Drawing or sketching is a difficult art and police sketches are drawn by people who cannot see the faces of those they are drawing, faces that are described by someone who is upset and nervous. Michigan State University scientists have developed software that can use such a drawing and match it with already existing photos.
This technology will help to use a drawing to search photo databases. The software works best when the drawing and the photos have the same illumination and pose. This system functions better because it breaks the drawing as well as the picture into small overlapping layers. The software finds points of similarity between a drawing and a photograph and gives a score.
It is believed that this technology will dramatically speed up the process of identifying a suspect.
