Can Digital Photography Replace The Visual Assessment of Bruise Age?

Can Digital Photography replace the
Visual Assessment of Bruise Age?
Martin R. Perrett
B.Sc. in Photography & Digital Imaging

University of Westminster
August 2009
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Martin R. Perrett
BSc Photographic Science and Digital Imaging
Table of Contents
i. Abstract.............................................. 4
ii. Hypothesis.......................................... 4
iii. Abbreviations...................................... 5
iv. Acknowledgements............................ 6
v. Introduction......................................... 7
1. The Role of Bruising in Forensic Science 8

1.1 What is a Bruise................................ 8
1.2 The Science of Bruising................... 8
1.3 The Appearance of a Bruise............. 9
1.4 The biochemistry of bruising and its repair 10
1.5 Visual assessment of a bruise......... 13
2. The Science of Colour............................ 16

2.1 Light................................................... 16
2.2 The human visual system................ 19
2.3 Colour Perception and Appearance 22
2.4 The inadequacies the human visual
system................................................ 23
2.5 Basics of Colour Reproduction....... 27
2.6 Metamerism....................................... 28
2.7 Colour matching and the CIE colorimetry
system............................................... 30
2.8 Colour Spaces and Colour Management 32
3. Measuring the colour of bruises.. 35

3.1 Spectrophotometry........................... 35
3.2 Colourimetry using tristimulus
Colourimetry..................................... 36
3.3 Colourimetry using digital cameras 37
Aims & Objectives.......................................... 40
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4. Methods....................................................... 41
4.1 Apparatus.............................................. 41
4.2 Software................................................ 41
4.3 Bruise creation..................................... 41
4.4. Image Capture..................................... 43
4.5 Measuring the Colour Chart................ 48
4.6 Pre-processing..................................... 48
4.7 Processing................................................... 50
4.8 Characterization Error......................... 54
5. Experimental and results........................... 56

5.1 Bruising.................................................. 56
5.2 Illumination............................................ 57
5.3 Colour Chart Measurements................ 58
5.4 Bruise changes with time..................... 59
5.5 Characterisation and Error................... 60
6. Discussion.................................................. 60
7. Conclusions................................................ 63
References.................................................. 64
Appendices............................................... 65
1. Colour Chart......................................... 66
2. Calibrating the Spectrophotometer... 66
3. Colour chart and greyscale Readings 68
4. Reproducibility data............................. 69
5. Bruise infliction times.......................... 70
6. Camera Settings................................... 70
7. Times and dates of photographs of bruise BL 71
8. Times and dates of photographs of bruise BU 71
9. Times and dates of photographs of bruise ML 72
10. Times and dates of photographs of bruise MR 73
11. Function for the extraction of data from
grey scale and colour chart..................... 73
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N.B. All images are in public domain unless otherwise stated. Images are
reproduced as .jpg and printed on a colour laser printer. High quality images of
results are provided on the DVD that accompanies.
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i. Abstract
It is well known that bruises change in colour as they dissipate over time. The
biological processes that return the skin to its regular state are well understood
and known to be the cause of this colour change. There seems to have been a
general acceptance in the medical and forensic communities that the age of a
bruise can be determined by the inspection of different colours present in the
bruise. Estimation of the age of a bruise is usually preformed by forensic
experts whose observations can have legal consequences.
This view has come in to question in recent publications 1 and also proven to be
unreliable in two recent undergraduate studies 2,3 performed at Barts Hospital
Medical School. However the correlated results of a number of papers
documenting the changing colour of bruises over their duration do suggest that
there is a trend4 from this the simple conclusion is made that a more
quantitative analysis of the colours in bruises is required in order to gain any
conclusive evidence that bruise colour relates directly to age.
ii. Hypothesis
It is possible to extract useful colour information from digital images of bruises
taken with consumer digital cameras. The analyses of such information could
lead to an effective and scientifically valid method to accurately determine the
age of a bruise for forensic purposes.
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iii. Abbreviations
A & E = Accident and Emergency (English equivalent of an Emergency Room)

CR2 = Canon Raw version 2 (file extension .CR2)
dpi = dots per inch
cm = centimetre, 10-2 m
CCD = Charge- coupled Device
CIE = Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage - the International
Commission on Illumination
CRT = Cathode Ray Tube
CVD = Colour vision deficiency
DVD = Digital Versatile Disc
EXIF- = Exchangeable image file format
FME = Forensic Medical Examiner
GUI = Graphical User Interface
ICC = International Colour Consortium
ISO = International Standard Organisation (referring to ISO 5800:1987 the
standard for measuring the speed of colour negative film)
JPEG = Joint photographic experts group (file extension .jpg)
K = Kelvin
LCD = Liquid Crystal Display
nm = nanometre, 10-9 m
PC = Personal Computer
RGB = Red, Green and Blue colour space
SPD = Spectral Power Distribution
sRGB = standard Red, Green and Blue colour space
TIFF = Tagged Image File Format (file extension .tif)
USB = Universal Serial Bus
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iv. Acknowledgements
First would to thank all Margaret Pilling and Sophie Grossman whose projects
where the starting point.
Secondly I would like to thank my farther Prof. David Perrett for introducing me
to the work of Pilling and Grossman and his help in me understanding the
biochemical side of this study and his guidance in the writing of the final project
report.
I would also like to thank all my course staff for their guidance and support,
John Smith, Dr. Efthimia Bilissi, Elizabeth Allen and Dr. Sophie Triantaphillidou.
Lastly I would like to thank the subjects who took part.
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v. Introduction
In his most recent review Langlois 5 asked whether there was any science
behind the quest to determine the age of bruises. The aim of this dissertation
taken in conjunction with the studies of PillingError: Reference source not found
and GrossmanError: Reference source not found is to try and apply a scientific
approach to Langlois’ question. Since Pilling and Grossman were both critical of
the abilities of forensic medical examiners to visually age bruises with any
accuracy, this research has to been to try and develop a reliable methodology
using digital cameras. It is necessary to link research into the medical, forensic
and biochemical science of bruises with knowledge of photographic and colour
reproduction techniques in order to develop my approach.
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1. The Role of Bruising in Forensic Science
1.1. What is a Bruise?

Everyone will have seen a bruise and more than likely suffered one. A bruise is
formed following a trauma, such as a bump, that does not break the skin but
damages the underlying blood vessels. Its appearance is due to the release of
blood into the skin or subcutaneous tissues6,7.
Figure 1.1: Types of bruises .The left hand image caused by an accident
(photo by M.R. Perrett), right hand image caused as a result of physical
violence (courtesy of Prof. P Vanezis).
1.2 The Science of Bruising
A bruise, also called a contusion, is defined as bleeding beneath intact skin and
it must not be confused with a bleed caused by other events, such as
venepuncture or at the site of an injection. Bruises are most commonly caused
by blunt force trauma but can also be caused by pressure changes. The trauma
in most cases will be accidental from both known and unknown causes.
Accidents can range from a simple un-noticed bump to a very serious injury due
to say a car crash. Bruises can also result from high contact sports such as
rugby, martial arts and boxing. Other causes of bruising are following many
hospital operations and some types of dental treatment. Some diseases, e.g.
haemophilia, and certain drugs, e.g. aspirin, can cause subcutaneous bleeding
which can cause bruises to appear without an injury having occurred.
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Bruises often result from physical violence associated with criminal violence,
assault and abuse. Knowing the age of the bruise can be important evidence in
confirming whether or not a bruise resulted from such an attack. Currently it is
the role of a forensic medical examiner (FME) to estimate the age of the
bruise(s) with their professional opinion being used as evidence. Details such
as the location of the bruise and time and date of inspection of the bruising are
recorded. It is also essential that colour photography used to document the
bruising to ensure a permanent record of its appearance as this will change and
once the bruise has healed there will be no trace of it left on the subjectError:
Reference source not found. The photograph will then become of evidential
importance.
1.3 The Appearance of a Bruise
The development and appearance of a bruise depends on several factors

including:
Appearance of the skin: Skin colour is determined predominantly by the

amount of the brown pigment, melanin in the skin. This varies considerably with
ethnicity and also changes with exposure to sunlight. It is much more difficult to
observe bruises in individuals with darker skin colouration. Skin appearance is
also dependant on the degree of dilation of the blood vessels in the skin and
beneath it. This effect is seen more in individuals of lighter skin tone. Both the
production of melanin and the sub-cutaneous blood flow vary on different parts
of the body and variance in blood flow can also be due to scarring and burns.
Severity of the trauma: According to Shepherd8, the damage to blood vessels

and therefore amount of blood extravasated is proportional to the force applied.
This in turn would affect the depth below the surface at which injury has
occurred. Deeper bruises are obscured by the overlying tissues.
The area of the body: Vascularity of the underlying tissue, connective tissue
support and the amount of subcutaneous fat at the site of injury all affect the
development of a bruise. Bruising tends to occur more readily in highly
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vascularised areas, as well as in those areas where there is loose tissue (e.g.
around the eyes or genitals) and more subcutaneous fat. This is opposed to
areas where the bone is close to the skin9,10 and bruising is difficult.
Age: Bruising tends to occur more easily in infants 11 and the elderly. In infants,
there is an excess of loose skin and subcutaneous fat, whereas elderly
individuals tend to have poorly supported, and therefore fragile, blood vessels
that are more likely to rupture forming a bruise. Bruises in these age groups will
take longer to resolveError: Reference source not found.
Gender: Females tend to bruise more readily than males due to their greater
amounts of subcutaneous fatError: Reference source not found.
Illness: These includes bleeding disorders, supportive tissue disorders, and

