Matching tattoos

Michigan State University researchers have created a system that could allow police to identify individuals by matching marks on their body with those stored in a computer database.

Personal identity is usually established by police using passports, licenses or personal identification numbers, but these are easily forged, lost or stolen. What is more, these types of credentials are neither sufficiently reliable nor secure.

A better means to recognise people is to use biometric systems that can identify them from their fingerprints, iris or face.

But Anil Jain, Michigan State University's distinguished professor of computer science and engineering is taking biometric recognition one step further by adding scar, mark and tattoo recognition capabilities.

Called 'Tattoo-ID', the system Prof Jain has been working on includes an annotated database containing images of scars, marks and tattoos provided by the police.

In use, the system matches a suspect or a victim’s distinguishing marks against the database and determines the suspect’s identity with very high accuracy. While a scar, mark or tattoo cannot uniquely identify a person, it can help the authorities narrow down the list of potential identities. It can also indicate membership in a gang, social and religious group or military unit.