Forensic perpetrator identification utilising foot pressure under shoes during gait

Body feature, body movement such as gait characteristics, and anthropometric measures are commonly utilised to identify perpetrators. In the past, CCTV was the main device suited to obtain these, important particulars of perpetrators. However, advances in electronic pressure sensors in medical field, podiatry, physiotherapy and sport sciences have resulted in the availability of these sensors for crime surveillance applications. A research was carried out to develop a novel surveillance method of combining CCTV cameras and under-carpet floor pressure sensors to obtain certain body movement characteristics of crime perpetrator based on force/pressure distribution under the shoes. Thirteen adults were recruited and each subject was instructed to perform ten trials to obtain the needed foot force under normal shoes and foot pressure distance measures. To evaluate these novel measures' confidence, the mean within group and between group significant scores (P) were determined as: (1) 1.0; and (2) 0.001 respectively. These initial results showed that the novel method could be suitable for identifying perpetrators successfully.