Forensic Science International 300 (2019) 6–12

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Forensic Science International

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/forsciint

3D mug shot—3D head models from photogrammetry for forensic

identification
Anja Leipnera,* , Zuzana Obertováa , Martin Wermutha , Michael Thalib , Thomas Ottikera ,
Till Sieberthb
a
Zurich Forensic Science Institute, Zeughausstrasse 11, CH-8004 Zurich, Switzerland
b
Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190/52, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: No human face is like another, not even in monozygotic twins, which makes the face one of the most
Available online 22 April 2019 individualizing characteristic. It is for this reason that the human face is commonly used for identification
purposes and police officers take portrait photographs of arrested persons, so-called mug shots. The
disadvantage of these 2D mug shots is that the perspective, in which they are taken (usually frontal and
Keywords: lateral-right, left or both), cannot be changed after acquisition, thus limiting a potential comparison
Photography
between a mug shot and surveillance footage or other visual recordings.
Photogrammetry
Documenting a face in 3D would reduce this problem as it allows adjusting the perspective of the face
Forensic documentation
3D modelling
for image comparisons depending on the needs of the investigator. We have developed a 3D mug shot
3D reconstruction system containing 26 digital single-lens reflex cameras arranged semi-circularly in a 200 arc with a
Person identification 1.46 m radius around a height-adjustable chair. We generated photogrammetric models of a test person’s
face captured by the mug shot system using three different focal lengths settings as well as 3D models of
the same face with GOM Atos Triple Scan and Artec Space Spider. The 3D models were then analysed
regarding the visibility of detailed morphological features in different regions of the face compared to 2D
mug shots.
Our results showed that our 3D mug shot system with its photogrammetric documentation generates
3D models with comparable surface quality to Artec-generated models, or even better quality, compared
to GOM-generated models. The results of the morphological assessment were affected by the focal length
and availability of texture information.
In conclusion, the 3D mug shot system is a fast and efficient tool to generate 3D models of the face and
may be used in addition to 2D photographs for the purpose of visual forensic identification based on
images.
© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction after acquisition, thus limiting a potential comparison between

No human face is like another, not even in monozygotic twins,
which makes the face one of the most individualizing character-
istic between humans [1,2]. It is for this reason that the human
face is commonly used for identification purposes and police
officers take portrait photographs of arrested persons, so-called
mug shots [3]. In 1888 Alphonse Bertillon standardized the
photographic documentation of criminals by acquiring images
from frontal and profile views, which has not significantly
changed since then [3]. The disadvantage of these 2D mug shots is
that the perspective, in which they are taken, cannot be changed
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: anja.leipner@for-zh.ch (A. Leipner).
the mug shot and oblique visual recordings like usually acquired
by surveillance cameras. The comparison process can be
facilitated by acquiring additional photographs of the face. The
photographs can be taken in a comparable perspective. But there
is no guaranty to achieve the correct viewing angle. Furthermore,
the lighting situation and shadows can variably influence the
visibility of morphological facial features captured on the images
and thus the subsequent comparison [4,5].
Documenting a face in 3D would reduce these problems as it
allows adjusting the perspective of the face for image comparisons
depending on the needs of the investigator. Current methods to
document a face in 3D include laser scanning, structured light
scanning [6,8] or single camera photogrammetry [5,9,10]. Howev-
er, these methods might not offer colour and texture information
or the quality of the 3D model is inadequate. The methods also

