The image of the bot allowed Mossos d’Esquadra Putting faces and eyes on murderers and rapists in the past thirty years. Forensic art within the reach of a few clients, as artistic skill was necessary to draw faces from the victims’ memories. However, this Raised technologywith a pencil and a blank page as heroes Outdated to the Catalan police and they are now preparing their representation through computer.
Foreman Santi Tugouris was the only agent who kept one of the classic tools for eliminating suspects on hand. Now that he’s retired, that job will move to Digitize in its entirety. Specifically, the Mossos photography, audiovisual, facial recognition, and robot image unit has already used a computer program since 2019 that offers them “more realism” in their publications.
“In models there is usually mobility of individuals and Many times you can’t incorporate cartoonists Because we don’t only devote ourselves to painting. This takes five percent. What we do is face comparisons. Before, people would leave and we couldn’t get someone with the ability to paint,” explains Unit Head, David Miro.
The first paintings documented by Mossos d’Esquadra date back to 1996. “With the old paintings we see that each one has its own style. What we do is part of the art. Not without interpretation of the cartoonist himselfAlthough the victim or witness guides you through the process and edits the image at any time,” Miro acknowledges.
The importance of questioning in facial composition
Whether it is done manually or via computer, the procedure is identical. “First we interview the victim, and from there we help her through Remember the parts of the face. You start making the shape of the face and then focus on The side they remember the mostMainly the nose, mouth, eyes and hair.
“When we get it, we look for the rest of the peripheral facial elements. We help ourselves with support materials“He points out to the foreman about a technique that is more accurately calculated than a computer program.” It has a series of libraries with different parts of the face. It’s pieces of pictures.”
This result is black and white. She has MMore realistic than the picture drawnwhich was a drawing. It was somehow meant to be very open. In this way, the range of possible suspects’ raids was greater. Now it’s very limited.”
Use a robot image
Vegas Sexual assaults and robberies with violence and kidnapping are the most frequent criminal patterns in ID. The perpetrator and the victim a eye contact And it continues for a certain period. Our mind must be able to retain a minimum amount of information to be able to draw a picture. However, the complexity in the composition of the face lies in the difficulty in obtaining a description of the accused.
“The same victim, when you interview her, says she has fuzzy memory, like a blurred image. this is normal. When we capture the different features on the screen or page, you see this image is definedconfirms Miro, who asks participants to rate how similar the image is to their memories on a scale of 1 to 10. Sometimes the image stays at five and others say it just doesn’t look quite the same. “
he The most difficult facial features to reflect are eyes. “It has an expression, form, and detail so difficult for us to find references in our libraries, when testimony or victim tells us what the eyes were like. It is one of the more costly items.”
secondary tool
This type of police method is often used as one of the last alternatives to an investigation. “It was always a secondary tool. You will never get a real picture of the person. We know our minds play tricks on us. There are times when that memory is distorted and hidden by other emotional factors.”
For this reason, technological development has allowed investigators to obtain more images of criminals. “There are other tools, such as security cameras or phone data. And when they turn to more objective data, they go to the technical part to try to put a face on an anonymous face. If there is a flat line with several candidates, this will allow above all Ignore those that do not correspond to the graphic properties“.
Miró gives the example of two faces with different traits. “If you’re looking for someone with dark hair, with big eyes and a small nose, blondes, with a big nose and light eyes, are really excluded. That’s what the photo is for.”
For this, the The victim’s ability to absorb necessary. “It depends on the emotional state of the victim. Not all of us see faces in the same way. There is a part of the brain that is responsible for the perfection of the face and there are people who enjoy it more than others. Those will have a greater ability to describe the parts of the face. Herein lies the difficulty of the painter.”
After countless portraits, Miro recalls a strange case in which he was one of the victims Make work easier before using his ability. “Mrs.Who was a cartoonist, he used a kind of charcoal painting paper, and it’s very big, like two A3 din. She brought it to me wrapped up and it helped me a lot to get started on the drawing. Locate “.