Larsen Hannah, Budka Marcin, Bennett Matthew R
Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus, Poole, Dorset BH12 5BB, UK.
Department of Data Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus, Poole, Dorset BH12 5BB, UK.
Sci Justice. 2021 Jul;61(4):356-368. doi: 10.1016/j.scijus.2021.04.003. Epub 2021 Apr 27.
The recovery of three-dimensional footwear impressions at crime scenes can be a challenge but can also yield important investigative data. Traditional methods involve casting 3D impressions but these methods have limitations: the trace is usually destroyed during capture; the process can be time consuming, with a risk of failure; and the resultant cast is bulky and therefore difficult to share and store. The use of Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry has been used widely to capture fossil footprints in the geological record and while there is a small body of work advocating its use in forensic practice the full potential of this technique has yet to be realised in an operational context. The availability of affordable software is one limiting factor and here we report the availability of a bespoke freeware for SfM recovery and subsequent analysis of for footwear evidence (DigTrace). Our aim here is not to provide a rigorous comparison of SfM methods to other recovery methods, but more to illustrate the potential while also documenting the typical workflows and potential errors associated with an SfM based approach. By doing so we hope to encourage further research, experimentation and ultimately adoption by practitioners.
在犯罪现场获取三维鞋印可能具有挑战性，但也能产生重要的调查数据。传统方法包括铸造三维印记，但这些方法存在局限性：痕迹通常在采集过程中被破坏；该过程可能耗时，且有失败风险；最终的铸模体积庞大，因此难以共享和存储。运动结构（SfM）摄影测量法已被广泛用于在地质记录中捕捉化石足迹，虽然有少量工作主张在法医实践中使用该技术，但在实际操作中该技术的全部潜力尚未实现。经济实惠的软件的可用性是一个限制因素，在此我们报告一种用于SfM恢复及后续鞋类证据分析的定制免费软件（DigTrace）的可用性。我们在此的目的不是对SfM方法与其他恢复方法进行严格比较，而是更多地说明其潜力，同时记录基于SfM方法的典型工作流程和潜在错误。通过这样做，我们希望鼓励进一步的研究、实验，并最终促使从业者采用。
