Latent Print Examiner study at IAI
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2006 5:54 pm
Invitation to Participate in Studies Documenting Expertise in Latent Print Examiners
"Adding Human Expertise to the Quantitative Analysis of Fingerprints"
Tom Busey, Principal Investigator, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Chen Yu, Co-PI, Indiana University
John Vanderkolk, Collaborator, Indiana State Police Laboratory
The goal of the project is to acquire data from human experts and novices, and then extract elements of the performance that characterizes expertise. This expertise will then be applied to existing quantitative methods of fingerprint analyses using machine learning algorithms in an attempt to both understand human expertise as well as improve the machine performance. The basic idea behind the project is that the human visual system is the most advanced pattern recognition we know of, and that by understanding how it works in experts when they perform fingerprint matching tasks, we can apply similar principles to the quantitative models of fingerprint matching. We have a special interest in expert latent print examiners, since they have demonstrably different perceptual and brain processes when performing matching tasks. We will be able to gather data over the internet, and we will be recruiting interested participants from the latent print community. Note that the nature of the project is such that it may have, at least indirectly, an impact on the ongoing debate of whether fingerprint evidence is admissible in court. This will come about as we detail the differences between novices and experts as we have done in previous studies (Busey & Vanderkolk, 2005). We will not, however, be addressing questions about base rates or error rates that courts have referred to in recent cases, as this is not the focus of our proposal. We believe that participation in this project by latent print examiners will strengthen the science of fingerprint identification, both in terms of our understanding of human expertise as well as its application to machine quantification of fingerprint evidence.
In the actual experiment, you will perform a task that is related to a latent print examination, but you will use a special tool to indicate how and where you are acquiring information from the prints. The task will take about 30 minutes.
If you are interested in participating in the study while at the IAI seminar in Boston, please contact John Vanderkolk while in Boston. He will keep the schedule for the participants throughout the week. John is staying at the Marriot. Preliminary research that has been conducted will be presented at the IAI seminar, 3:30-4:00 PM on Monday.
For more information, or to participate in our studies, contact Tom
Busey at:
busey@indiana.edu
For more information, contact Tom at:
Thomas Busey, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Psychology and Program in Cognitive Science
Indiana University, Bloomington
1101 E. 10th St
Bloomington, IN, 47405
(812) 855-4261
busey@indiana.edu
www.indiana.edu/~busey
"Adding Human Expertise to the Quantitative Analysis of Fingerprints"
Tom Busey, Principal Investigator, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Chen Yu, Co-PI, Indiana University
John Vanderkolk, Collaborator, Indiana State Police Laboratory
The goal of the project is to acquire data from human experts and novices, and then extract elements of the performance that characterizes expertise. This expertise will then be applied to existing quantitative methods of fingerprint analyses using machine learning algorithms in an attempt to both understand human expertise as well as improve the machine performance. The basic idea behind the project is that the human visual system is the most advanced pattern recognition we know of, and that by understanding how it works in experts when they perform fingerprint matching tasks, we can apply similar principles to the quantitative models of fingerprint matching. We have a special interest in expert latent print examiners, since they have demonstrably different perceptual and brain processes when performing matching tasks. We will be able to gather data over the internet, and we will be recruiting interested participants from the latent print community. Note that the nature of the project is such that it may have, at least indirectly, an impact on the ongoing debate of whether fingerprint evidence is admissible in court. This will come about as we detail the differences between novices and experts as we have done in previous studies (Busey & Vanderkolk, 2005). We will not, however, be addressing questions about base rates or error rates that courts have referred to in recent cases, as this is not the focus of our proposal. We believe that participation in this project by latent print examiners will strengthen the science of fingerprint identification, both in terms of our understanding of human expertise as well as its application to machine quantification of fingerprint evidence.
In the actual experiment, you will perform a task that is related to a latent print examination, but you will use a special tool to indicate how and where you are acquiring information from the prints. The task will take about 30 minutes.
If you are interested in participating in the study while at the IAI seminar in Boston, please contact John Vanderkolk while in Boston. He will keep the schedule for the participants throughout the week. John is staying at the Marriot. Preliminary research that has been conducted will be presented at the IAI seminar, 3:30-4:00 PM on Monday.
For more information, or to participate in our studies, contact Tom
Busey at:
busey@indiana.edu
For more information, contact Tom at:
Thomas Busey, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Psychology and Program in Cognitive Science
Indiana University, Bloomington
1101 E. 10th St
Bloomington, IN, 47405
(812) 855-4261
busey@indiana.edu
www.indiana.edu/~busey
