Study on the identification limits of craniofacial superimposition

TL;DR

This study investigates the limitations of craniofacial superimposition as a forensic identification method through extensive experiments involving over a million comparisons and 320 subjects.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of the identification limits of craniofacial superimposition using a landmark-based automatic 3D/2D method.

Findings

Identified the reliability thresholds of the technique.

Quantified the error rates in large-scale comparisons.

Assessed the impact of landmark selection on accuracy.

Abstract

Craniofacial Superimposition involves the superimposition of an image of a skull with a number of ante-mortem face images of an individual and the analysis of their morphological correspondence. Despite being used for one century, it is not yet a mature and fully accepted technique due to the absence of solid scientific approaches, significant reliability studies, and international standards. In this paper we present a comprehensive experimentation on the limitations of Craniofacial Superimposition as a forensic identification technique. The study involves different experiments over more than 1 Million comparisons performed by a landmark-based automatic 3D/2D superimposition method. The total sample analyzed consists of 320 subjects and 29 craniofacial landmarks.