To investigate the feasibility of application of digital images of the palatal rugae in forensic identification. One hundred patients, consisting of 50 males and 50 females, who received treatment between January 2015 and June 2015 at Shanxi Medical University Stomatological Hospital, China, were included in this study. High-resolution digital image of the palatal rugae was taken from each patient using a digital SLR camera and then processed using a digital image recognition system, including noise reduction, contrast enhancement, image segmentation, feature extraction, edge detection and information matching. Using an MATLAB software system, match results and the time taken by each operator for information matching were recorded. The digital image... |