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2019.04.015
0379-0738/© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 A. Leipner et al. / Forensic Science International 300 (2019) 6–12
differ in the geometric resolution of the generated 3D model.
Another considerable factor is the time required to perform the 3D
documentation of participant human subject, which may be
prolonged and the subject is required to sit still during the
procedure. Multi-camera systems are a fast 3D documentation
method, which overcomes this issue due to their swift scanning
procedure and therefore is often used for real time 3D
documentation [11–13]. The method presented by Leipner et al.
[14] is also based on a multi-camera device and is used for forensic
documentation of body height and for medical examination [15].
As the system has been initially developed to document the whole
body of a subject, detailed information of the face is only visible as
texture information in the resulting 3D model but not as a 3D
surface.
In this paper, we introduce and test a 3D mug shot system for
facial images specifically developed for the purpose of forensic
identification.
2. Method
2.1. System setup
Based on the experience with the multi-camera system for the
documentation of the whole body [14], we have developed a 3D
mug shot system for facial images. The system contains 26 digital
single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras arranged semi-circularly in 200
arc with a 1.46 m radius around a height-adjustable chair (Fig. 1).
The cameras are of type Canon EOS 80D (Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan).
For photogrammetric documentation, 23 of the cameras are
equipped with Canon EF-S 18–135 mm f/3.5–5.6 IS USM lenses
offering flexibility in the prototype phase to test several focal
lengths. The remaining three cameras are equipped with a Canon
EF-S 60 mm f/2.8 Macro USM lenses. The semi-circular frame
consists of two rows with 10 DSLRs each with 21 between the
individual cameras. The first row of cameras is 1.67 m above
ground level and the second row is 0.74 m above ground level.
Further, three DSLRs are placed centred approximately 0.26 m
under the lower row with the focus on the subject’s chin area. The
three DSLRs with the fixed lenses are placed centred, right and left
of the head position in 1.17 m above ground for standard 2D mug
shots (Fig. 1). The 23 cameras for the photogrammetric documen-
tation are in portrait orientation and the three 2D mug shot
cameras are in landscape orientation. The position and alignment
of the DSLRs was established based on the area of interest for the
Fig. 1. The prototype setup of the 3D mug shot system. The cameras for the standard 2D mug shot are highlighted.
7
3D mug shot and the requirements of at least 60% image overlap for
photogrammetric documentation and needs to be done only
once [16].
The cameras are connected to a workstation, and the camera
release is a synchronized remote release. The data download is
performed via USB. For setting the camera parameters a
workstation with the software Smart Shooter 3 (Kuvacode Oy,
Kerava, Finland) is used. Smart Shooter 3 provides an overview
over all cameras simultaneously and allows adjusting the camera
settings such as ISO, shutter speed and aperture, individually for
each camera or for all connected cameras together.
Two LED tubes on top and bottom of the frame are used to
illuminate the scene. The LED tubes are continuously dimmable
and have up to 4000 lm light output per metre with a colour
temperature of about 4250 K. This was considered in the white
balance settings of the cameras.
The frame and the height of the camera positions are fixed.
Therefore a height-adjustable chair is used to compensate for the
body height variation among subjects. The chair is located in the
middle of the semi-circular device with a distance of approxi-
mately 1.46 m from the cameras. By using a cross-line laser
pointing to the right side of the head, the chair is adjusted until the
head of the subject is positioned in the defined height of 1.20 m.
The method is used in order to ensure a standardized documenta-
tion process and to allow the documentation of subjects with a
body height between 1.50 m and 2.05 m without any further
adjustments. The head of the subject is oriented according to the
Frankfort horizontal plane as is the case for standard 2D mug
shots [17].
Reference measurements are required to scale to 3D data within
Agisoft PhotoScan. A stable ruler attached to a necklace offers
flexibility independent of the size of the subject and the used focal
length. The ruler is hung around the subject’s neck before
documentation and is located at the base of the neck (Fig. 3).
2.2. Camera settings
For close range photogrammetric face documentation in an
indoor environment with external fixed permanent lighting, the
camera parameters have to be chosen carefully. The ISO value
should be set in a way that the images do not contain significant
noise. We found that for our setup, the ISO value of 500 provided
sufficient images. For the f-stop the short focusing distance
required a closed aperture, which however was limited due to the
8 A. Leipner et al. / Forensic Science International 300 (2019) 6–12
dark indoor environment. We found with an aperture f/9 an
acceptable depth of field for different head dimensions and
changing head positions. Furthermore, all cameras were focused
once on the face of a reference person and position. The restricting
condition for the shutter speed is the subject to be photographed.
All settings are always depended on the lighting conditions. To
prevent motion blur caused by the human jitter the shutter speed
was set to 1/60.
Photogrammetric recommendations demand scene filling
images. Three different focal lengths were tested: 50 mm,
