*** 96-60332 Haynes This Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I project will investigate the capture of three-dimensional data from scratches or striations made on a bullet when the gun is fired, by which a unique signature which can be matched with other bullets fired from the same gun. Current practice of law enforcement agencies uses two-dimensional digitized data, where the associated matching algorithms have a 10% false match rate. This is enough to render the concept of a National Database for Ballistics Data unfeasible. Every query would yield tens of thousands of matches. Phase I will evaluate the comparison of three-dimensional striation images. Commercial application is expected in supplying units with the advanced three-dimensional capability to law enforcement agencies around the world. ***
