Illuminate

Law enforcement investigators often come across digital images that contain valuable clues. These clues can range from unidentified brand logos, unique letters or designs, or even distinctive tattoo markings. Recognizing these clues and understanding their origin can help investigators pinpoint the source of the image.

Take, for example, a case provided by EUROPOL's Trace-an-Object program. Investigators were presented with a fragment of a shirt featuring a stylized creature design. The EUROPOL team wanted to identify the design and its origin to help determine the victim's location when the photo was taken.This is where Illuminate comes in.

Illuminate is a new technology that houses a vast collection of images provided by an investigator. When the investigator submits the new creature image to Illuminate, the application groups it with similar images in its database. The investigator can then review these grouped results to find other images that may provide more context. In this case, the investigator discovered another source image that revealed the creature design originated from a small seaside resort village on the Mediterranean. This information could be crucial in narrowing down the victim's location at the time the photo was taken. Illuminate is a powerful tool that can significantly aid law enforcement in their investigations.

Illuminate can be used in various ways to assist law enforcement investigations:

Pure Discovery: Investigators can upload images obtained from digital evidence into Illuminate. The application processes these images and groups them into clusters based on similarities. This feature allows investigators to view a large set of multimedia data from a different perspective, potentially revealing new insights.

Localization: As demonstrated in the EUROPOL example, investigators can upload an image containing an unidentified clue into Illuminate. The application, pre-loaded with a vast collection of images obtained from web scraping, can help identify the origin of the clue.

Jurisdictional Correlation: Investigators can use Illuminate to help determine if a crime occurred within their jurisdiction. By uploading thousands of images from across their jurisdiction into Illuminate, investigators can then compare a new image clue against this database. If the clue matches or clusters with images unique to their jurisdiction, it can indicate that the crime took place within their area of responsibility.

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