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Our research has made an outstanding contribution to the ability of police forces to apprehend criminal suspects, particularly in cases of serious violent crime. EvoFIT is a facial composite system (software and procedures), designed to help victims and witnesses of crime to create a likeness of the perpetrator's face. It was conceived by Professor Peter Hancock in the mid-1990s and has been developed into an effective system that is in use by police forces across the UK and abroad. Forces using EvoFIT have actively collaborated with assessment of the system, and evidence from field trials clearly demonstrates the impact: a world-leading 25-60% of composites made with EvoFIT directly lead to an arrest, four times better than the best previous system used by police forces. Our novel methods for interviewing witnesses and for presentation of composites have enhanced the success of EvoFIT, and are now incorporated in competitor composite systems used by other police forces.
This research, which examines police investigatory methods to identify police suspects has directly increased suspect identification rates by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). It led to the MPS establishing a register of `super-recognisers' - officers particularly skilled at identifying faces from CCTV footage - and changed practices. Dissemination of the research, also well-publicised in the media, has influenced national policy makers. There is worldwide interest and secured European funding for a test to identify super-recognisers amongst police cohorts. The research is also improving recognition of EFIT-V images, the facial composite system used by most UK police forces. Dr Davis is disseminating his findings through the training course that operators have to complete to be certified to produce composites in real police investigations. He is also contributing to economic impact by enhancing the EFIT-V product.
Research in biometrics carried out at Surrey since 1995 has generated IP relating to a number of aspects of automatic face recognition, which resulted in significant performance improvement, rendering this biometric technology commercially exploitable.
The advances made at Surrey include illumination invariant imaging, face detection/localisation using robust correlation, innovative face skin texture representation using a multiscale local binary pattern descriptor, a patented (and exceptionally compact) person specific discriminant analysis, facial component based matching, and patented multi-algorithmic fusion.
Through an IP agreement, these innovations have been commercially exploited by the University spinout company OmniPerception, which has developed products for various security applications.
Research conducted within the School of Physical Sciences (SPS) at the University of Kent has led to the development and successful commercialisation of facial identification software named EFIT-V. First sold in 2007, this software is now used by more than 70 police forces internationally and has revolutionized the way eyewitnesses and victims of crime create computerised facial likenesses of offenders. These images are circulated to police intelligence units, and the general public, leading to the identification and arrests of offenders. Police Identification rates have jumped from 5% to 55% as a result of this software. With a current annual turnover exceeding £250K, which is projected to reach £600K by 2015, Kent spinout company Visionmetric has made significant impact with EFIT-V, and achieved a position of commercial dominance in the UK, and around the world.
Professor Tim Valentine is an expert in facial identification by eyewitnesses. His research has proved that video lineups provide more reliable evidence than live lineups. It has contributed to changes in the legal code of practice for eyewitness identification. He has trained hundreds of police officers and lawyers in the problems of witness identification, and acted as an expert witness in criminal cases. High-profile cases include Abdel Basset al-Megrahi (the Lockerbie bomber), Barry George (wrongly convicted of Jill Dando's murder) and Omar Deghayes, a British resident detained in Guantanamo Bay.
Following the North Sea Piper Alpha oil rig accident in 1988 and subsequent Cullen inquiry, new and safer maintenance procedures were introduced. One of the most significant changes was the restriction in the use of welding repairs (hot work) in the maintenance of plant and pipework due to the risk of fire and explosion. Research at Newcastle provided a novel engineering model that formed the basis for implementation of a new repair technology. This used fibre reinforced polymer wraps to restore the integrity of pipes without `hot work' or any interruption of production, thus minimising operational costs and increasing worker safety. This new technology has now become industry standard with new ISO and ASME standards for pipeline repair established as mandatory standards in 2006 and 2008 respectively (ISO/TS 24817 — Composite repairs for pipework; and ASME PCC-2, Repair of pressure vessels and piping). The period 2008-2013 has seen considerable expansion, worldwide, of an industry offering materials and support services to enable composite repairs to be designed and carried out.
Our impact on the theory and practice of biometrics (identification of individuals through measurement/analysis of their physiological/behavioural characteristics) embraces contributions to technological development, to general systems-level principles and to public policy and professionalisation issues. Our research and consequent engagement across the stakeholder community has impacted on the technological development of practical biometrics through take-up by industry (e.g. InMezzo, one of the UK's leading secure information specialists, has enhanced identity authentication procedures), company spinout (the EFIT-V facial recognition suite from VisionMetric Ltd fundamentally changed the means by which facial composites are created and is now used by more than 85% of Britain's Police Forces), leadership of the development of standards for the expanding commercial marketplace (e.g. establishment of standards for image acquisition for e-passports and other access control applications) and policy-level input to Government and International Professional Bodies, providing long-term support for practical deployment and end- user engagement (the Biometrics Assurance Group with Fairhurst as an independent member reported the security risk and problems identifying fingerprints within the UK government's £5.6bn ID card scheme proposal).
The development of a robust criminal justice system is vital in any civilised society and benefits victims, witnesses, police, suspects, and the general public. Research in the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London has investigated fundamental principles underlying memory retrieval in the context of criminal justice scenarios in which memory may be particularly vulnerable. This research has had major impacts on the way in which police interview witnesses to a crime, and on the way in which video identification parades are conducted. It has also led indirectly to significant developments in the way in which evidence from very young children is treated in court.
Prosopagnosia, or the inability to recognise faces, affects one person in 50, but public and professional awareness of the condition is low. Bournemouth University (BU) established The Centre for Face Processing Disorders (CFPD) to provide cognitive screening and training programmes to improve recognition skills for affected adults and children. The centre has grown significantly and, having tested over 100 people for prosopagnosia, now treats 30 adults and 10 children through cognitive training and clinical treatment. While patient numbers are moderate to date, the service is unique in the UK and has provided proof of concept for a scalable prosopagnosia diagnosis and a treatment approach. This includes protocols for different conditions including Autism and Moebius syndrome. In addition, the CFPD has orchestrated policy changes within significant health organisations and charities.