other conditions that may lead directly to an altered level of bleeding or clotting,
or indirectly via changes to the blood vessels and surrounding structures.
Drugs: Many drugs, e.g. blood thinning drugs such as warfarin, even at
therapeutic levels, affect how readily bruises may form and heal. There are also
medical treatments for bruises such as arnica and witch-hazel that are said to
help increase the dissipation of a bruise.
1.4 The biochemistry of bruising and its repair.
Haemoglobin (figure 1.2) is the main protein in red blood cells and is
responsible for supplying oxygen to all parts of the human body. A haemoglobin
molecule consists of 4 smaller proteins known as globins: usually 2 alpha
globins and 2 beta globin. These 4 proteins are associated with a small iron-
containing molecule called haem (figure 1.3). The red colour of haemoglobin is
present when the iron in haem binds oxygen.
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Figure 1.2. The structure of haemoglobin showing the alpha-globins (red) and
beta-globin (blue) and the haems are shown in green. Source Wikipedia
The force of a trauma damages the blood vessels under the skin. Once blood
has leaked in to the subcutaneous tissue the body immediately starts a process
to remove the blood. As the blood leaks into the surrounding tissue there is an
inflammatory response that starts the degradation and removal of the red
cellsError: Reference source not found. This is done first by recruiting anti-
inflammatory white blood cells, called macrophages, which digest the red blood
cells by a process known as phagocytosis. This breaks down red cells into their
constituent parts releasing the haemoglobin. The haemoglobin is then further
broken down releasing the haem, which is red-black in colour, and the
uncoloured globin molecules (figure 1.4). The haem then loses the iron atom
converting it in to biliverdin (figure 1.5). This is then further degraded to the
more open organic chemical structure called bilirubin (figure 1.6). It is these
processes that accounts for the colour changes seen as a bruise dissipates; the
haemoglobin and haem appear as red/purple/blue depending on the depth and
level of oxygenation. It is the presence of biliverdin that accounts for the green
colouration and the bilirubin for the yellow, which supports the forensic experts
who say that the appearance of yellow was of most significance when ageing
bruises. The released iron can also added to the colours observed being
somewhat black in colour.
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Haemoglobin
Haem + globins
Biliverdin
+:
Bilirubin
Figure 1.3. Schematic of the break down of haemoglobin indicating the colour
changes.
Figure 1.4 The structure of haem
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Figure 1.5 The structure of Biliverdin
Figure 1.6 The structure of Bilirubin
1.5 Visual assessment of a bruise
When the age of a bruise is called into question in a criminal or coroners’ court,
a forensic medical expert or witness will be called to give their opinion. Their
opinion can, of course, have far-reaching medico-legal consequences. Such
witnesses are either, qualified forensic pathologists, specially qualified general
practitioners or, increasingly, specialist nurses. They are generally referred to
as forensic examiners. Currently there is no standardised methodology for
visually assessing the age of a bruise with forensic examiner using their
personal experience. Various forensic textbooks give guidance as to how to
estimate the age of a bruise. According to Langford et al 12, in discussing bite
marks, specific colours can be related to the age of bruise as indicated in table
1.1. Bohnert et al13 used similar descriptions of bruise colouration.
ShepherdError: Reference source not found in the latest edition of the standard
work Simpson’s Forensic Medicine describes similar colour changes but
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cautions against using them as a “clock” to age a bruise. He quotes “research in

the 1980’s showed that if yellow was identified, the bruise was over 18 hours
old, whereas if no yellow could be seen, the bruise could not be reliably aged”.
He further comments that “it is to be hoped that further research will elucidate
this matter.”
Table 1.1. Ageing of bruises by their colour (adapted from reference 11)
Age Colours
Initial Purple red / blue
1- 3 days Brown, greenish brown
4 - 5 days Greenish brown, greenish yellow
7 -10 days Yellowish brown, tan and yellow
Over 14 - 15 days Normal skin colour returns
According to the twenty three forensic experts interviewed by GrossmanError:

Reference source not found1 in her survey, the following criteria are used when
visually assessing bruises. (The first number in the brackets denotes the
number of experts stating the criteria as relevant to their assessment).
1. Colour (23/23)
2. Size (6/23)
3. Intensity (17/23)
4. Other criteria named included swelling, texture such as “pitting”,

surrounding erythema (reddening of skin), sharpness of the edge and “gut
impression”. (6/23)
All the FMEs placed considerable emphasis on colour in their assessments.

“Yellow” and “red” colourations were said to have the most relevance with
purple, blue, brown and green also being citied as important by the forensic
experts. This tends to agree with the biochemical break down in a bruise. The
initial leakage of blood under the skin appears as red or dark purple. The
1
I was personally involved with these recent studies carried out by undergraduate medical students at
Bart’s and the London School or Medicine and Dentistry, who were undertaking a forensic medicine
course option research project.
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haemoglobin then becomes oxidised and is degraded. These changes result in

yellow becoming present as haemoglobin breaks down into biliverdin
The same study asked 28 forensic experts, who supplied the above information
to assess the age of a selection of photographs of bruises of known ages. The
images showed only the area of skin that had been inflicted with a bruise via the
use of a suction pump and were un-doctored other than to remove identifying
marks. All the images had been taken with a digital SLR, and printed out by a
commercial photo-lab. These photographs were from a previous studyError:
Reference source not found* were every effort had been made to ensure that
the photographs were as standardised as possible by using flash photography
and including a colour chart used to aid the colour reproduction.
The accuracy of their estimates varied considerably with many being erroneous
to the extreme that some examiners can be out by as much as a month. Clearly
criminal convictions may indeed have resulted from the testimony provided by
expert witnesses. However it is now clear that the process used by FMEs is
itself very flawed and in need of replacement by a more reliable, preferably
accurate method. In order to do this we need knowledge of how colours can be
accurately defined and measured.
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2. The Science of Colour
Up until now in this dissertation, the term colour and other terms relating to it
have been used in a rather colloquial way. Munang 14 found a marked variability
in colour description of bruise and severely questioned the practice of
estimating bruise age from photographs in child protection proceedings. In the
sixteen previous studies surveyed by Dimitrova et alError: Reference source not
found details of colours described by forensic experts in their visual assessment
of bruises resulted in nineteen different terms being used to describe colours:
such as blue-black; purple-black; dark purple; yellow-green; green; red; livid
red. This same problem can be seen in the study of GrossmanError: Reference
source not found. In the most extreme of examples of mis-ageing a bruise
reported in her study the forensic examiner might have unknowingly been
colour blind. The problem with using such descriptions is that the blue black
described in one study may differ from the blue black described by another or
the purple black used may differ between the two researchers.
There is no standardisation of this descriptive terminology. It becomes a

subjective viewpoint of the observer and/or researcher thus it is necessary to
talk about colour in a more exact, accurate, quantitative and scientific manner if
it is to be of use for the purposes of forensic analysis and evidence in court.
There are international commissions such as the CIE (The Commission
Internationale de L’Eclairage) and many detailed publications on the measuring,
imaging and reproduction of colour. In the following section I give an overview
of the areas of colour that are important so that this project is presented in a
clear and accessible manner.
2.1 Light
Electromagnetic radiation consists of streams of energy possessing photons or
varying wavelengths. Light is only a small part of the wider electromagnetic
spectrum. Visible light is electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths falling
between approximately 400 nm and 700 nm15, which can stimulate the human
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visual system. Colour only exists in the perception of radiation with wavelengths
in this range. “White” light is only produced from a combination of this range of
wavelengths. Colour is attributed to light of more specific wavelengths as
commonly demonstrated by the splitting of white light into the visible spectrum
using a prism, diffraction grating or naturally in a raindrop forming a rainbow.
Sources of light can be described by their spectral power distribution (SPD)
which is the relative power of each wavelength emitted by the source. Because
they all differ it is necessary to normalise the spectral power distribution for
purposes of comparison. By definition this is performed by dividing the function
by the function’s value at 560 nm. Figure 2.1 illustrates the power from some
different sources of light. All the SPDs shown in figure 2.1 are perceived as
being “white” light. However it is clear, that looking at their SPDs, that some
evidently have more power towards the blue end of the spectrum whilst others
have more power at the red end. Yet others have intense spikes due to
including metals in the light source.
Figure 2.1 Spectral power distributions of three common illuminants

(Reproduced from reference Error: Reference source not found).
In figure 2.1 it is apparent that blue sky has increasingly more power towards
the blue end of spectrum while a tungsten filament lamp has increasingly more
energy towards the red end of the spectrum. The energy of mean noon sunlight
is more equally spread across the spectrum. The human visual system
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compensates for these differences so that a “white” object appears white when
viewed under each of these light sources. Note that the SPDs are all equal as
they have been normalised at 560 nm.
Most objects do not themselves possess intrinsic “colour”. It is the interaction of

light with an object by absorbance, reflectance, scatter or transmittance that
gives objects their colour. An object can only interact with the wavelengths
incident upon it. For example an object that reflects red light when viewed using
light of blue wavelengths will appear black as it is unable to reflect any of the
incident wavelengths. However when object of is viewed under two differing
illuminants, that cover a sufficient range of the visible spectrum, for example
day light and tungsten, there is a tendency that it will appear the same colour
under both. This is known as colour constancy and is due to the cognitive
process known as colour adaption by which the neural processing of the brain
corrects for the differing spectral power distribution of a scene.
Figure 2.2 A picture of a bruise taken under an unknown illuminant with

the colour temperature set as left: 2800K (average tungsten) centre:
balanced to white background, right: 6500K (Average Daylight).
The difference in colour between the two light sources becomes apparent in the
imaging process (as shown in figure 2.2) as there is not yet a colour constancy
algorithm for computer vision that is effective as the human vision system 16. It is
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thus important in the reproduction of colour that colour temperature of the

illuminant is known. This is so called as it relates to the temperature at which a
blackbody radiator2 will emit light that matches the chromaticity of the illuminant,
this is expressed in degrees Kelvin (K). While most everyday illuminants are not
produced by blackbody radiators their SPDs can be approximated to one, and is
this that determines the white-point or colour balance of a scene. Digital
cameras allow the user to set the white balance to a preset and most newer
models will have an “auto white-balance”. In order to ensure a scene has the
correct colour balance a reference white and ideally other neutral colours (grey
and black) should be present in the scene which can be used during a
processing phase to ensure the correct white point of the image.
2.2 The human visual system
The human visual system is a combination of the optics and the detectors within
the eye and the neural processing and cognition of signals sent from the eye to
the brain. Colour is only attributed to the perceived light due to the processing,
in the visual cortex of the brain, of the responses to light generated in the eye.
The full workings of this process are still not fully understood and so the
following section does contain a simplified explanation how colour is perceived
but with enough detail to give a sufficient understanding to help with the
comprehension of later sections.
2
A blackbody radiator is an idealised object that emits an SPD dependent on its temperature.
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Figure 2.3 A cross-section of a typical human eye.
At the front of the eye the cornea and lens focus the light onto the cells of the
retina at the rear of the eye. The retina is covered with millions of light sensitive
cells of two types: rods and cones. Rods are reasonably efficient for detecting
low intensities levels of light and are more sensitive in the blue part of the
spectrum. This is why colours are less noticeable at night and tend to appear a
lighter blue than they do during the day. As light intensities increase the rods
are deactivated and the cones become the primary light sensors. Cones come
in three types, each of which is sensitive to a different range of wavelengths
(the relative sensitivities shown in figure 2.4). Fundamentally they are the colour
receptors. There are cones with peak sensitivities at short (440 nm), medium
(545 nm) and long wavelengths (580 nm)173 denoted as S, M and L respectively
each type containing a unique pigment. These correspond roughly to blue,
green and red, which is why they are also sometimes referred to as r, g and b
respectively and they can also be denoted by the Greek characters β, γ and ρ
respectively. The responses of the three sets of cones are combined and
transmitted to the visual cortex of the brain. The reduction of the spectrum into
just three responses is called trichromacy. It is trichromacy that gives rise to the
3
These values are still the subject of some debate but suffice here as rough guidelines.
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Martin R. Perrett
phenomena known as metamerism, were spectrally differing lights are