85 mm and 135 mm. The acquired images are subsequently
processed in photogrammetric software to generate a 3D model
of the face.
2.3. 3D models
The photogrammetric images were transferred to Agisoft
PhotoScan Professional (Version 1.4.0 build 5650) and processed
to true-to-scale 3D model. For the three data sets the calculations
was performed with the following settings:
- split camera groups (as 23 different cameras are used, the three
mug shot cameras are neglected for the photogrammetry),
- alignment of the photos with high accuracy,
- setting of scale markers and calculating camera correction,
- build dense cloud with high quality,
- build mesh with high face count using dense cloud as source
data,
- build texture with a texture size of 8192  8192 pixels.
The resulting 3D models of the test person were compared with
regard to surface and texture quality.
2.4. Comparison models
The GOM Atos Triple Scan (GOM GmbH, Braunschweig,
Germany) and the Artec Space Spider (Artec 3D, Luxemburg,
Luxembourg) are two structured light scanners with high accuracy.
It is for this reason that both scanners were previously used for
forensic 3D face documentation. For this study we also used both to
survey the test subject’s face to compare them with the
photogrammetric 3D head models. One model without texture
information was created with the GOM Atos Triple Scan, and two
with the Artec Space Spider, one with the other without texture
information both based on the same scan (Table 2).
2.5. Comparison of visible morphological features of the captured faces
A predefined list of morphological features (Table 1, [17]) was
used to compare the visibility of these features on the 2D images
derived from the 3D models against the 2D digital photographs. For
the evaluation the features were grouped by facial regions.
Depending on the facial orientation, some features were not fully
Table 1
The list of predefined morphological features of the face used for the comparisons.
Region/feature Feature
complex
Eye Upper eyelid, upper lid margin, medial canthus, caruncle lacrimalis, form of the palpebral ligament, pupil, iris, lower lid margin, lower eyelid,
lateral canthus, eyebrow
Nose Bridge, tip, septum, nostril, nasal wings, alar groove
Mouth Philtrum, upper (normal skin) lip, vermilion border upper lip, upper (vermilion) lip, lower (vermilion) lip, vermilion border lower lip, fissure
Ear Helix, scaphoid fossa, antihelix, triangular fossa, crus helicis, tragus, incisura intertragica, antitragus, concha, lobe
Lines and grooves Transverse frontal lines, vertical glabellar lines, transverse nasal lines, superior orbital groove, lateral orbital lines, inferior orbital groove,
nasolabial folds, buccomandibular groove, perioral lines, oromental groove, mandibular folds, mentolabial groove, mental fovea
visible or not visible at all (for example, the ears in the frontal view
or philtrum in the lateral view); in these cases the features were
not assessed. Due to the flashing lights in GOM and Artec the
subjects eyes are closed during the scanning procedure causing
that not all features in the eye regions can be analysed. The
assessment was undertaken by a forensic anthropologist experi-
enced in facial image comparisons.
The images based on 3D models with and without texture
information were compared separately. The GOM-generated 3D
model has no texture information and thus was not taken into
account for the comparisons of images with texture. The images
based on 3D models with texture information were compared also
with respect to the visibility of skin discolorations or other skin
surface changes.
All generated 3D models were compared to high-quality 2D
digital photographs (frontal, right and left lateral oriented in
Frankfort Horizontal) being considered as the golden standard for
the assessed features. For comparison the 3D models were
imported into 3 ds Max 2017 (Autodesk Inc., San Rafael, California,
USA) as OBJ-files. This was done because the software is already
used for parallel projections and superimpositions and to achieve
scanner software independent illumination and visualization of
the models. In 3 ds Max we generated rendered images (frontal,
right and left lateral oriented in Frankfort Horizontal) with and
without the texture information. For the image comparison the
images were turned to greyscale. The curve gradient histogram was
adjusted by excluding missing colour information (in all cases the
images became brighter).
3. Results
3.1. Technical comparisons
Three textured 3D models of the head with three different focal
length settings were generated (Fig. 2). The resolution of the 3D
models during the different calculation steps is shown in Table 2.
In the photographs taken with 50 mm focal length, the head and
neck of the test person fill the format up to a maximum of one-
ninth (Fig. 3). The generated 3D model of the head consists of
291.370 faces and includes the head and neck. During the data
processing, the shoulder area, which was also documented in the
images and therefore part in the created 3D model, was removed.
The parts of the face – eyes, nose, mouth – and ears are visible. The
3D surface model exhibits visible inaccuracies in the area of the tip
of the nose. The texture map of the model shows fine character-
istics of the face. At the transition from the chin to the neck, the
skin colour gets darker. Light reflections are visible in the eyes and
on the tip of the nose.
In the photographs taken with 85 mm focal length, the head and
neck of the test person fill the format up to a maximum of one-
fourth (Fig. 3). The generated 3D model of the head consists of
690.951 faces and includes the head and the neck. In this model,
the shoulder and chest region were also removed during the
 A. Leipner et al. / Forensic Science International 300 (2019) 6–12 9

