Impact of environmental factors on biometric matching during human decomposition

Automatic recognition systems are valuable tools for identifying unknown deceased individuals. Immediately after death, fingerprint and face biometric samples are easy to collect using standard sensors and can be easily matched to antemortem biometric samples. Even though early postmortem fingerprints and facial images have been used for identification purposes for decades, there are no studies that track these biometrics through the later stages of decomposition to determine the length of time they remain viable. This paper discusses a multimodal dataset of finger-prints, faces, and irises from twelve donated human subjects that decomposed outdoors under natural conditions. Results include predictive models relating time and temperature, measured as Accumulated Degree Days (ADD), and season (winter, spring, summer), to the probability of automatic verification using a commercial algorithm.