perceived to be the same colour18. This is the most important aspect of colour
vision in terms of being able to reproduce the wide variety of colours effectively.
This is explained in more depth throughout this section.
Figure 2.4 Normalised spectral sensitivities of the S, M and L cone types.
Figure 2.4 shows how the spectral sensitivities of the S, M and L cones over
lap, a great deal in the case of the M and L cones. Our ability to discriminate
colours is helped by this over lapping as well as the uneven numbers of each
cone type, the ratio of S:M:L cones being around is 6:3:1 19. The cones and rods
are distributed differently across the retina with only cones being present at the
fovea, which is located directly behind the lens. Away from the fovea the
number of cones and their density decrease. It is the foveal vision that is
responsible for perception of the viewing of fine detail that is picked up by the
foveal vision scanning a scene and picking out areas of interest. The cones and
rods do not send the signals they generate to the brain separately but rather
interconnect to form receptive fields. The signals sent to the brain are thus a
combination of responses from all three different cone types and rods to form
three types of receptive fields which send information to the visual cortex
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through three opponent channels. It is this process that gives rise to the
opponent nature of vision as explained in the following section.
2.3 Colour Perception and Appearance
Figure 2.5 A schematic of the Munsell Color System showing how the
descriptive qualities of a colour, hue, chroma and lightness (value) relate
to each other
Using the idea of combining various amounts of red, green, and blue
trichromacy it can be hard to relate this to common descriptions of colour such
as a colour's hue, saturation and lightness. It is through the opponent nature of
vision that these characteristics of colour appearance can be related to the
process of how the spectrally differing light it is perceived. Of the three
opponent channels two are for the transmission of information to colour red
versus green and blue versus yellow. It is so called, because under normal
conditions, it is impossible to see a colour one could describe as a greenish-red
or a yellowish-blue. The third channel relates achromatic information to the
brain, i.e. how light or dark the colour is. It also refers to the level of luminance
since again one cannot see something that is both light and dark
simultaneously. Figure 2.5 shows how these three channels can combine to
produce a method to arrange colours systematically, on three perpendicular
axes, one for each opponent channel. It can then be said that on the plane of
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Martin R. Perrett
the yellow-blue and red-green axis colours vary with their distance from the
intersection in the middle with the lightness axis and the angle it is about the
intersection. The distance from the achromatic axis is either referred to as
chroma but would more commonly be described as the degree of saturation.
(These however along with other terms in italics here have mathematically
defined value as described in the next section.) That is to say that various
intensities of pink could be described as being heavily or lightly saturated reds.
It is when all the colours are fully saturated that they create a ‘band’ that
consists of the visible spectrum bent round so that the red end is joined the blue
via purple hues that do not appear in the spectrum. Using opponent principles
these hues can all be described as being bluish-greens, greenish-yellow,
yellowish-reds, reddish-blues etc. though we have more common names for
some of these such as orange and purple for example. Other than those hues
between red and violet all the hues can be related to a singular, or
monochromatic, wavelength of light. Thus all colours can be described in terms
of their lightness, saturation and hue, which is far more relevant than describing
colours as being so much red and so much green, especially as has just been
stated we cannot perceive certain colour combinations for example red and
green.
2.4 The inadequacies human visual system
Even in the area of colour research there is still not consistent use of words to
describe colour20. It cannot be assumed that forensic examiners will be well
versed in the terms they use to describe colour. While they are experts in
matters of medicine and forensic pathology it is highly unlikely they will also be
what are known as experienced colour observers. A prime example of this
comes from the previously cited results of GrossmanError: Reference source
not found of bruise appearance where 17 of 23 forensic examiners stated that
the “intensity of bruise colour” was relevant to the age of a bruise. It is not clear
whether they are using this term as a synonym for lightness or for chroma. The
forensic textbooks referred to previouslyError: Reference source not foundError:
Reference source not foundError: Reference source not found do not mention
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anything about the saturation or lightness of the colour terms they use. If an
effective standardised methodology for the visual assessment of bruises was to
be devised it would most likely have to take in to consideration the all physical,
physiological and psychological components of the human visual system.
Whether the bruise is viewed in vivo or in vitro (thus ignoring matters of

reproduction, which are below) the physical parameters must include the
spectral properties and intensity of the light under which the bruise is viewed
and any colours in the background or surrounding area. These relate more
directly to the psychological effects of the observer viewing images such the
colour constancy which is the process that keeps whites appearing white under
differing spectral distribution and colour memory, which adjusts how an
observer perceives a colour based on a memory of what is looks like.
The physiological effects include the level of adaptation from photopic (night)
vision to scotopic vision. It can take minutes to adjust properly on going from
light to dark. All these, as well as simple factors such as the distance at which a
colour is viewed and even its size and shape effect the perception of hue,
lightness and colourfulnessError: Reference source not found. They would thus
all need to be taken in to consideration when a forensic examiner assesses a
bruise as subtle changes in the perceived colour of a bruise could obviously be
confused with the subtle change in the actual colour of the bruise that could
reveal an accurate age.
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One of the most important considerations and one for which there appears to be
an almost complete lack of consideration for what is commonly called colour
blindness. It again would be better to describe such individual as having a
colour vision deficiency (CVD) as in most cases described by the general use of
the term colour blindness colour is still perceived, just in a distorted manner.
Cases of monochromacy, where colour is not perceived at all is due to
either a complete lack of functioning cones or only one functioning type
of cones, are extremely rare. More common are cases of dichromacy
where only two functioning cone types are present and anomalous
trichromacy where all three cone types are present but one of the cones is
anomalous meaning their perception of colour differs from the rest of the
population. A review of papers looking at colour vision deficiency in the
medical community by Spalding 21 showed the prevalence was similar to
that of the wider population in that the most common form of colour vision
deficiency is deuteranomalous, which greatly decreases the efficiency of
discriminating between the colours that are normally perceived as red and
green as demonstrated in figure 2.6. This is present in around 5% of males with
other types “red-green” deficiencies being present in around 3% of males.
These figures are far lower for the female population at below 1% for all types of
“red-green” deficiencies. Blue-yellow deficiencies are rare but still present in
around 1 in 10 000 of the population. Spalding 22 also conducted a further study
on how colour vision deficiency affects the assessment of clinical photographs
by medical professionals. This showed that examiners with CVD have inherent
difficulties in assessing certain medical conditions. It has been asserted that the
perception of reds is crucial in the assessment of bruise age it is highly unlikely
a forensic examiner with a “red-green” deficiency would be able to age a bruise
with a high degree confidence.
25
Martin R. Perrett
Figure 2.6 Left a digital image of bruise photographed with a colour chart
present. Right the same image was processed to approximately appear
how someone with deuteranope, which causes “red-green” colour
deficiency, would perceive the colours present in the image. It is clear the
redness that would tell a FME that the bruise is relatively young is not
clear in the right hand image (This was generated online using at
www.vischeck.com), (Photo M. R. Perrett).
It is not stated in any of the studies reviewed in the present text whether the
forensic examiners partaking in them were screened for colour vision
deficiencies as there is almost a 1 in 12 possibility disregarding gender (1 in 12
in men) that any given participant will have a colour vision deficiency. The
screening processes are very simple with the use of Ishihara colour test plates
(an example of one is shown in figure 2.7) being the most common method.
There are many websites providing online colour vision deficiency tests.
However even in the population of those with normal colour vision there is
significant23 variation due to variance in the shape receptor and in the chemical
compounds they work by. There is also a natural “yellowing” of the lens with
26
Martin R. Perrett
age24 that in an advanced form is known a cataract. While this is usually

corrected by chromatic adaption it could well have an effect on the perception of
the yellow colours which are of importance when examining bruises.
Figure 2.7 An Ishihara colour test plate to test for red-green colour
blindness. Someone with normal colour vision would see the number
“74” where as someone who was red green colour blind would not.
It is clear from the survey of the literature reported above that the human visual
system is an exceptional useful and versatile system. Many of the processes
that make it so useful are detrimental to the accurate viewing of colour that
would be needed to age a bruise to a degree of accuracy that would be
significantly valuable. It cannot be ignored though that the perception of colour
is a useful tool for the description of bruises however in order for a bruises
colour to be described in enough detail to be suitable for scientific study a
quantified colour system must be defined for use.
2.5 Basics of Colour Reproduction
It is taught from a young age that primary colours, erroneously usually said to
be red green and yellow, can be combined to make a multitude of other colours.
The confusion arises from the two ways that colours can combine. The true
primary colours are red, green and blue, which has stated above correspond
27
Martin R. Perrett
approximately to the short, medium and long cone receptors in the eye. These
colours only work as primaries when using additive colour mixing, as shown on
the left of figure 2.8. Just as white light can be split in to the visible spectrum, in
principle red, green and blue lights can be combined (note the starting “colour is
black”) to produce the secondary colours, cyan (blue and green), magenta (red
and blue) and yellow (green and red). These colours are produced when using
equal intensities of the pure corresponding primaries; it is when equal (high)
intensities of each are combined that “white” is produced. When there are equal
intensities of each primary colour but they are not intense enough to be
perceived as white light, varying shades of greys are perceived. It is by
combining three primary colours at varying intensities that the computer monitor
that this is being typed (and maybe being read from) can display a multitude of
colours using pixels that are composed of just three different sub-pixels each
corresponding to one of the additive primaries. It is this same principle that is
used by nearly all colour devices such as televisions and data-projectors.
Figure 2.8 The left hand image demonstrates the additive principle of
colour where Red, Green and Blue light combine to form the secondary
colours Cyan, Magenta and Yellow with all three combining to make white
as primarily used in electronic displays. The right hand image shows how
the secondary colours are subtracted from white to form the primaries and
a near black as used primarily in printing.
28
Martin R. Perrett
If however you are reading this dissertation printed on white paper a different
method is used to create the various colours seen. This is known as subtractive
mixing, which works in the opposite way to additive mixing as seen on the right
hand side of figure 2.8. When viewed under white light various wavelengths are
absorbed, or subtracted, by the inks, pigments or dyes (collectively known as
colourants) used in the printing process, to produce the array of colours
present. In the subtractive process primaries of yellow, magenta and cyan are
used however these are not ideal and so a black is used in order to produce
dark tones, this thus referred to as CMYK, (K used for black and B is used to
denote B). It is important to keep in mind that if viewed on a monitor the additive
method is also being used to display the colours shown in the example
subjective mixing and vice versa is viewing a printed copied.
2.5 Metamerism
It is this property of the visual system that allows us to effectively reproduce
colour in devices such as televisions and computer monitors using only of red,
green and blue or via CMYK printing, it is important to note that when either of
these methods is used to reproduce a colour it is only a closely matching
metameric colour that is being produced.
Figure 2.9 Metameric spectrums of light skin and foliage. The dashed
line in both graphs shows examples of the reflective properties of light
skin and foliage while the solid line shows the spectrums emitted by a
RBG phosphor CRT monitor. In both cases the widely differing
29
Martin R. Perrett
spectrums are perceived to be the same colour. (Reproduced from

reference Error: Reference source not found page 191)
2.7 Colour matching and the CIE colorimetry system
Before the availability of spectrophotometers, methods, such as the Lovibond