Table 2
Characteristics of the 3D models.

3D model 50 mm 85 mm 135 mm GOM Artec without texture Artec with texture

Tie points 9445 11,522 16,824
Dense cloud points 3,777,648 6,073,109 9,910,391
Mesh faces 291,370 690,951 1,705,321 544,071 4,244,574 804,961

Fig. 2. Overview of the 3D models. The first and second row show the PhotoScan models in 50 mm (A, D), 85 mm (B, E) and 135 mm (C, F). The third row shows GOM (G), Artec
without texture information (H) and Artec with texture information (I).

processing. The parts of the face – eyes, nose, mouth – and ears are the eyes and on the tip of the nose just as they do for the 135 mm
clearly visible. The texture shows also fine characteristics of the focal length model.
face. At the transition from the chin to the neck, the skin colour gets In the photographs taken with 135 mm focal length the head
darker, like with the 50 mm model, and light reflections appear in and neck of the test person fill the format up to a maximum of
10 A. Leipner et al. / Forensic Science International 300 (2019) 6–12
Fig. 3. Example photograph of camera 1_3 taken with 50 mm (A), 85 mm (B) and 135 mm (C) focal length.
almost one-half (Fig. 3), and a model consisting of 1.7 million faces
was created. The generated 3D model did not contain the shoulder
or chest region so that no cropping had to be performed. The parts
of the face – eyes, nose, mouth – and ears are clearly visible and fine
details of the face are visible in the texture map.
Furthermore, three different 3D models were generated using
two types of structured light scanners (Fig. 2). The 3D model
generated with the GOM ATOS Triple Scan consists of 544,071 faces
(Table 2). The parts of the face – eyes, nose, mouth – and ears are
clearly structured. Facial hair (eyebrows and eyelashes) as well as
head hair was not recorded with the scanner. Due to the flashing
light of the projector the eyes of the test person are closed. The
surface of the 3D model appears rough and there are some errors in
the surface of the left side of the nose, mouth region and chin.
There are small holes in the regions of the mouth, chin, neck and
ears, which were not captured by the scanner. The 3D model has no
texture.
With the Artec Space Spider two different 3D models were
generated based on the same scan. The 3D model without texture has
a resolution of 4,244,574 faces (Tables 2). The 3D model with texture
information has a resolution of 804,961 faces because of a system
required reduction (Table 2). The 3D information of both models is
the same, but finer structures appear in the surface of the model
without texture. In the 3D models, the parts of the face – eyes, nose,
mouth – and ears are clearly structured. Facial hair (eyebrows and
eyelashes) as well as head hair were not scanned. The eyes are closed
due to the flashing light of the projector. There are errors in the
surface structure at the chin and the neck, resulting in small holes like
with the GOM Atos scanner. The concha of the ears is not visible. The
3D model with reduced resolution is textured and shows fine
characteristics of the face. Light reflections are visible on the nose,
the chin and the forehead. The texture information appears darker
compared with the photogrammetric models.
Table 3
The visibility of morphological features of the face captured in the frontal view using models without texture (the numerator is the number of visible features, the
denominator the number of assessable features).
Region/features 50 mm 85 mm
Eye 0/11 0/11
Nose 0/6 0/6
Mouth 2/7 1/7
Ear 0/1 0/1
Lines and grooves 3/13 6/13
Total 5/38 (13%) 7/38 (18%)
3.2. Morphological comparisons
The comparisons are summarized in the Tables 3–8 providing
an overview about the number of features assessed in the given
region and visible in the images extracted from the individual 3D
models. In the PhotoScan models, more features were assessed
than in GOM and Artec. The reason for this is the scanning process,
since the test person needs to be captured with the eyes closed for
GOM and Artec scanning.
In the frontal view images based on 3D models without texture
information (Table 3), the image from Artec-generated model
achieved best results as 70% of the present features were visible.
The PhotoScan model with 135 mm focal length was second best
with 34% visible features. The lowest number of features was
visible in the PhotoScan model with 50 mm focal length.
In the right lateral view images based on 3D models without
texture information (Table 4), the GOM-generated model showed
41% visible features of the 29 present. In this model, more features
were visible in the nose and mouth region compared to the other
models. As with the frontal view, the lowest number of visible
features was recorded in the PhotoScan model with 50 mm focal
length.
In the left lateral view images based on 3D models without
texture information (Table 5), the Artec model achieved best
results with 48%, followed by GOM and PhotoScan 135 mm with
17% and 16%. Only two features were visible in the PhotoScan
models with 50 and 85 mm focal length. For all models, except for
the Artec-generated model, fewer features were visible on the left
than on the right facial profiles.
In the frontal view images based on 3D models with texture
information (Table 6), PhotoScan 135 mm and Artec both achieved
77% visible features. Compared to the results of Table 3 there were
significantly more features visible with texture information. For
135 mm GOM Artec
2/11 0/3 2/3
3/6 0/6 4/6
3/7 4/7 5/7
0/1 1/1 1/1
5/13 4/13 9/13
13/38 (34%) 9/30 (30%) 21/30 (70%)
 A. Leipner et al. / Forensic Science International 300 (2019) 6–12 11

