Digital image analysis of gunshot residue dimensional dispersion by computer vision method

Detection and identification of gunshot residues (GSR) have been used as base evidence in elucidating forensic cases. GSR particles consist of burnt and partially unburned material and contaminate the hands, face, hair, and clothes of the shooter when coming out of the gun. Nowadays, GSR samples are collected from the hands of the suspect and are analyzed routinely in forensic laboratories by the scanning electron microscope/energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDS) method. GSR particles are comprised of a morphological and specific structure (generally spherical and have a diameter between 0 and 100 μm [occasionally even larger]). In addition, the present studies in the field have claimed that GSR particles during formation are formed under equilibrium surface distribution and are unrelated to morphological dimensional classification. Our contribution to this study is two-folded. First, this study offers a new approach to identify images of GSR particles by computer vision gathered by SEM/EDS method from the hand of the shooter. Second, it presents open access to the SEM/EDS image data set of the analyzed GSR. During the study, a new data set consisting of 22,408 samples from three different types of MKEK (Mechanical and Chemical Industries Corporation) brand ammunition has been used. It is seen in the results that the computer vision method has been successful in the dimensional classification of GSR.