Comparator and the Munsell Color System which were used to arrange colours
in a systematic manner had to rely on colour perception. However as has been
described above, these fall short, as the perceptual attributes change with
illuminant and observer. The physical properties of an object that result in colour
do not change. To over come this problem the colours need to match colours
with precision and accuracy.
As described above all colours along the visible spectrum can be matched by
combining three (practically) monochromatic lights. It is this idea, relating to the
three cone receptor types, that has been used to build what is currently the
most widely used standardised colourimetry system. This system uses colour
matching experiments in which a test field of light of wavelength λ is visually
matched by adjusting the amounts of the primary R, G and B primary lights in
an adjacent reference field. The first colour matching functions set out by the
CIE employed a 2ofield of vision that covered only the area is was believed the
foveal vision covered, these function where adopted by the CIE in 1931 and are
now know as the CIE 1931 standard observer and it is these functions that have
become the back bone of modern colourimetry. In 1964 the CIE developed
another set of functions that used a 10o standard observer, and differ from the
1931 observer.
30
Martin R. Perrett
Figure 2.10 XYZ Colour Matching Functions of the CIE 1931 standard
observer. These are a transform of the original experimental values that
contained negative values that were not easily manipulated before
computers.
The colour matching functions showed the proportions of each of the primaries
lights used needed to match the colour perceived of light of a given wavelength
λ. It was however found that there were some colours in the spectrum that could
only be matched by adding the R primary to the test field. Because of this the
functions r(λ), g(λ) and b(λ) were transformed to the functions x(λ),
y(λ) and z(λ) (shown in figure 2.10). These are then related directly to the
spectral power distribution I(λ) by the equation 2.1.
Equation 2.1
With these equations we can calculate the X, Y and X values of any given
spectral power distribution, when these are used for some measuring
transmitted of reflective light a weighting of k is used25. Remembering that two
very different spectral power distributions these can be perceived as the same
31
Martin R. Perrett
colour tristimulus values are how a colour is defined. However these values
need to be accompanied with information of the standard illuminant used to
measure them and the standard observer used.
Equation 2.2
The CIE system was designed so that the Y value corresponds to the
brightness or luminance of the colour. This was done so that three tristimulus
values could be reduced to two chromaticity coordinates which then be shown
on a two dimension plot. Equation 2.2 is used to achieve this. The resulting
Chromaticity Diagram (shown in figure 2.11) thus shows all the possible
chromaticities visible to the human eye.
Figure 2.11 CIE1931 xyY Chromaticity diagram for the 2 oobserver
32
Martin R. Perrett
The abstract three dimensional plot of the CIE 1931 standard observer is known
as a colour space. The colour space can be used for effectively showing the
colour gamut of a display system such as a computer monitor or printer by
plotting the points of the primaries of the device on a CIE1931 xyY chromaticity
diagram and joining them. This forms a triangle containing all the chromaticities
(at a given colour temperature for monitors) that it is possible for the device to
output. It may be a case that some of the colours that may be useful in ageing a
bruise may fall outside of the colour gamut of some imaging or reproduction
devices and this is a area that may well need a comprehensive study to
determine the reliability of such devices for use in bruise analyse.
2.8 Colour Spaces and Colour Management
Any colour space should in theory be able to be converted to any number of

other colour spaces that are of a more practical use in the field they are being
used in. Printers as explained above use a CMYK colour space. The standard
sRGB colour space was developed for the reproduction of colours on monitors
and the internet and is now used as a colour space in many digital capture
devices. Digital images should have an ICC profile ‘embedded’ or encoded in to
their metadata4. This profile allows a device to read from the image file how to
reproduce the colours of the image correctly. This is basics of the process
known as colour management, which is very important in a situation such as
analysing the colours present in a bruise as the process of managing workflow
so that any reproductions of a bruise will be as true to the original as possible.
It is important to note here that it may be the case that some colour
management systems may be optimised for the aesthetic appearance rather
than for accurate colour reproduction.
Colour management can be a very complex task when many devices such as
scanners, cameras, displays and printers are employed as each needs to be
able to know how all the other devices in the workflow have encoded the
4
Metadata is information stored in an image file that holds information about the
image or file rather than the data that stores the actual image data. In an MP3
file for example the files metadata can hold the artists name and the song title.
33
Martin R. Perrett
colours in the digital image. The most effective method of simplifying colour
management is for each device to encode the image to a device-independent
colour profiles based on colorimetric values. This enable a wide array of devices
to be able to effectively keep colours managed. If a small number of devices is
being used in a “closed loop” in that the information will stay on only the
machines in the loop then it maybe best to use device-dependent colour profiles
as that way there is less room for errors. An important area of colour
management is device characterisation, which maps the output of a device, be
an input or output device, to a set of known inputs. For example allows for two
characterised monitors showing the exact same digital image to reproduce the
same colours on the display whereas two un-characterised monitors may
display the image considerably differently.
where
Equation 2.3
An important colour space is the CIE L*a*b* space (shown in figure 2.12) which
is a transform of the XYZ colour space (equation 2.3) 5 that is more visually
relevant in that the component channels are arranged on an opponent axis. L*
being the brightness channel (brightness being the absolute value for lightness)
and a* and b* on a perpendicular plane with a* approximating red-green
5
Xn, Yn and Zn are the CIE XYZ tristimulus values of the reference white point.
34
Martin R. Perrett
opposition and b* approximating blue-yellow opposition. From a* and b* the hue

angle (hab) can be calculated (using equation 2.4) to define the hue. A hue angle
with +a* and +b* (0-90o) being predominantly red, a hue angle with -a* and +b*
(90o-180o) being predominantly purple, a hue angle with -a* and -b* (180 o-270o)
being predominantly blue, a hue angle with +a* and -b* (270 o-0o/360o) being
predominantly green.
hab = arc tan(b*/a*)
Equation 2.4
As the CIE L*a*b* space is perceptually relevant it can be used to calculate

colour differences (in there simplest form) using Euclidean geometry to give a
value ΔE*ab as a measure of visible colour difference. This a very useful tool for
measuring the error of colour reproduction. Studies that have used the CIE
L*a*b* to show the results of their assessment of skin colourError: Reference
source not found have shown that the colour of skin is far more variable on the
a* axis, than on the b* axis. As it is the ‘yellow’ biliverdin present in bruises that
the literature suggests is the best way to age a bruise, this would suggest that
b* value that is likely to vary in relation to the bruise age while the a* will only
vary with skin colour. It is for this reason this project aims to characterise the
captured images to the CIE L*a*b* colour space.
Figure 2.12 CIE L*a*b* space at three values of L*
3. Measuring the colour of bruises
3.1 Spectrophotometry
35
Martin R. Perrett
The chemical components of a bruise have different spectral characteristics.

These can be measured by transmission spectrophotometry figure 3.1 shows
the spectra of solutions of haemoglobin, bilirubin and biliverdin measured in the
laboratory at Barts. Haemoglobin has a large absorbance peak at 414nm – its
red colour whilst bilirubin also absorbs at 390nm and at 680nm. This data
corresponds to that given in the review of LangloisError: Reference source not
found. It is normally impractical to use transmission spectrophotometry on living
or intact tissues such as a bruise.
1.4
1.2
1
Haemoglobin
Absorbance (AU)
Bilirubin
0.8 Biliverdin
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
300 400 500 600 700 800 900
Wavelength (nm)
Figure 3.1 The spectra of the haemoglobin and its breakdown products
3.2 Colourimetry using tristimulus colourimetry
A practical approach is to use reflectance spectrophotometry to measure the

reflectance spectra of a bruise. There is a tendency to confuse transmission
and reflectance colourimetry in the literature. Colourimetry is the measurement
of the spectra in the visible region. LangloisError: Reference source not found
reviewed the limited literature on the analyses of skin colour using colourimetry
36
Martin R. Perrett
and extended this to a small number of studies on bruises. Trujillo, Vanezis and
Cermignani26 were among the first to use this technique to measure bruises.
More recently Langlois’ group27 have used a standard spectrophotometer
modified with a fibber optic cable and reflectance probe for the demonstration of
haemoglobin and its degradation in bruises.
The use of sophisticated equipment is not normally applicable in the A & E

department of a hospital, a police station or a mortuary. It would be of great
benefit if a method could be developed using more widely available and
versatile equipment, such as digital cameras. As it is already a protocol to
photograph a bruise for recording the evidence such a method would be highly
practical.
3.3 Colourimetry using digital cameras
Digital cameras work by the lens focusing light on to a photosensor array, with
each pixel element (pixel) outputting an electrical response proportional the light
incident upon it. There are several varieties of photosensor used in current
digital camera but the most common is the charge-coupled device (CCD).
These are sensitive to a wide range of wavelengths extending from the short
wavelengths of the visible spectrum into the infra-red. It is thus necessary for
the CCD array to filter the light incident upon each pixel using an infra-red filter
and a tricolour micro-filter array. The micro-filter array consist of narrowband
red, green and blue, filters usually in a 1:2:1 6 ratio as in the most widely used
the Bayer filter (shown in figure 3.2).
6
A ratio of R:G:B filter of 1:2:1 is used due to the human visual system being able to discriminate more
greens than other chromaticities as noticeable in the large area of the CIE xyY chromaticity diagram
containing green chromaticities.
37
Martin R. Perrett
Figure 3.2 A representation of how a Bayer filter over lies a CCD sensor
The filtered light incident on each pixel is then converted from an analogue to a
digital signal. The number of bits the signal is encoded with is known as the bit
depth. The greater the bit-depth the greater the tonal range of the image i.e.
the total possible number of tones that can be distinguished in the image. A bit
depth of 8 bits (28) or 256 levels is usually considered sufficient to give near
photographic (film) quality however a bit depth of 216 is used so that the image
can be processed further however this uses more processing power. The digital
image is then formed of a two-dimensional array of pixels holding values
between 0 and the bit depth most commonly 255 (2 8-1). In its raw form the
digital image is composed of pixels of values that represents levels of red,
green or blue. In digital SLR cameras it is possible to have this raw image as
the output file which is often referred to as RAW but there is not a standard
RAW file format across manufacturers. More commonly the pixel values of the
image are split in to three channels of R, G and B, in which the missing values
in the channel are calculated by interpolation. The most common file format to
store an image of this structure is the TIFF format. TIFF format is larger than the
RAW format but is a widely recognised file format that can be easily processed
and transferred.
38
Martin R. Perrett
In computing it is desirable for files to be of as small a file size as possible in

