Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	EP/C522893/1
Title:	Evolving a better composite
Principal Investigator:	Hancock, Professor P
Other Investigators:	Bruce, Professor V Frowd, Professor C
Researcher Co-Investigators:	Ms A McIntyre
Project Partners:	ABM UK Ltd
Department:	Psychology
Organisation:	University of Stirling
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 March 2005	Ends:	31 August 2007	Value (£):	228,626
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Image & Vision Computing Vision & Senses - ICT appl.
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Creative Industries
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
The aim of this project is to develop and exploit the holistic (whole face) nature of EvoFIT, a novel system developed with previous EPSRC funding for generating the likeness of a suspect to a crime. There is good evidence that composites produced by EvoFIT are better than other UK systems, but research is now required to optimise performance and make it more ergonomic. Currently, the system generates faces with random characteristics, for a given sex and race, and the user selects those that most resemble the target. We wish to make the system more user friendly, by identifying psychologically useful variables such as age and obesity and implementing these within the model. This would allow a witness to request that a face be made, for example, older, something which requires considerable artistic skill with current facial composite systems. We shall identify other ways to make the system more responsive to requests made by the witness, for example if they remember bushy eyebrows, then the system should only generate images with bushy eyebrows. As part of this work we shall be incorporating recent improvements in computer graphics technology, that will produce more realistic facesA second aspect of the project is to explore better ways to help witnesses remember relevant details. Current police interviewing techniques concentrate on facial features (e.g. describing the nose), which may work well for current feature-based composite systems, but gets in the way of remembering what the face as a whole looks like. We aim to develop interviewing methods that better match the holistic nature of EvoFIT and predict that a combination of these approaches should also enable witnesses with a limited recall (of an assailant) to construct useful composites.
Key Findings
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Potential use in non-academic contexts
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Organisation Website:	http://www.stir.ac.uk