Table 4 Table 8
The visibility of morphological features of the face captured in the right lateral The visibility of morphological features of the face captured in the left lateral view
view using models without texture (the numerator is the number of visible using models without texture (the numerator is the number of visible features, the
features, the denominator the number of assessable features). denominator the number of assessable features).

Region/features 50 mm 85 mm 135 mm GOM Artec Region/features 50 mm 85 mm 135 mm Artec

Eye 0/3 0/3 0/3 0/1 0/1 Eye 0/3 0/3 1/3 0/1
Nose 1/6 2/6 2/6 3/6 2/6 Nose 1/6 2/6 1/6 4/6
Mouth 1/6 3/6 4/6 5/6 3/6 Mouth 3/6 2/6 3/6 5/6
Ear 0/10 0/10 0/10 0/10 0/10 Ear 2/10 1/10 3/10 0/10
Lines and 2/6 2/6 2/6 4/6 5/6 Lines and grooves 2/6 2/6 3/6 4/6
grooves Skin discolorations/ 0/1 0/1 1/1 1/1
Total 4/31 7/31 8/31 12/29 10/29 changes
(13%) (23%) (26%) (41%) (34%) Total 8/32 7/32 12/32 14/30
(25%) (22%) (38%) (47%)

Table 5
The visibility of morphological features of the face captured in the left lateral
In general, the Artec-generated models achieved very good
view using models without texture (the numerator is the number of visible
features, the denominator the number of assessable features). results in the visibility of the features, with or without texture
information.
Region/features 50 mm 85 mm 135 mm GOM Artec
Taking only the models with texture information into account,
Eye 0/3 0/3 0/3 0/1 0/1 the comparison with the gold standard showed similar results in
Nose 1/6 1/6 1/6 2/6 4/6
the visibility of features for Artec and PhotoScan 135 mm. For all
Mouth 1/6 0/6 1/6 0/6 5/6
Ear 0/10 0/10 0/10 0/10 0/10
PhotoScan models the results were better with texture informa-
Lines and 0/6 1/6 3/6 3/6 5/6 tion.
grooves
Total 2/31 2/31 5/31 5/29 14/29 4. Discussion
(6%) (6%) (16%) (17%) (48%)