order to take up less memory and be transferred more quickly. A common
method to achieve this is to compress the file. There are two compression
methods, lossless in which none of the information in the file is removed and so
the file size is only slightly reduced and “lossy” compression in which
sophisticated algorithms are used in order to remove extraneous information in
the image with as little perceptual effect as possible. As it has not yet been
established what is of importance in the processing of images of bruises to
extract colour information it is recommended that the images of the bruises are
stored in a lossless file format.
In order to know how a camera reproduces colour the output of the camera
needs to be related to inputs of known values, the process of doing this is called
camera characterization. This relates the cameras colour space to a device-
independent colour space such as the CIE XYZ 1931. It is an important factor
when performing camera characterization in that an auto white balancing,
where the brightest pixel is set as the white point for the image in that the
camera values R=G=B=255. The most effective method to characterize in a
camera is to use the device to image a chart of know tristimulus values,
including a set of neutral patches which can be used to linearize the camera
responses. The process of linearization then allows for the camera RGB
values(C) to be linearly related to the tristimulus values (T) by m x 3 transform
matrix A:
T=AC
Equation 3.1
As the values of T and C are known it is possible to calculate the matrix A
using:
A=D+T
Equation 3.2
The simplest transforms is when A is a 3 x 3 matrix, though more accurate
characterisation can be achieved by using polynomial transforms or artificial
neural networksError: Reference source not found.
39
Martin R. Perrett
40
Martin R. Perrett
Aims & Objectives
The age of a bruise can often be an important factor in legal proceedings both
in terms of dating a bruise to a crime and linking a particular bruise to a specific
act of violence. Currently the age of a bruise is judged by a forensic examiner
whose expert opinion is presented and used in a court of law. However, recent
studies have shown that their assessment of bruise age is inaccurate. There is
currently no proven, objective method for approximating the age of a bruise.
Following my review of the literature relating to forensic aspects of bruises and

the related colour measuring systems the following aims were developed.
 To establish a reproducible and standardised system for producing

bruises.
 To establish a reproducible and effective system for the digital

photography of the bruises. To use this system to photograph the
changes in a bruise over its duration.
 To produce a basic level program that can characterise a digital image

taken with unknown illumination based upon a colour chart in the image
of known tristimulus values.
 To produce a program that can extract forensically useful colour

information from the colour characteristics of the bruise.
 To document the need for such a program so it is understandable by

both those in the medical and imaging science fields.
41
Martin R. Perrett
4. Methods
4.1 Apparatus
 L190-GR Portable Aspirator from Life Support Products Allied Health
Products St. Louis MO 63110 USA
 Canon® EOS 350D Digital SLR (8 Megapixel) un-modified
 Canon® EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 USM II Zoom Lens with no additional
filters
 Two tungsten-filament studio “hot lights”

 Fully extendable and adjustable tripod
 BST13 small greyscale and colour separation guide 7
 GretagMacbeth® Color-Eye 7000A Reference Spectrophotometer
Macbeth House, Pacific Road, Altrincham, Cheshire WA14 5BJ
4.2 Software
 Microsoft Office® Excel 2007
 Canon® Digital Photo Professional
 Adobe® Photoshop® CS3
 ImageJ 1.42
 Mathworks MATLAB® 7.2.0.2332 (R2006a)
o OPTPROP, a colour properties toolbox by Wagberg (available at
www.mathwork.com)
o Colour Toolbox by Westland, Ripamonti that accompanies
reference Error: Reference source not found
4.3 Bruise creation
7
BST13 Purchased from ColourConfidence.com; No manufacturer details are given with the
product itself or on the site though from its given Product Code: DANE001 it would suggest that
it is from www.danes-picta.com. Both sites state that the BST 13 is “analogue to Kodak Q13”.
This was chosen over the more widely used GretagMacbeth ColorChecker® as it was of a more
reasonable price suitable size and shape to place along side the size of bruises being
photographed. For details and measurements and illustration see appendix 1, 3-4.
42
Martin R. Perrett
Two physically healthy adult Caucasian volunteers in early twenties consented

to being subjects for the study. Neither had any underlying illnesses which
would have prevented them from taking part in such a study. They inflicted
bruises upon themselves using a slight modification of the method developed by
PillingError: Reference source not found. In outline bruises are inflicted by
applying suction to the skin which ruptures the underlying blood vessels in a
controlled manner.
Figure 4.1.The portable aspirator, this creates a vacuum in the reservoir

which is adjustable using the knob on the front. The vacuum itself is
gauged by the dial on the front.
A 60ml syringe barrel was attached via thick walled tubing to the vacuum tank
of the clinical aspirator shown in figure 4.1. As it is illegal under English law to
deliberately inflict a bruise on another person consenting or not, the volunteers
therefore were required to apply the vacuum themselves. The syringe was
placed on the area to be bruised and held in position by the subject (Figure 4.2).
The subject then turned on the vacuum pump in the aspirator. The pressure
was reduced to -600mmHg over five minutes by the subject turning the control
dial. Full suction was then applied for a further 10 minutes making 15 minutes in
43
Martin R. Perrett
total. This was over seen by medically trained staff in a laboratory at Bart & the
London Medical School to ensure the volunteer’s safety and that the correct
protocol was followed. Both subjects inflicted themselves with two bruises. The
anterior aspect of the upper arm was used in three cases as this area has been
shown to bruise well using the method used and is generally of an even
pigmentation. This area is also easily to be positioned for photographing yet can
be easily concealed by clothing. One subject bruised them self on each arm
while the other subject bruised them self on the anterior of the lower right arm
as the anterior of the upper left arm was deemed unsuitable due to scarring.
Figure 4.2 Inducing a bruise: The syringe barrel is attached aspirator’s

reservoir which produces enough suction to hold the barrel in place on the arm.
The method created a bruise of approximately the same area as the cross-
section of the syringe barrel. The resulting bruise was generally circular in
nature with a diameter of approximately 3 cm with an even colouration however
this was not always the case. The method initially caused indentations due to
rim of the syringe on the skin and some redness, these were given time to fade
away before the first photographs were taken.
4.4 Image capture
44
Martin R. Perrett
This was performed in a light tight room in order that all the lighting was from
known and measurable sources. The two sources used were two 240V, 200W
tungsten lamps and the ambient light in the room, which came from ceiling
mounted fluorescent-tubes diffused by an opaque covering typical of those
found in laboratories and examining rooms. Each bruise was photographed
under the tungsten illumination the ambient illumination and a mixture of the two
giving three combinations in total.
The camera was mounted on the tripod facing the work bench it was stood on
as shown in figure 4.3. The greyscale was stuck to the colour chart so that they
were side by side length ways. (This arrangement is referred to collectively as
the “colour chart” from here on). The colour chart was raised to be at
approximately the same height / level of the arm, and therefore the bruises,
using some black blocks that were stuck in position on the bench. The colour
chart was also arranged parallel to the image plane.
Figure 4.3 The camera and lighting set up as viewed from above.
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Martin R. Perrett
Since it was not possible to lock the focal length of the lens the focal length was
set at one extreme of its range so that it could be kept constant. In this case the
setting was 55 mm as it produced less noticeable distortion than the 18 mm
extreme of the lens.
Figure 4.4 A typical original image showing the relationship of the colour
chart to the bruise
The camera position and height was adjusted so that camera was parallel to the
work bench and the colour chart was fully in shot along one edge of the image
as shown in figure 4.4. In this case the camera was 50 cm from the colour chart.
The two tungsten lamps were placed either side of the camera set up and
angled down approximately 45o to the work bench and approximately 30oto the
colour chart as seen in figures 4.3 and 4.5. This gave even illumination of the
colour chart and the subject without any spectral reflection.
46
Martin R. Perrett
Figure 4.5 The camera set up as viewed from the side.
The camera’s white-balance was set to the tungsten option, the relative ISO
was set to 100 and colour space set to sRGB and the image quality set to RAW.
A good exposure setting was then determined with an aperture setting of f/16
and the shutter speed adjusted accordingly with the camera mode dial to
manual exposure (“M”) setting so as to have complete control over these
settings. This was done with each lighting setting used until a setting was found
that gave a good coverage of the histogram. These settings were recorded and
the same settings used for each light source throughout the image capture
phase. Details are shown in appendix 6.
Each bruise was photographed daily8 during the period that it was still visible to
the human eye. The subject was asked to place the bruised area next to the
colour scale adjusting themselves so that they were in a comfortable position
where they could remain relatively still and did not obscure the illumination, as
far as possible clothing and jewellery were kept out of the frame. The camera
8
Weekends excluded as there was no access to the room in the university in which the apparatus had been
set up.
47
Martin R. Perrett
was then focused using the lens’ auto-focus, the colour chart having enough
detail to allow this mode to effectively work. The camera shutter was triggered
using its self-timer in order to eliminate any camera shake caused by the
manual triggering of the shutter as an electronic cable release was not at hand.
This was done under each illuminant, ensuring the correct settings and
checking the histogram to ensure images had not been under or over exposed.
A record was kept logging the details of each exposure, including the time, to
the nearest 5 minutes and the file name see appendix 7-10. Between sessions
the room was left locked so that the equipment was undisturbed. The colour
chart was covered and all lights were left off in order to decrease any
possibilities of the colour patches fading.
Figure 4.7, An image typical of those captured during the study, showing the
arrangement of the colour charts to a bruise.
48
Martin R. Perrett
Health and Safety

The studio “hot lights” gain their name from the intense heat they
produce when left on for extended periods. Due to their low height
and being in a small confined room they were thus turned off when
not in use to minimise an accidental contact. The door was kept
open when not shooting. Due to the camera’s positioning and the
need to keep it in position it was necessary to stand on a stool in
order to view the LCD screen on its back. It was checked that the
stool used was firm and stable.
4.5 Measuring the colour chart
Each patch on the greyscale and colour chart was measured using the Color-
Eye Reference Spectrophotometer calibrated as per the manufacturer’s
instructions (see appendix 2). All patches were automatically measured three
times with the average being given as the result. The standard D65 illuminant
and a 2̊ standard observer were used in measuring. The measurements are
given in appendix 3 and a measure of the variability of the colour is given in
appendix 4. For this the green patches were chosen to be measured 10 times
with the patch being moved between each measurement. This was in order to
determine if the colour of the patches were homogeneous.
4. 6 Pre-processing
The RAW .CR2 were then transferred to a consumer desktop PC running

