I guess we all have to stop making fun of CSI, because new research is allowing police to identify criminals just by using the reflections in a victim’s eye. Calling the pupil a “black mirror,” contrast-adjusted, high-resolution images of a victim’s face could start blowing cases wide open (do they say that still?)
Researchers from the Universities of York and Glasgow said that these eye-reflections could also help with recognizing the victim’s surroundings and location. They tested their theory by shooting photos of individuals while another person was in the room, and then zooming in on their pupils, revealing reflections 30,000 times smaller than their subject’s face. Though this did result in a loss of quality, they were still able to correctly name the person seen in the pupil 71-85% of the time.
The paper, published in PLOS One, noted that the “findings thus highlight the remarkable robustness of human face recognition, as well as the untapped potential of high-resolution photography.”
Seriously, though, stories like this always make me think of this scene from Blade Runner more than anything else:
(via Canada.com, image via Bradley Wells)
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