AUTOMATION OF CRIMINALISTIC FOOTWEAR TRACE REGISTRATION IN THE FORENSIC SERVICE

REPORT 1 CREATION A DEDICATED APPLICATION OF THE SOFTWARE SUITE FOR AUTOMATED FOOTWEAR TRACE REGISTRATION FOR FORM AN INFORMATION RESOURCE OF THE MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF UKRAINE

Abstract

This article inaugurates a series devoted to the operation of an automated footwear-imprint registration
system. It highlights the functionality of a dedicated application within a proprietary software suite developed on
the MATLAB programming and numerical-computing platform. The application enables the creation of an image
based information resource of footwear impressions for subsequent verification within the automated footwear
trace registration system of the Forensic Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, and substantiates
the feasibility of its use. The study employed a range of methods, including a mathematical approach for acquiring
and structuring data and performing conversion calculations; logical methods of synthesis and analysis; a statistical
method to reveal interaction patterns among data elements; and generalization techniques. The scientific novelty lies
in justifying the use of a stand-alone application of the original software package to generate an information resource
of footwear traces for automated forensic registration. The approach incorporates a template for coding the names
of elementary tread patterns and entering their dimensional characteristics in a unified scale. The application relies
on techniques for forming a multidimensional-matrix information resource and for mathematically transforming
image scales to a common reference system, as well as coding objects using a predefined element-name template.
The MATLAB programming and numerical-computing environment, supplemented by the Image Processing
Toolbox, served as the development platform. The paper also outlines the key concepts and principles underlying the
application’s operation and specifies the tasks addressed, namely: creating a user-friendly system for input and storage
of research data; designing a prototype registration card for footwear impressions; ensuring a unified image scale
for all footwear-trace images; developing a template of tread-element names for coding geometric shapes; enabling
measurements of the dimensional characteristics of tread elements; building an information resource to support
subsequent comparative examinations of footwear impressions within the automated forensic registration system of
the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. Requirements are formulated for the images to be incorporated into the
central footwear-trace database (image format, scale bar, and resolution). The application’s operation is illustrated
with an example of registering a footwear trace. Future research directions include improving the client module of the
application, designing a standardized registration card in accordance with regulatory documents, and developing an
automated system for determining the shape and dimensional characteristics of tread elements when integrating data
into the unified database.