We have developed a fast 3D mug shot system for the

documentation of human faces. The documentation itself only
Table 6 takes a split second. The system also includes the standard 2D mug
The visibility of morphological features of the face captured in the frontal view shots.
using models with texture (the numerator is the number of visible features, the The resulting 3D models accurately represent the geometry of
denominator the number of assessable features).
the face including detailed colour and texture information. With
Region/features 50 mm 85 mm 135 mm Artec the 3D model the orientation of the face can be adjusted in
Eye 8/11 8/11 9/11 2/3 rotation, location and distance accordingly to the reference images
Nose 0/6 1/6 2/6 4/6 of a surveillance camera. Furthermore, the virtual parameters of
Mouth 6/7 6/7 7/7 6/7 the camera, such as focal length can be adjusted according to the
Ear 1/1 0/1 0/1 1/1 surveillance camera allowing comparison between surveillance
Lines and grooves 12/13 13/13 11/13 10/13
Skin discolorations/ 0/1 1/1 1/1 1/1
footage and the virtual camera image.
changes The results of the comparison show that the 3D mug shot
Total 27/39 29/39 30/39 24/31 system with its photogrammetric documentation generates 3D
(69%) (74%) (77%) (77%) models with surface quality comparable to other methods like
surface scans with an Artec Space Spider, or even better quality,
compared to GOM Atos Triple Scan.
Table 7 The comparison of the photogrammetric models with the gold
The visibility of morphological features of the face captured in the right lateral standard (2D digital photographs of high quality) showed that
view using models without texture (the numerator is the number of visible there was an improvement of the PhotoScan models from 50 mm
features, the denominator the number of assessable features).
to 135 mm. The photogrammetric 3D models created with a
Region/Features 50 mm 85 mm 135 mm Artec 135 mm focal length lead to a more detailed surface structure and
Eye 1/3 2/3 1/3 0/1 reduced errors due to the format filling photographs compared to
Nose 1/6 2/6 2/6 3/6 images with 50 mm focal length. The format filling images enable
Mouth 5/6 5/6 5/6 5/6 Agisoft PhotoScan to generate the 3D model with more details,
Ear 5/10 4/10 4/10 2/10
which is visible in the larger dense cloud.
Lines and grooves 5/6 5/6 6/6 4/6
Skin discolorations/ 0/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 The rendered 2D images for the evaluation of the 3D data were
changes generated with 3 ds Max. In general, the quality of the visualized
Total 17/32 19/32 19/32 15/30 data in the scanner software is better than in 3 ds Max, especially
(53%) (59%) (59%) (50%) with Agisoft PhotoScan due to restrictions in 3 ds Max regarding
the texture quality. Furthermore, the lighting in 3 ds Max caused
shadows, which in turn caused reduced visibility of some features
example for the PhotoScan with 50 mm the number of visible but can also be adjusted dependent on the case. However, shadows
features increased from five to 27 features. which are already part of the texture cannot be prevented and
In the right lateral view images based on 3D models with disturb the evaluation and should therefore be avoided by
texture information (Table 7), the PhotoScan models with 85 mm illuminating the subject during the scan procedure. A closer
and 135 mm achieved best results with 59% visibility of features. evaluation also showed that the lighting conditions during the
In the left lateral view images based on 3D models with texture photogrammetric documentation were not even on both sides of
information (Table 8), the Artec model achieved best results with the face. The resulting 3D models are less illuminated on the left
47% visibility. side of the face while the right side appears brighter. This is due to
12 A. Leipner et al. / Forensic Science International 300 (2019) 6–12
the room, which has windows on the right side adding additional
light to the right side of the face. This – together with the lighting in
3 ds Max – may have caused the differences in the visibility of
features observed between the right and left lateral profile images.
The side differences in feature visibility were observed for all,
except for the Artec-generated models.
In general, ear features were rarely visible in all 3D models. The
photographs, as gold standard, capture more details in this region.
Given that ear characteristics belong to the most stable and
individualizing traits, the low visibility of the features in the 3D
models requires adjustments to the lighting and scanning setup to
achieve the desired quality for forensic identification purposes. The