Microsoft Windows Vista using the camera’s USB interface cable. The files
were renamed to the name format given in appendix 7-10. The filenames are a
combination of a code identifying the bruise and the light source and the age of
the bruise in hours with preceding zeros where necessary for ease of later
processing. The files were then batch processed using the Digital Photo
Professional software to convert them to Exif-TIFF 8bit files with a resolution of
350 dpi and embedding the ICC profile maintaining the image size and
filename.
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Martin R. Perrett
Figure 4.8, Screen shot of Photoshop CS3 showing how the images were
cropped.
The image was selected in which the bruise appeared to be the greatest
distance from the colour chart. The TIFF file of this image was then opened in
Photoshop and rotated and cropped so that the edge of the colour chart was
adjacent to left hand edge and top and bottom defined the final image. The right
hand edge was cropped as far to the right hand edge of the image as possible.
The cropped image was then saved with the same settings as the original
image. The dimensions of this image were noted and entered in the “height”
and “width” boxes that appear when the crop tool is selected.
The remaining images were then cropped so that the colour chart defined the
edges of the images as described above (as shown in figure 4.8) and the
cropped images were saved. However by having inputted the dimensions into
the Photoshop® crop tool the aspect ratio was maintained and the cropped
image resized to the same dimension as the initial image. This resulted in all the
cropped images being the exact same size with the colour chart in the same
position and orientation.
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Martin R. Perrett
It was these TIFF files that were used in all further image processing. For
reference these images are provided on the DVD enclosed with this
dissertation.
4.7 Processing
Due to the number of files that need to be processed which would be a time
consuming exercise it was decided to batch process the images. MATLAB was
used in order to write such a batch process. An input function was written that
the files to be processed could be selected using a GUI rather than needing to
input the files individually using written code. The structure stored the filename,
and split it in to its constituent parts, bruise code, lighting and age and a
designated bruise number. The structure also read the mean pixel values of the
greyscale and colour chart sorting them as arrays in the structure using the
readgreyscale and readclourpatches functions given in appendix 11.
These work by creating a mask that passes over each patch and records and
stores the mean pixel value of each channel in the array. These functions
required that the size of the patches in the images is known. This was manually
measured using the straight line tool found in ImageJ program.
Table 4.1 MATLAB program to input the bruise

function bruiseinput
% Inputs selected files (selected during running) in to

a structure file
% for as a pseudo database of the bruise images. Image
files selected need
% to be in the MATLAB search path.
% Opens GUI in which file(s) can be selected

filenames = uigetfile({'*.tif', 'All Files (*.tif)'},
'Pick a file', 'MultiSelect', 'on');
% Runs if bruise structure already exists
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Martin R. Perrett
if exist ('bruisestructure.mat','file')>0
load ('bruisestructure.mat');
n = [bruise.number];
n = max(n);
else
n=0;
bruise(n+1).filename = [];
end
nof = prod(size(filenames));
x = {bruise.filename};
for m = 1:nof;
y = strcmp(x, filenames(m));
if sum(y)==0
n = n+1;
bruise(n).filename = filenames{m};
fn = bruise(n).filename;
x{n} = filenames(m);
bruise(n).number = n;
Pixies=num2str(fn(1:3));
bruise(n).age = str2double(fn(4:8));
if strcmp(fn(3),'T')
bruise(n).lighting='Tungsten';
elseif strcmp(fn(3),'M')
bruise(n).lighting='Mixed';
else
bruise(n).lighting=unknown;
end
im = imread(fn);
im = double(im);
bruise(n).grayscale = readgreyscale(im);
bruise(n).colourpatches = readcolourpatches(im);
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Martin R. Perrett
end
end
save 'bruisestructure.mat' bruise
4.7.1 Camera Characterization
Characterization uses linear transforms to relate camera RGB pixel values to a

device independent colour space, in this case CIE 1931 XYZ. The structure
bruise created using bruiseinput containing the input images was inputted
in the function charbruise2Lab which linearize the bruise than then
transformed the camera RGB values to XYZ tristimulus values which where
then transformed to CIE L*a*b* values used the xyz2lab function from the
OPTIC toolbox. The values relating to the empirical measurements of the colour
chart where stored on excel tables (see appendix 3 and DVD) that where
loaded in charbruise2Lab.
4.7.2 Linearization
As characterization uses linear transforms to relate camera response to device

independent of colour spaces the first step should be to correct for any non-
linearity of the camera responses. This was achieved by using the getlincam
and lincam from the colour toolbox that accompanies Computational Colour
Science using MATLAB28.
4.7.3 Calculation of Transform

This was achieved by calculating the pseudo inverse of the 1 x 3
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Martin R. Perrett
Table 4.2 MATLAB program to characterise and convert the bruise images to
CIE L*a*b* values
function charcterise2Lab(bruise)
% Load file storing measured grayscale XYZ values

grayscaleXYZ = xlsread('grayscaleXYZ.xls');
% The values of Y are in the second column of the Excel

spread sheet
Y=grayscaleXYZ(:,2);
% Load file storing measured colour patch XYZ values

XYZ = xlsread('colourpatchXYZ.xls');
for n = 1:numel(bruise)
im = imread(bruise(n).filename);
im = double(im);
graycaldata = getlincam(Y',bruise(n).grayscale);
% Linearise camera output

im=lincam(graycaldata, im);
% Calculate Tranform using XYZ=T*M
% Create psuedo inverse of M (RGB values from image)

inM = pinv(bruise(n).colourpatches);
% Calculate transform T
bruise(n).transform = inM*XYZ;
% Make IM row vector for ease of matrix algebra and

apply transform
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Martin R. Perrett
imsize = size(im);
im = reshape(im,prod(imsize)/3,3);
im = im*bruise(n).transform;
im = reshape(im,imsize);
% Convert XYZ image to Lab and save

im = xyz2lab(im);
fn = bruise(n).filename;
fn = [fn(1:8) 'lab.mat’];
save(im, fn)
bruise(n).labfile=fn;
end
save 'bruisestructure.mat' bruise
4.8 Characterization Error

The colour differenced of the CIE L*a*b* values of the colour patches in the
characterised image and the measured CIE L*a*b* value of the colour chart
where calculated using the de function from the OPTPROT toolbox to calculate
the ΔEab colour differences between the measured L*a*b* values of the colour
chart and the characterised L*a*b* of the colour chart in each of the converted
images.
Table 4.3 Function to calculate colour characterisation error

function charerror = colcharerror(bruise)
% Load spreadsheet containing measured CIE L*a*b* values of

colour patches
ref = xlsread('colourchartLab.xls');
patch = size(ref,1);
nobrus = numel(bruise);
charerror = zeros(patch,nobrus);
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Martin R. Perrett
for b = 1:nobrus
im = load(bruise(b).labfile);
imlab = readcolourpatches(im);
for i = 1:18
charerror(i,b) = de(ref(i,:),imlab(i,:));
end
end
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Martin R. Perrett
5. Experimental and results

5.1. Bruising
Initial attempts to create a bruise using a standard household vacuum cleaner

were in part successful but the process did not appear reproducible on a daily
basis. A more reliable method was then developed on this idea by PillingError:
Reference source not found working at Barts and The London School of
Medicine. She used a medical aspirator attached to a syringe barrel that
allowed the pressure of the vacuum to be kept effectively standardised. The
bruises produced by this method were generally circular in nature and of the
same diameter though not all were totally circular with some being of a crescent
shape (as shown in figures 5.1 and 5.2).
Figure 5.1 The images of two of the bruises produced and photographed
for this study, Left image: was subject B (lower arm), right image subject
B upper arm, both taken under tungsten illumination.
There was no evidence that the site of the bruise, upper and low right arm on
one subject, upper right and upper left arm on one subject, dramatically affected
the intensity of the bruising.
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Martin R. Perrett
Figure 5.2 Two of the bruises produced and photographed for this study,
Left image: subject M (left arm), right image subject M right arm, both
taken under tungsten illumination.
5.2. Illuminant
At the start of these studies three sets of images under different lighting
conditions were made of every bruise. Fig 5.3 shows the same bruise taken
under ambient, photographic tungsten and a combination of ambient and
tungsten.
It was clear even with a casual visual inspection of the images that those taken
using the ambient room lighting alone suffered from spectral reflection off the
colour chart as seen in figure 5.3 (left). Therefore these ambient TIFF images
were not cropped and not used any further. The other lighting conditions did not
show any signs of spectral reflection other undesired illumination.
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Martin R. Perrett
Figure 5.3 Images of the same bruise and at the same time taken under
ambient lighting (left), tungsten (centre) and a combination of ambient
and tungsten (right).
5.3. Colour chart measurements.
Figure 5.4 Close up of the pale brown showing the effects of halftone
printing and brown patch. (N.B. This may not be visible on a printed
version of this work)
It was clear having received delivery of the colour charts ordered that the colour
on them was produced in the “pale” colours by halftone printing 9. The resolution
9
This is a process where lighter shades of a colour are produced by using dots
of a darker colour on a light background as commonly seen on close inspection
59
Martin R. Perrett
of the camera had significantly blurred and thus reduced this effect in the
images by taking the mean pixel value of a large area of the patches in the
processing the halftone of the colour patches should not have caused any
problem with the calculation of the colour transformation matrix. The empirical
measuring of the colour patches with the Color-Eye spectrophotometer showed
that the standard deviations of the measurements were 3.6 (pale green) and 3.6
(green). The relative standard deviation in the colorimetric measurements was
unexpectedly large 64% for the “pale green” patch and 74% for the “green”
patch.
5.4 Bruise changes with time

Bruises BU, BL and MR were visible for 10 days and bruise ML was visible for 7
days. A series of images were collected showing the bruises daily during this
period. Figure 5.5 shows the bruises resolving and it is clear that the colour
changes predominantly red in the first few days to yellow towards the end. The
full set up un-cropped TIFF images are on the accompanying DVD.
of news print.
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Martin R. Perrett
1.9 hours 25.3 hours 49.2 hours 144 hours
165.5 hours 192 hours 217 hours 240 hours
Figure 5.5: The same bruise photographed under the same conditions
showing how the colour the bruise changes with time. Hours are post
bruising.
5.5 Characterisation and Error

