Fast Forensic Test Can Match Suspects’ DNA with Crime Samples in 4 Hours
Crime-solving may get a boost using a new test that can match suspects' DNA with that of samples from crime scenes in just four hours. (Credit: iStock)
A newly developed test could make checking DNA from people arrested for crimes with DNA samples from crime scenes stored in forensic databases almost as easy as matching fingerprints. With the test, police could check on whether a person’s DNA matches that found at past crime scenes while suspects are still being processed and before a decision on whether to release them on bail. A report on the fast forensic test appears in the ACS’ Analytical Chemistry, a semi-monthly journal.
Andrew Hopwood, Frederic Zenhausern, and colleagues explain that some criminals are arrested, spend less than a day in jail, and then commit crimes while they are out on bail. If police could quickly test the suspects’ DNA, to see if their genetic material matches entries in crime databases, they may be able to keep the most dangerous people locked up. But currently, most genetic tests take 24-72 hours, and by the time that the results are back, the suspects often have been released. (more…)
Handwriting-Based Tool Offers Alternate Lie Detection Method
For ages experts and laymen have been analyzing and trying to crack the code of handwriting characteristics, in order to detect an individual’s personality traits, or in most cases, gauge their innocence in the case of a crime. Although this science has often gone the way of pseudoscience, researchers are now discovering that with the aid of a computerized tool, handwriting characteristics can be measured more effectively.
The research, headed by Gil Luria and Sara Rosenblum at the University of Haifa utilized a computerized tablet that measured the physical properties of the subject’s handwriting, which are difficult to consciously control (for example: the duration of time that the pen is on paper versus in the air, the length height and width of each writing stroke, the pressure implemented on the writing surface). They have found that these handwriting characteristics differ when an individual is in the process of writing deceptive sentences as opposed to truthful sentences.
The handwriting tool has the potential to replace, or work in tandem, with popular, verbal-based lie detection technology such as the polygraph to ensure greater accuracy and objectivity in law enforcement deception detection. Additionally, polygraphs are often intrusive to the subject and sometimes inconclusive. The handwriting tool therefore provides ease and increased accuracy over common, verbal-based methods.
Photo by RXAphotos. CC Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic
Enhanced Video Technology Will Aid Crime and Terror Investigations
Professor Leonid Yaroslavsky is a researcher at Tel Aviv University. (Credit: AFTAU)
It’s a frequent scene in television crime dramas: Clever police technicians zoom in on a security camera video to read a license plate or capture the face of a hold-up artist. But in real life, enhancing this low-quality video to focus in on important clues hasn’t been an easy task. Until now.
Prof. Leonid Yaroslavsky of Tel Aviv University and his colleagues have developed a new video “perfection tool” to help investigators enhance raw video images and identify suspects. Commissioned by a defense-related company to improve what the naked eye cannot see, the tool can be used with live video or with recordings, in color or black-and-white.
“This enhancement of resolution can be a critical factor in locating terrorists or identifying criminal suspects,” says Prof. Yaroslavsky. His team’s findings were recently published in Optical Letters and the Journal of Real Time Image Processing. (more…)
Loading... 
