Estimating the Skull‐to‐Camera Distance from Facial Photographs for Craniofacial Superimposition

The overlay of a skull and a face image for identification purposes requires similar subject‐to‐camera distances (SCD) to be used at both photographic sessions so that differences in perspective do not compromise the anatomical comparisons. As the facial photograph is the reference standard, it is crucial to determine its SCD first and apply this value to photography of the skull. So far, such a method for estimating the SCD has been elusive (some say impossible), compromising the technical validity of the superimposition procedure. This paper tests the feasibility of using the palpebral fissure length and a well‐established photographic algorithm to accurately estimate the SCD from the facial photograph. Recordings at known SCD across a 1–10 m range (repeated under two test conditions) demonstrate that the newly formulated method works: a mean SCD estimation error of 7% that translates into <1% perspective distortion error between estimated and actual conditions.     

Diary of an astronaut: examination of the remains of the late Israeli astronaut Colonel Ilan Ramon's Crew Notebook recovered after the loss of NASA's space shuttle Columbia

Two months after the fatal re-entering into the Earth's atmosphere of Columbia flight STS-107, the remains of Israeli astronaut Colonel Ilan Ramon's Crew Notebook were found strewn in a field in San Augustine County, TX. The random pile of papers was found to have survived the calamity of the Shuttle's disintegration remarkably well. Most of the papers recovered were torn and/or washed out to varying degrees but only mildly charred around the edges. The sheets of paper could be categorized into four groups: Group I: eight sides of paper written while in space in black ink and in pencil--Ramon's personal diary; the writing on these eight sides of paper survived well and is only missing where the pages were torn. Small fragments found in the field were physically matched to holes in the pages thus locating their original positions in the text. Group II: six sides of technical preparation notes written by Ramon before the mission. The writing on these pages was washed out entirely, but much of it was visualized using infrared luminescence. Group III: eight sides of personal notes prepared by Ramon before the mission written in blue ink. The writing on these pages was barely visible to the naked eye and not visualized by infrared luminescence, but was made largely legible by digital enhancement imaging. Group IV: a few sides of printed technical information. These pages were mostly intact and were not examined at length as they contained standard printed material. After completion of examinations at the Questioned Document Laboratory of the Israel Police, the diary was transferred to the Paper Conservation Department of the Israel Museum for preservation and strengthening treatments.     

近红外照相显现深色衣料上血迹的实验研究

目的运用近红外反射照相技术,显现深色衣料上的全血及稀释血迹。方法取单个体人全血,用纯净水分别以1∶4、1∶8、1∶16、1∶32比例稀释,并立即将稀释血及全血分别滴落在10种组份共21块深色衣料上,使其自然干燥形成血迹,用普通数码相机及专业红外数码相机,分别对血迹进行拍照获取彩色图像及红外黑白图像。结果红外照相显现血迹优于彩色图像;不同衣料相同浓度稀释血迹的红外图像存在差异;相同衣料不同浓度血迹的红外图像亦有所不同。结论近红外红外照相可以很好地显现深色衣料上的血迹,血迹的红外图像形状有助于判断是否为稀释血液所形成;血液浓度对红外显现结果的影响较大。     

现场摄影图片资料在案件侦破中的应用价值研究

案件现场摄影是案件现场勘查的一项工作内容,是固定现场客观状态的必经程序。案件现场摄影图片资料,是案件现场记录的重要组成部分,与现场笔录、现场绘图相互补充、相互印证。正确认识现场摄影图片资料的价值,有助于在案件侦查与调查、证据保全与搜集、法庭调查与审判等各个诉讼环节上,发挥案件现场摄影图片资料应有的重要作用。     

高速瞬间摄影在物证检验中的应用实验

目的采用声、光、电瞬间感应触发的高速闪光成像装置,以普通数码相机拍摄物证瞬间变化形态,提高物证检验的有效性、客观性;方法研制专用摄影装置,包括触发装置、延时器和超高速闪光灯等组件。进行物证瞬间状态摄影实验,研究运动物体瞬间形态的拍照技术方法;结果本实验装置原理简单、有效。最高记录瞬间成像速度小于0.5μm。可以用于常规物证瞬间变化的成像摄影记录。     