The programming was not full function and thus figures for this are
unavailable.
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Martin R. Perrett
6. Discussion
It had been intended at the start of this project that the main focus would be on
the processing of images produced by GrossmanError: Reference source not
found whose project ran concurrently with this project. In this respect Grossman
would have been covering the medical aspects such as the infliction of a
relatively large number of bruises and recording, while this project would have
covered the characterisation of the images produced and experimenting with
methods to exact colour information from the images.
However the images produced in the Grossman study were found to be

unsuitable for further processing due mainly to the poor reproduction of the
colours of the colour chart. It was thus required of the present to capture a set
of suitable images to process for the present project. With the time restraints
inherent with working on a university project this resulted in there being far less
time available to research and program a suitable and effective characterisation
process. This delay resulted in the project being forced to finish before its
desired end result of a method to segment the bruise from the captured images
from which colour information. It was immediately evident that the scope of the
project, particularly the digital processing was much larger than could be
covered in an undergraduate final year project.
However significant understandings of the problems associated with the reliable

production and processing of images of bruises have been achieved. The
importance of the correct lighting and positioning of a suitable colour chart in the
image have been researched and documented. It was shown that to avoid
spectral reflection from a glossy colour chart and the subject’s skin it was
essential to use angled lighting. Others have observed similar problems with
lighting affects and have investigated alternative light sources. Hughes et al 29
used a forensic polilight® to illuminate bruises for digital imaging but found this
light source was unable to assist in the ageing of a bruise. Both PillingError:
Reference source not found and GrossmanError: Reference source not found
used a ring flash and found this resulted in undesirable lighting effects such a
62
Martin R. Perrett
spectral reflection and unreliable exposure control. Langlois and Gresham 30

commented that uneven lighting in their photographs prevented their objective
assessment of bruises.
Most literature studied did not mention the use of any form of colour control in
the images of bruises being assessed from photographs. Munang et alError:
Reference source not found had used an unspecified colour scale to aide the
colour reproduction images captured on colour film. Whereas the detailed
survey by Dimitrova et alError: Reference source not found does not mention
any form of colour control. Grossman used a colour and grey scale but was
unable to uses these for effective colour standardisation when using
Photoshop® to investigate bruise colour changes with age.
Given the generation of satisfactory images it will be necessary to characterise

the images so that the colour changes in the bruise with age can be
determined. In order to do this an affective method to characterise the colours in
the images need to be developed; whether imaging the bruises with a
characterised system or the images are able to be characterised individually
due to the presence of a colour chart or known values. Having characterised the
image, an effective method to extract the colours of the bruise from that of the
normal skin needs to be implemented. The extracted colour information relating
to the haemoglobin and it breakdown products would then need analysing to
detect any trends in their relationship to bruise age. A relationship may be only
between the age and yellow present in a bruise as suggested by LangloisError:
Reference source not found, or the ratio of colours relating to the degradation of
haemoglobin or a more complex function.
Each area that needs investigation in order to produce an effective system to

date bruise by digital imaging could individually have produced several
interesting projects. Affective characterisation methods for digital cameras are
currently still a very active area of research31,32. There is also a great deal of
research in to the assessment by digital imaging of human skin tone
Martinkauppi33 has prepared an entire doctoral thesis on the assessment of
human skin tone (of the face) alone. While most of this research is the area is
63
Martin R. Perrett
for commercial purposes such as for aiding of online cosmetic sales and the
development of computer graphics the methods developed in such studies
could be invaluable to any future research in the computerised assessment of
bruising.
In the best case scenario where by chance this project had resulted in a method
to extract and analyse the colour information of the bruises available in the
study they would only have been from a very small control group and from
bruises caused by one type of trauma on one area of the body. As stated at the
vary start there are numerous factors that effect and could thus be relevant to
developing a system that could estimate the age of any given bruise to a time
frame that could stand up to the rigorous scrutiny it would face when being used
as evidence in a court of law. As this would be the ultimate goal in this area of
research.
Conclusions
In reality forensic medical examiners will continue to use the methods they
already use. Photographs will be taken with the facilities at hand on a wide
range of camera types and under a wide variety of unknown illuminants. It is
standard practice to incorporate a measurement scale in these images and it
would only require the inclusion of a suitable colour scale in order for the image
to be suitable to process and extract the information needed to accurately age a
bruise.
It is hoped that this project has extensively covered all the areas needed to
achieve this goal in a clear manner that is useful to both medical researchers
and those in the image processing field who may carry on this work and will find
this a good foundation to build on. In
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Martin R. Perrett
References
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1
Nash, K.R., Sheridan D.J., (2009) Can One Accurately Date a Bruise? State of the Science. Journal of
Forensic Nursing 5, 31-37
2
Pilling M., (2008) Visual Assessment of Bruise Age by Forensic Experts, BMedSci Project Dissertation, Barts &
the London School of Medicine, Queen Mary University of London
3
Grossman S., (2009) Is the Objective Assessment of Bruise Age Possible? BMedSci Project Dissertation, Barts
& the London School of Medicine, Queen Mary University of London
4
Dimitrova T., Georgieva L., Pattichis C., Neofytou M. (2006) Qualitative Visual Image Analysis of Bruise Age
Determination: A Survey, Proceedings of the 28th IEEE EMBS Annual International Conference, New York City,
USA, 4840-4843
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Langlois N. E. I., (2007) The Science Behond the Quest to Determine the Age of Bruises – A Review of the
English Language Literature, Forensic Science Medical Pathology 3 241-251
6
Capper C. (2001) The Language of Forensic Medicine: The meaning of some terms employed. Medicine,
Science and the Law; 41:256-9
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Knight B. (1992) Legal Aspects of Medical Practice. Fifth edition. Elsevier Health Sciences, London; 84
8
Shepherd R. (2003) Simpson Forensic Medicine 12th Ed. Hodder Arnold London, UK
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Vanezis P. (2001) Interpreting bruises at necropsy. Journal of Clinical Pathology; 54:348-355
10
Stephenson T. (1997) Ageing of bruising in children. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine; 90:312-314
11
Kaczor K., Pierce M.C., Makoroff K., Corey T.S. (2006) Bruising and Physical Child Abuse. Clinical Pediatric
Emergency Medicine 7, 153-160
12
Langford A., Dean J, Reed R., Holmes D., Weyers J., Jones A. (2005) Practical Skills in Forensic Science 3 rd
Ed. Chap 63, Pearson Educational, Harlow, UK
13
Bohnert M., Baumgartner M. R., Pollak S., (2000) Spectrophotometric evaluation of the colour of intra-and
subcutaneous bruises. International Journal of Legal Medicine 113 343-348
14
Munang L.A., Leonard P.A., Mok J.Y. (2002) Lack of agreement on colour description between clinicians
examining childhood bruising. Journal of Clinical Forensic Medicine; 9:171-4
Jacobson R. E., Ray S. F., Attridge G. G., Axford N. R., (2000) Manual of Photography 9 th Ed. Focal Press,
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Oxford, UK
16
Hurlbert, A.C.; Wolf, K. (2002) The contribution of local and global cone-contrasts to colour
appearance: a Retinex-like model. In: Proceedings of the SPIE 2002, San Jose, CA
17
Hunt R. W. G. Reproduction of Colour (2006) 6th ed. Wiley New York

18
Berns R.S. (2003) Bilmeyer and Saltzman’s Principles of Color Technology Chapter 1 Wiley New York
19
Curcio C. A. Allen K. A., Sloan K. R., Lerea C. L., Hurley J. B., Klock I. B., Milam A. H. (1991) Distribution and
morphology of human cone photoreceptors stains with anti-blue opsin. Journal of Comparative Neurology 312
610-624
20
Fairchild M. D. (2005) Color Appearance Models, 2nd Ed., Wiley-IS&T, Chichester, UK
21
Spalding J. A. B. (1999) Colour vision deficiency in the medical profession. British Journal of General Practice,
49, 469-475.
22
Campbell J.L., Spalding J. A. B., Mir F A. Birch J., (1999) Doctors and the assessment of clinical photographs
— does colour blindness matter?, British Journal of General Practice, , 49, 459-461.
23
Nayatani Y.,Takahama K., Sobagaki H., (1988) Physiological causes of individual variations in color-matching
functions. Color Research & Application 13, 289–297, 1988.
24
Mellerio J., (1987) Yellowing of the human lens, Vision Research 27, 1581-1587
25
Schanda J. (Ed.) (2007) Colorimetry: Understanding the CIE System, Wiley, New Jersey, USA
26
Trujillo O., Vanezis P., Cermignani M. (1995) Photometric assessment of skin colour and lightness using a
tristimulus colorimeter: reliability of inter and intra-investigator observations in healthy adult volunteers. Forensic
Science International; 81:1-10
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Hughes V. K., Ellis P. S., Burt T., Langlois N. E. I., (2004) The Practical Application of Reflectance
Spectrophotometry for the Demonstration of haemoglobin and it’s degradation in bruises. Journal of Clinical
Pathology 54 355-359
28
Westland, S. and Ripamonti, C. (2004) Computational Colour Science Using MATLAB, Wiley New York
29
Hughes V.K., Ellis P.S., Langlois N.E.I. (2006) Alternative light source (polilight®) illumination with digital
image analysis does not assist in determining the age of busies. Forensic Science International 158, 104-107
30
Langlois N.E.I., Gresham G.A. (1991). The ageing of bruises: A review and study of the colour changes with
time. Forensic Science International 50, 227-238
31
Barnard K., Funt B. (2002) Camera Characterization for Color Research, COLOR research and application,
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Liu Y., Yu, H., Shi J. (2008) Camera characterization using back-propagation artificial neutral network based
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33
Martinkauppi, B, (2002) Face colour under varying illumination - analysis and applications, Ph.D. Thesis
University of Oulu, Finland
Appendices
Appendix 1
Colour Chart
BST13 small greyscale and colour separation guide. Each card measures 60mm x 203mm.
The grey scale: 20 steps, 10x22mm each. 20 steps are stated as being in 0.10 density
increments between 0.05 [white] and 1.95 (a practical printing black) of density (from
www.colourconfidence.com)
Appendix 2
Calibrating the Spectrophotometer
The Color-Eye 7000A spectrophotometer needs to be calibrated with the white ceramic
calibration tile provided with the unit. It is best to calibrate the instrument at the location it is to
be used. This will accommodate ambient temperature changes.
Before you calibrate…

Please note the following before you calibrate the spectrophotometer:
 Calibration is required every 8 hours. It is a good practice to calibrate hourly.
 If the instrument is exposed to rapid changes in ambient temperature, calibrate to
accommodate for these changes.
 Make certain that the serial number on the White Ceramic Calibration Tile is the same
as the serial number on the instrument. Do not substitute another calibration tile for the
one originally supplied.
 If the tile should be broken or become damaged, call X-Rite for advice on how to
replace it.
Reflectance Calibration Procedure
1. Touch and release Cell 5 on the Main Menu Display until the desired specular
component status (SCE/SCI) is displayed.
2. Select the desired sampling aperture. Refer to “Changing the Sampling Aperture” later
in this section.
3. Use the software program to select reflectance mode.
4. Place the Zero Calibration Standard facing the unit so that it completely covers the
viewport opening.
5. Use the software program to initiate the zero (black) calibration.
6. Place the White Calibration Tile facing the unit so that it completely covers the viewport
opening.
7. Use the software program to initiate the white tile calibration.
8. After calibration return the white calibration tile to it storage area.
Source Color-Eye 7000A manual

