Image processing for the positive identification of forensic ballistics specimens
D.G. Li · 2003
The need forfirearm identijication systems by police services continues to increase with greater accessibility to weapons in the national and international contexts. The d$ficuIties associated with traditional imaging of ballistics specimens are numerous, and include the smallness ofthe samples, the nature ofthe surfaces and shapes for the cartridge cases andprojectiles. The mechanicaljingerprinl onfired bullets and cartridge cases can be used to identify thejirearm that theypassed through. A PC basedfirearm identijicafion system, Fireball, has been developed at Edith Cowan University and used by police ballistics sections in Australia. This paper willgive a brief description of this system and details ofthe image processing such as segmentation, feature extraction and image processing before saving images to the image database. Examples will be given to demonstrate the methodology.