A simulated crime scene footwear impression database for teaching and research purposes
En‐Tni Lin, Tabitha DeBat, Jacqueline A. Speir
Abstract
Abstract Community‐shared open‐source forensic footwear databases are relatively rare, although it is generally agreed that access to such resources can support a multitude of research and teaching/training goals. The objective of this technical report is to detail the creation of such a dataset that includes both high‐quality exemplars and simulated crime scene impressions. To achieve this goal, a variety of shoe makes, models, sizes, substrates, matrices, lifting methods, and enhancement (chemical/digital) techniques were employed and are fully described. The result is an open‐source dataset available for download, and comprised of 214 high‐quality impressions (87 right outsoles × 2 replicates + 40 left (close non‐mated) outsoles), 138 dust impressions (46 outsoles × 3 replicates), and 73 blood impressions (24 outsoles × 3 replicates = 72 + 1 additional replicate). Of the 138 dust impressions, 117 are provided in a digitally enhanced form (via Adobe ® Photoshop and/or Photoshop Camera Raw software), and 120 are provided in an unenhanced form for a total of 237 images. For the blood impressions, all 73 are provided in both unenhanced and chemically enhanced forms for a total of 146 images. Thus, in addition to the outsole scans, a total of 597 simulated crime scene and/or known test impressions are included and fully documented.