scan process of GOM and Artec can be improved in this area by
manually adjusting the scanning position and generating more
information of the ear features. For the 3D mug shot system it has
to be evaluated, if the improvement of the light conditions or the
addition of one or more cameras would solve this issue.
There are several advantages of the photogrammetric documenta-
tion compared to structured light scanners. It is possible to document
head and facial hair within the images and therefore in the texture
map. Additionally, information about the hair colour at the time of the
documentation is available. Photogrammetry enables the documen-
tation of a person with eyes open, in difference to structured light
scanners (independent of the system) where open eyes are not
advisable. The flickering of the light might cause epileptic seizures and
the person is incapable to keep the eyes open during the whole
documentation period, and opening and closing of the eyes would
cause movement and thus generate errors in the scan data [7].
The 3D documentation process, independent of the system
used, requires the cooperation of the person to be documented.
The scanning with a structured light scanner, even with expert
operators, takes about five minutes, or might take up to ten
minutes depending on the system, assuming a smooth process
without interruptions. This is a long period of time during which
the subject has to sit still. Furthermore, advanced training and
experience is required to align misaligned scans and to analyse the
scan data during the scanning procedure to prevent holes in the
surface. In comparison, the 3D mug shot system operates within a
fraction of a second preventing any disturbance and the fixed
camera setup allows even untrained operators to perform a
documentation procedure. If necessary, several shots can be made
directly one after another and the immediately available photos
allow the operator to check for errors right after the acquisition.
Independently from the system used, glossy skin, three-day
stubble and unruly beards have negative influence on the 3D
model quality. Glossy skin may be reduced with makeup towels.
Head hair should generally be moved away from the face region,
for example with a headband, most importantly to be able to
capture detailed surface information of the ears. Moreover, in any
of the systems, it is not possible to document glasses, which should
be removed before the documentation procedure.
The combination of 3D mug shots and standard 2D mug shots
requires the correct orientation of the head of the person to be
documented. The exact positioning is also important with the used
focal length of 135 mm. The focal length generates format filling
photos, therefore the space around the head is small. With the help
of an instructions manual and the cross-line laser, a standardized
procedure can be guaranteed.
The settings of the cameras for the photogrammetric docu-
mentation (ISO 500, f-stop f/9 and shutter speed 1/60) are caused
by the dark lighting conditions. As the setup is still a prototype,
there are no covers over the frame of the cameras. There is also no
white panel behind the chair. Both, the cover and the rear panel,
will ensure that the light will become softer and better illuminate
the subject. This will optimize the lighting conditions and camera
settings can be improved accordingly, resulting in a further
improvement of the 3D surface structure.
5. Conclusion
In conclusion, the 3D mug shot system is a fast and efficient
tool to generate 3D models of the human head and face. The major
advantage of the system is that the generated facial 3D models
can be adjusted in head orientation to the perspective captured
on the comparative surveillance footage, thus improving the
conditions for image comparisons between the mug shot and the
person of interest. With the current limitations regarding the
visibility of features on the PhotoScan models, the 3D mug shot
system may be used as a complementary tool along with the
traditional 2D mug shots for the purpose of visual forensic
identification.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Anja Leipner: Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation,
Methodology, Project administration, Visualization, Writing -
original draft, Writing - review & editing. Zuzana Obertová:
Formal analysis, Methodology, Validation, Writing - review &
editing. Martin Wermuth: Conceptualization, Software. Michael
Thali: Funding acquisition, Resources, Supervision. Thomas
Ottiker: Funding acquisition, Resources, Supervision. Till Sie-
berth: Methodology, Project administration, Validation, Writing -
review & editing.
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