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Abstract
Good photographic documentations of bloodstains in crime scene investigations are important. However, untreated bloodstains are sometimes difficult to detect or photograph owing to the similarity of stains to the fabric colour or uneven illumination. A background correction algorithm was reported to have improved the visibility of bloodstains in photography. In this study, we investigate the digital enhancement of bloodstains on different substrates under the illumination of different wavelengths, namely 415 nm, 380 nm and 458 nm and an applied background correction algorithm (BCA) to enhance untreated bloodstain images captured by a Canon 50D digital camera. Results showed that the application of the BCA on images illuminated by 415 nm and 458 nm lights greatly improved the visibility and detection rate of diluted bloodstains on eight tested surfaces.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia Blood Transfusion Unit for providing the blood samples for completion of the research work. Special thanks are extended to the forensic officers in the Royal Malaysia Police Forensic Laboratory for their guidance in capturing the bloodstain images and Dr Geshina Ayu Mat Saat for editorial assistance.
Funding
This work is supported by Universiti Sains Malaysia through Postgraduate Fellowship Scheme and RU grant [1001/PELECT/814105] and Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia through FRGS grant [203/PELECT/6071188].