September 25, 2001

New System to Make Tracking Down Criminals Easier

Big books of mug shots at the police station have made an important contribution to crime fighting for years.  Now police officers may be able to access this essential crime-solving tool much more efficiently, thanks to the work of Dr. Hamid Krim, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State.

Krim and graduate student Gozde Bozkurt-Unal are working with wireless technology to make mug shots readily available electronically to police officers out in the field.  For their project, funded by the Criminal Justice Information Network (CJIN), the North Carolina Highway Patrol (NCHP) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), Krim and Bozkurt-Unal want to improve the quality of image reception by the laptop computers carried in police patrol cars.

The technology to send photos wirelessly to laptop computers has existed for some time, but a single image takes five to ten minutes to download, so the communication channel is being tied up and denied to other users during that time.  This renders the technology impractical for law enforcement use.

Krim is developing an image compression system based on mathematical computations.  The system compresses an image such as a mug shot into the fewest pieces of information possible while still retaining a recognizable image.  The image may then be sent to the laptop computer in a patrol car using wireless technology.

The challenges for Krim are to reduce the time required to download an image from minutes to seconds and to manipulate the computer coding so that the image can be easily decoded by the laptop unit.  His technique involves compressing state-of-the-art JPEG files so that the transmission of photos will be fast, reliable and clear, three requirements of the highway patrol.

Krim’s work has garnered widespread attention.  North Carolina is the national leader in this initiative, and government agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation are watching his study.  According to Krim, “If we succeed with our study, then this technique may become the standard throughout the nation for wireless image transmission.”

Krim is excited about this research for another reason:  this study shows a very practical application of mathematical computation.  “It shows you firsthand how mathematics can do things for people,” he said.  “That’s the beauty of it.”

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Media Contacts:  Dr. Hamid Krim, 919/513-2270, ahk@eos.ncsu.edu, Linda E. Rudd, 919/515-3848, linda_rudd@ncsu.edu