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As literature is poor in functional synthetic cranial models, in this study, synthetic handmade models of cranial vaults were produced in two different materials (a urethane resin and a self-hardening foam), from multiple bone specimens (eight original cranial vaults: four human and four swine), in order to test their resemblance to bone structure in behavior, during fracture formation. All the vaults were mechanically tested with a 2-kg impact weight and filmed with a high-speed camera. Fracture patterns were homogeneous in all swine vaults and heterogeneous in human vaults, with resin fractures more similar to bone fractures. Mean fracture latency time extrapolated by videos were of 0.75 msec (bone), 1.5 msec (resin), 5.12 msec (foam) for human vaults and of 0.625 msec (bone), 1.87 msec (resin), 3.75 msec (foam) for swine vaults. These data showed that resin models are more similar to bone than foam reproductions, but that synthetic material may behave quite differently from bone as concerns fracture latency times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identification from video surveillance systems is frequently requested in forensic practice. The '3D-2D' comparison has proven to be reliable in assessing identification but still requires standardization; this study concerns the validation of the 3D-2D profile comparison. The 3D models of the faces of five individuals were compared with photographs from the same subjects as well as from another 45 individuals. The difference in area and distance between maxima (glabella, tip of nose, fore point of upper and lower lips, pogonion) and minima points (selion, subnasale, stomion, suprapogonion) were measured. The highest difference in area between the 3D model and the 2D image was between 43 and 133 mm2 in the five matches, always greater than 157 mm2 in mismatches; the mean distance between the points was greater than 1.96 mm in mismatches, <1.9 mm in five matches ( p < 0.05). These results indicate that this difference in areas may point toward a manner of distinguishing 'correct' from 'incorrect' matches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechanical calibration and alignment are fundamental steps in the development of any new aerial photogrammetric scanner. One aim of a film scanner in the digital era is to digitise the accumulated historic archives of images belonging to photogrammetric institutes. The present analysis is centred on a scanner with a translating 2D array camera. Two phases of equal importance can be outlined: the first phase is the alignment of all the mechanical parts inside the scanner, and the second is mechanical calibration, when the systematic effects in the camera positioning are measured and compensated. Among the design requirements of this scanner was to avoid the need for geometrical modification of the scanned images: they should be acquired in the correct position and not require a posteriori correction with a software routine. The proposed solutions lead to a final result of a metrologically satisfactory scanner with a geometric uncertainty of 2 μm or less throughout the frame (250 mm × 250 mm), a value definitely smaller than the pixel size (10 μm/pixel). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]