MORPHOLOGY OF THE FACE AS A POSTMORTEM PERSONAL IDENTIFIER

The human face carries some of the most individualizing features suitable for the personal identification. Facial morphology is used for the face matching of living. An extensive research is conducted to develop the matching algorithm to mimic the human ability to recognize and match faces. Human ability to recognize and match faces, however, is not errorless and it serves as the main argument precluding the visual facial matching from its use as an identification tool. The human face keeps its individuality after death. Compared to the faces of living, the faces of deceased are rarely used or researched for the face matching. Different factors influence the appearance of the face of the deceased compared to the face of the living, namely the early postmortem changes and decomposition process. On the other hand, the literature review showed the use of visual recognition in multiple cases of identity assessment after the natural disasters. Presented dissertation thesis is composed of several projects focused on the possibility of personal identification of the decedents solely based on the morphology of their face. Dissertation explains the need for such identification and explores the error rates of the visual recognition of deceased, the progress of facial changes due to the early decomposition and the possibility of utilization of soft biometric traits, specifically facial moles. Lastly, the dissertation presents the use of shape index (s) as a quality indicator of three different 3D scanners aimed towards the most suitable method for obtaining facial postmortem 3D images.