The Effects of High Dynamic Range on Fingerprint Images Processed by Photoshop

High dynamic range (HDR) imaging is a function that combines five images with different exposures into a single image. This technique may provide fine ridge details of fingerprint images for forensic latent fingerprint examination. Therefore, viewing fingerprints under optimal conditions is of paramount importance. This paper analyzes HDR and non‐HDR photos by using the Michelson contrast formula. The Michelson formula will provide a measurement to determine whether better contrast between the background and print can be achieved using the HDR function and if the background color affects the quality of the images. Two hypothesis were tested: (i) the HDR image provides more details of fingerprints with a better tone, greater clarity, and contrast than a normally exposed image regardless of the background color; (ii) the background color does not affect the quality of HDR fingerprint images overall, but the multi‐color background may increase the contrast of HDR fingerprint images in some cases.     

North American field guide: Kenneth Pietrobono's queer landscape of US Empire

“North American field guide: Kenneth Pietrobono's queer landscape of US Empire” offers a meditation on the photographic and exhibition strategies of Queens-based artist Kenneth Pietrobono. Chambers-Letson argues that Pietrobono builds a critique of the imperial and exclusionary practices of the US state by appropriating and (re)deploying the state's appurtenances of power, resignifying the landscape on which US nationalism is constructed and over which US power is exercised. As a point of critical entry, Pietrobono builds upon feminist and queer representational strategies, refusing direct figuration of the body while emphasizing the body of the spectator in the art encounter. Inviting the spectator to project a range of bodies into the landscapes that Pietrobono offers up, the artist asks the spectator to make connections between embodied experiences of race, gender, and sexual difference and the exercise and expansion of US Empire.     

Differentiation between inks of the same brand by infrared luminescence photography of their thin-layer chromatograms

A case is reported involving a U.S. Treasury check with an altered amount payable. The ink in the alteration and the ink in the endorsement signature were compared with ink from three Skilcraft ball pens all having Skilcraft black ink ball pen refills. Infrared luminescence photography of their thin-layer chromatograms revealed differences between the inks in the three pens.     

“Like photographs of ghosts”: representing post-apartheid South Africa in Ivan Vladislavić’s Double Negative

The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) heard its first testimony in April of 1996. Two years later, in 1998, the first volume of the report of the commission was published. While it aims to be a document representing closure in terms of the history of apartheid, the TRC report is rife with gaps and omissions across the long history of apartheid. Approaching this history and its legacy in literary prose, Ivan Vladislavi?’s Double Negative (2010) serves as a counter-history to the TRC’s narrative of closure. Extending formal strategies from his earlier works, including composite literary form and performative modes of writing, Vladislavi? employs photography and ghosts within his text to unsettle official history and to offer a melancholic approach to the past of apartheid and its ongoing effects in post-apartheid South Africa.     

“Our biggest killer”: multimodal discourse representations of dementia in the British press

A recent (2016) Office for National Statistics report stated that dementia is now “the leading cause of death” in England and Wales. Ever fixated with the syndrome (an unfailingly newsworthy topic), the British press was quick to respond to the bulletin, consistently headlining that dementia was the nation’s “biggest killer,” while (re)formulating other aspects of the report in distorting and emotive metaphorical terms. In this paper we examine how the media, through use of a recurring set of linguistic and visual semiotic tropes, portrayed dementia as an agentive entity, a “killer,” which remorselessly attacks its “victims.” Such a broadly loaded and sensationalist representation, we argue, not only construed dementia as a direful and pernicious disease, but also, crucially, obscured the personal and social contexts in which the syndrome is understood and experienced (not least by people with dementia themselves). This intensely lurid type of representation not only fails to address the ageist misinformation and common misunderstandings that all too commonly surround dementia, but is also likely to exacerbate the stress and depression frequently experienced by people with dementia and their families.