On Forensic Use of Biometrics, with Face and Ear Recognition

This chapter examines the use of biometrics techniques within forensic science. It discusses the historic connections between the subjects and then examines face and ear biometrics in detail. The detailed examination starts from one of the most common and familiar biometric features face and then introduces a new biometric feature ear into forensics. Face is the natural means for human beings to recognise each other. Face biometric applications are widely used in our daily lives. However, currently no fully automatic face recognition system is accepted by the judicial system. This chapter introduces the manual and computer-aided forensic face recognition, explains the differences between automatic face recognition system (biometrics) and forensics and outlines the current progress towards addressing the challenges existing in face recognition. Ear biometrics is a potentially important biometric feature, and there has been much research progress. The current state of formal validation of ears as a forensic tool is discussed and a set of morphological features along with an analysis of their discriminatory powers are presented. These features are important in deciding whether there is enough information available for identification in case of missing features. The terminology associated with these features may also assist with communicating ear comparison results to juries, an important step in making such evidence effective at trial.