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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.
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.
Frowd's research aims to understand the extent to which witnesses and victims of crime construct accurate facial composites (pictures of criminal's faces), and to develop techniques which maximize the effectiveness of composites, thus allowing the police to identify as many offenders as possible using this type of forensic evidence. The principal impact involves a software system (EvoFIT), a new interview (Holistic-Cognitive Interview, H-CI) and two formats (animated caricature and stretched composite) for the police to publish composites in the media. In the audit period, these advancements have been used by police forces in the UK, US, Romania and Israel.