title: Automatic forensic analysis of automotive paints using optical microscopy.
abstract: The timely identification of vehicles involved in an accident, such as a hit-and-run situation, bears great importance in forensics. To this end, procedures have been defined for analyzing car paint samples that combine techniques such as visual analysis and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. This work proposes a new methodology in order to automate the visual analysis using image retrieval. Specifically, color and texture information is extracted from a microscopic image of a recovered paint sample, and this information is then compared with the same features for a database of paint types, resulting in a shortlist of candidate paints. In order to demonstrate the operation of the methodology, a test database has been set up and two retrieval experiments have been performed. The first experiment quantifies the performance of the procedure for retrieving exact matches, while the second experiment emulates the real-life situation of paint samples that experience changes in color and texture over time.
authors.affiliation: iMinds-VisionLab, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Antwerp, Belgium. Electronic address: guy.thoonen@uantwerpen.be.
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Thoonen
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Criminalistics and Criminology (NICC), Vilvoordsesteenweg 100, B-1120 Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Bart
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nys
authors.affiliation: Department of ICT, University Hospital Ghent, De Pintelaan 185, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Yves
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Vander Haeghen
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Criminalistics and Criminology (NICC), Vilvoordsesteenweg 100, B-1120 Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Gilbert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: De Roy
authors.affiliation: iMinds-VisionLab, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Antwerp, Belgium.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Scheunders
keywords: Automotive paint; Color calibration; Feature extraction; Image retrieval; Optical microscopy