Forensic expert from UcLan to be guest presenter at Radio 4 Christmas lecture

Professor Charlie Frowd will explore e-photo composites where eyewitness use technology to paint a picture of a criminal’s face. In the old fashioned way, the audience will work together to build a face of a thief who stole a diamond ring , selecting facial features, eyes, nose and mouth. This “photo-fit” is compared to the face created by a member of the audience using UCLan’s award-winning facial-composite software EvoFIT. At the end of the show, the audience will vote on whether there was sufficient evidence in the mock-case to find the suspect guilty.

Charlie said: “With EvoFIT, it is now possible for an eyewitness to create the face of a perpetrator a day or two after a crime that can be correctly identified by other people about 60% of the time.”

He added: “It is such an honour to be involved in this year’s Ri Christmas lecture series and showcase this amazing technology.”

The Ri Christmas Lectures are the world's leading science lectures for young people. This year, the series will be led by Professor Dame Sue Black who will reveal the secrets of forensic science. The show will also examine other sources of evidence that may be available in a criminal investigation, including identity parades, CCTV, fingerprints and DNA. An expert in each field will be cross examined by a senior defence barrister.

EvoFIT is UCLan’s award winning facial-composite software (evofit.co.uk). This forensic system is the result of over 20 years of research and development, shaped by around 70 research papers and technical reports (evofit.co.uk/research). The system allows eyewitnesses to create an identifiable face of an offender, and works by copying nature: witnesses select from screens of faces, with choices combined, to allow a composite to be “evolved”. There are software tools to enhance an evolved face for heath, age, weight and other overall characteristics. The system is unique by allowing the important central part of the face to be created first, including a focus on the region around the eyes, with hair and other outer features added at the end.