went to another option of performing
image subtraction by creating two images with similar background, but one image having
a finger print added to it.

Conclusion:

Image enhancement is a key tool for forensic investigators when searching for evidence
at a crime scene. It can be invaluable for evidence that is faint and tough to make out. It
is usually necessary for investigators to be able to get rid of the background, which can
be done by FFT or background subtraction. Finally, investigators can use many different
options for further enhancement, including gamma corrections, contrast stretching, and
histogram equalization. By doing these following methods, forensic investigators can
obtain the best possible evidence from a crime scene.

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ECE 533 Project: Image Enhancement on Forensics

References:

1. Dalrymple, Brian, Shaw, Len, Woods, Keith. “Optimized Digital Recording of

Crime Scene Impressions.” Journal of Forensic Identification. 750 / 52 (6), 2002.

<http://www.mediacy.com/apps/crimescenerecording.pdf>

2. Dalrymple, Brian. “Background subtraction through exhibit substitution.”

Journal of Forensic Identification. 54 (2), 2004 \ 157.

<http://www.mediacy.com/apps/backgrnd_sub_forensics.pdf>

3. “Image Analysis in Action: Image-Pro Plus Forensic Image Enhancement

Examples.” <http://www.mediacy.com/apps/enhance.htm>

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ECE 533 Project: Image Enhancement on Forensics

Tasks performed and contributions:

Jordan:
1. Wrote the second program in Matlab
2. Worked on the first program in Matlab
3. Worked on presentation

Total Contribution = 50%

Jacob:
1. Created the final report.
2. Worked on the first program in Matlab
3. Worked on the presentation

Total Contribution = 50%

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ECE 533 Project: Image Enhancement on Forensics

Appendix A:

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% Image Subtraction
%
% This will read in two separate pictures, one with and without a finger
% print.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

% Read in both files

print = imread('ece533_treePrint.jpg');
noprint = imread('ece533_treeNoPrint.jpg');
white = imread('ece533_white_image_1992x1362.jpg');

% Convert both pictures to grayscale

grayPrint = rgb2gray(print);
grayNoPrint = rgb2gray(noprint);
grayWhite = rgb2gray(white);

% Subtract the image without a finger print from the image with one.
result = imsubtract(grayPrint, grayNoPrint);
invertResult = imsubtract(grayWhite, result);

% Show the result

%figure1();
subplot(2,2,1), imshow(noprint), title('Original image without a finger print');
subplot(2,2,2), imshow(print), title('Original image with a finger print');
subplot(2,2,3), imshow(result), title('The result of background subtraction');
subplot(2,2,4), imshow(invertResult), title('The inverted result of background
subtraction');

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ECE 533 Project: Image Enhancement on Forensics

Appendix B:

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% General Enhancement
%
% This program does gamma enhancement and gamma enhancement with histogram
% equalization with a number of different parameters to get the best results.
%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

clear all

%read in the image of footprint

i=imread('project1.jpg');
imshow(i);

%read in the image with all pixel values equal to 255

white=imread('white.jpg');
imshow(white);

%create an image negative of the footprint

id=rgb2gray(i);
ineg=imsubtract(white,id);
imshow(ineg)
imwrite(ineg, 'project1_neg.jpg', 'jpg');

%stretch the contrast of the negative image

jneg=imadjust(ineg,stretchlim(ineg),[]);
imshow(ineg),title('negative image'), figure, imshow(jneg), title('contrast stretched
negative image');
pause

%perform gamma correction, try different perimeters to obtain best result

jgamma1=imadjust(jneg, [], [], 0.3);
jgamma2=imadjust(jneg, [], [], 1.5);
jgamma3=imadjust(jneg, [], [], 3);
jgamma4=imadjust(jneg, [], [], 2.1);

subplot(2,2,1), imshow(jgamma1), title('gamma=0.3'),

subplot(2, 2, 2),imshow(jgamma2), title('gamma=1.5'),
subplot(2, 2, 3), imshow(jgamma3), title('gamma=3'),
subplot(2, 2, 4), imshow(jgamma4), title('gamma=2.1');
pause
imwrite(jgamma4, 'project1_gamma.jpg', 'jpg');

%Try another enhancement method by using histogram equalization

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ECE 533 Project: Image Enhancement on Forensics

h=histeq(jneg);
imshow(h);

%then perform gamma correction

hgamma1=imadjust(h, [], [], .85);
hgamma2=imadjust(h, [], [], .45);
hgamma3=imadjust(h, [], [], .25);
hgamma4=imadjust(h, [], [], .35);
subplot(2, 2, 1), imshow(hgamma1), title('gamma=0.85'),
subplot(2, 2, 2),imshow(hgamma2), title('gamma=0.45'),
subplot(2, 2, 3), imshow(hgamma3), title('gamma=0.2'),
subplot(2, 2, 4), imshow(hgamma4), title('gamma=0.35');
pause
imwrite(hgamma4, 'project1_gamma_histeq.jpg', 'jpg');

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