The Problems of Positioning Skulls for Video Superimposition Technique

ABSTRACTVideo technology for skull face superimposition for identification purposes has been in use for about a decade. An electronic skull identification device (ESID) has been fabricated in which positioning of skull is achieved by adopting the method of Sekharan. First the photograph is enlarged to life size by taking into consideration the life size measurements of the face. From the life size photograph, flexion, extension, rotation and lateral flexion factors relating to the posture of the face as seen in the photograph are worked out. The skull is then positioned in a specially fabricated skull stand which is capable of permitting the skull all movements of the head. Another salient feature in this technique is that care is taken to bring exactly to 1:1 size the images of the skull and face photograph on the video monitor before superimposition and comparison are attempted.