Appendix 3
Colour chart readings
Grey scale
NameX Y Z xyL* a* b* A.180.1084.6690.330.310.3393.74-0.721.281.168.4272.0875.390.320.3388.01-
0.212.392.155.9258.9762.790.310.3381.27-
0.331.243.144.6646.9150.360.310.3374.130.200.734.134.8036.5139.520.310.3366.910.340.285.128.7530.2332
.940.310.3361.850.07-0.046.122.9324.1126.590.310.3356.200.07-0.54M.118.8719.8722.210.310.3351.69-0.10-
1.028.115.2816.1018.100.310.3347.11-0.16-1.159.112.6013.2514.790.310.3343.140.02-
0.8410.110.5511.1212.530.310.3339.78-0.09-1.1111.18.709.1910.220.310.3336.34-0.23-
0.6612.17.047.428.280.310.3332.75-0.10-0.6813.15.876.166.980.310.3229.800.25-
1.0714.15.095.326.130.310.3227.640.39-1.4315.14.494.685.380.310.3225.810.47-
1.30B.13.914.104.760.310.3224.010.11-1.5017.13.793.984.480.310.3223.590.25-
0.8118.13.733.904.350.310.3323.350.35-0.5119.13.783.964.390.310.3323.530.31-0.43
Colour Patches
NameX Y Z L* a* b* Grey50.5652.4863.4477.571.84-5.72Pale
Brown44.5745.5245.4473.233.814.40White83.0986.12103.5494.372.37-6.39Pale
Magenta67.4363.1179.5583.5017.06-8.58Pale Red60.5958.8449.1781.2011.3314.15Pale
Yellow76.5682.4867.0792.79-3.7017.39Pale Green54.6262.1259.3682.98-10.937.27Pale
Cyan62.2766.8995.1885.45-3.02-16.32Pale Blue50.7449.3272.9775.6510.57-
17.01Black7.157.387.5332.661.361.80Brown7.597.987.9133.930.072.65White284.7387.65106.7795.012.72-
7.30Magenta34.7719.2822.2051.0268.72-
2.17Red31.2918.937.1650.6158.1434.11Yellow66.9575.2412.5489.51-9.8984.61Green11.6121.6112.3953.61-
51.9423.10Cyan20.4826.1172.9358.14-19.81-47.15Blue10.438.0522.4334.0923.41-31.75 Appendix 4
Reproducibility data
NameX Y Z L* a* b* ΔE*abPale Green54.6262.1259.3682.98-10.937.271.01Pale Green 256.1763.6061.4283.76-

10.396.750.08Pale Green 356.5163.9361.6783.93-10.296.810.25Pale Green 357.3864.8063.0584.38-
11.047.551.28Pale Green 1055.1362.6060.2283.23-10.736.920.59Mean56.1263.5661.3283.74-
10.446.810.60Standard Deviation1.071.031.410.540.340.360.38Relative Std Dev
(%)1.901.622.300.643.275.3664.27Min54.4361.9658.8982.89-11.046.360.08Max57.3864.8063.0584.38-
10.077.551.28Range2.952.844.161.490.971.191.19Green11.6121.6112.3953.61-51.9423.10.42Green
211.6021.5912.3953.59-51.9523.080.41Green 311.5521.5512.3153.55-52.1123.210.21Green
411.1521.1211.6153.08-53.0324.281.28Green 511.4721.4312.2553.42-52.1223.130.23Green
611.1821.1411.7053.1-52.8824.071.03Green 711.3921.3412.2553.32-52.2522.950.40Green
811.5821.5812.3553.58-52.0223.170.31Green 911.4821.4412.2653.43-52.1323.110.25Green
1011.6121.6112.3553.61-51.9623.20.36Mean11.4621.4412.1853.43-52.2423.330.49Standard
Deviation0.170.190.290.200.390.450.36Relative Std Dev (%)1.520.872.350.38-
0.751.9574.37Min11.1521.1211.6153.08-53.0322.950.21Max11.6121.6112.3953.61-
51.9424.281.28Range0.470.490.780.531.091.331.07
Appendix 5
Bruise infliction times
Bruise CodeDate Time*BU05/05/200914:00BL05/05/200914:45MR05/05/200915:00ML05/05/200914:15*

Time suction was removed
Appendix 6
Camera Settings
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/16
Shutter speed: 1/10 sec. for tungsten and mixed lighting

1 sec for ambient lighting
Appendix 7
Times and dates of photographs of bruise BL
LightingDateIMG #TimeAge (hr)New File

Namen/a05/05/2009n/a14:450Tungsten05/05/20092316:401.9BLT001.9Tungsten06/05/20092716:0025.3BLT
025.3Tungsten07/05/20094915:5549.2BLT049.2Tungsten11/05/20097113:55143.2BLT143.2Tungsten12/05/20
099112:20167.5BLT167.5Tungsten13/05/20099415:10192.4BLT192.4Tungsten14/05/200910016:00217.3BLT2
17.3Tungsten15/05/200910615:15240.5BLT240.5Ambient06/05/20093416:0025.3BLA025.3Ambient07/05/200
95015:5549.2BLA049.2Ambient11/05/20097514:00143.3BLA143.3Ambient12/05/20098612:15167.5BLA167.5
Mixed06/05/20092816:0025.3BLM025.3Mixed07/05/20094615:5549.2BLM049.2Mixed11/05/20097314:00143
.3BLM143.3Mixed12/05/20098812:15167.5BLM167.5Mixed13/05/20099215:05192.3BLM192.3Mixed14/05/20
0910216:00217.3BLM217.3Mixed15/05/200910415:10240.4BLM240.4
Appendix 8
Times and dates of photographs of bruise BU
LightingDateIMG #TimeDaysAge (hr)New File

Namen/a05/05/2009n/a14:4500Tungsten05/05/20092416:4001.9BUT001.9Tungsten06/05/20093016:00125.3
BUT025.3Tungsten07/05/20094815:55249.2BUT049.2Tungsten11/05/20097213:556143.9BUT143.9Tungsten1
2/05/20099012:207165.6BUT165.6Tungsten13/05/20099515:108191.6BUT191.6Tungsten14/05/200910116:0
09217.3BUT217.3Tungsten15/05/200910715:1010240.4BUT240.4Mixed06/05/20092916:00125.3BUM025.3Mi
xed07/05/20094715:55249.2BUM049.2Mixed11/05/20097414:006143.3BUM143.3Mixed12/05/20098912:157
166.0BUM166.0Mixed13/05/20099315:058191.7BUM191.7Mixed14/05/200910316:009217.3BUM217.3Mixed
15/05/200910515:1010240.4BUM240.4Ambient06/05/20093516:05125.3BUA025.3Ambient07/05/20095115:5
5249.2BUA049.2Ambient11/05/20097614:006143.3BUA143.3Ambient12/05/20098712:157166.0BUA166.0
Appendix 9
Times and dates of photographs of bruise ML

Namen/a05/05/2009n/a14:450 Tungsten05/05/20092616:452.0MLT002.0Tungsten06/05/20094216:1025.4ML
T025.4Tungsten07/05/20095816:0549.3MLT049.3Tungsten08/05/20096513:4070.9MLT070.9Tungsten11/05/2
0097013:5594.0MLT094.0Tungsten12/05/20098211:40164.9MLT164.9Mixed06/05/20094016:1025.4MLM025.
4Mixed07/05/20095516:0049.3MLM049.3Mixed08/05/20096313:3570.8MLM070.8Mixed11/05/20096813:55
94.0MLM094.0Mixed12/05/20097911:35164.8MLM164.8Ambient06/05/20093816:1025.4MLA025.4Ambient0
7/05/20095316:0049.3MLA049.3Ambient08/05/20096113:3570.8MLA070.8Ambient11/05/20096613:5089.0M
LA089.0Ambient12/05/20097711:35164.8MLA164.8
Appendix 10
Times and dates of photographs of bruise MR

Namen/a05/05/2009n/a15:000Tungsten05/05/20092516:451.8MRT001.8Tungsten06/05/20094116:1025.2MR
T025.2Tungsten07/05/20095616:0049.0MRT049.0Tungsten08/05/20096413:4070.7MRT070.7Tungsten11/05/
20097013:55142.9MRT142.9Tungsten12/05/20098311:40164.7MRT164.7Tungsten13/05/20099615:40192.7M
RT192.7Tungsten14/05/20099916:00217.0MRT217.0Tungsten15/05/200910815:10240.2MRT240.2Mixed06/0
5/20093916:1025.2MRM025.2Mixed07/05/20095416:0049.0MRM049.0Mixed08/05/20096213:3570.6MRM07
0.6Mixed11/05/20096913:55142.9MRM142.9Mixed12/05/20098111:40164.7MRM164.7Mixed13/05/2009971
5:40192.7MRM192.7Mixed14/05/20099815:55216.9MRM216.9Mixed15/05/200910915:10240.2MRM240.2A
mbient06/05/20093716:0525.1MRA025.1Ambient07/05/20095216:0049.0MRA049.0Ambient08/05/20096013
:3570.6MRA070.6Ambient11/05/20096713:50142.8MRA142.8Ambient12/05/20098411:45164.8MRA164.8
Appendix 11
Functions for the extraction of data from grey scale and colour chart
function [readings]=readgrayscale (im)
% Produces a 3 by 20 array of the RGB triplets of the mean pixel

value of
% a section of the grayscale patchs in the image. readings(:,1)
storing the
% value for the bottom patch inthe chart.
im=double(im);
% Manually meausered width and height of the patches in image

pw=366;
ph=155;
% mh and mw are the width and height of the area of the patch that is
% measured these being 80% of the measured patch width and height to
allow
% for an error in the cropping to be missed.
mh=round(0.8*ph);
mw=round(0.8*pw);
or=round(0.1*ph);
oc=round(0.1*pw);
oc2=oc+mw;
readings=zeros(3,19);
for chan=1:3
for p=0:19
a=or+ph*p;
b=a+mh;
readings(chan,20-p)=mean(mean(im(a:b,oc:oc2,chan)));
end
end
function [readings] = readcolourpatches(im)
% Produces a 3 by 20 array of the RGB triplets of the mean pixel

value of
% a section of the grayscale patchs in the image. readings(:,1)
storing the
% value for the bottom patch inthe chart.
im=double(im);
% Manually meausered width and height of the patches in image

pw=260;
ph=348;
% mh and mw are the width and height of the area, centered on the
patch, that is
% measured these being 80% of the measured patch width and height to
allow
% for an error in the cropping to be missed.
mh=round(0.8*ph);
mw=round(0.8*pw);
or=round(0.1*ph);
oc=round(0.1*pw)+366; % 366 is width of gray scale
readings=zeros(18,3);
for chan= 1:3

for c=0:1;
for r=1:9;
ra=or+ph*(r-1);
rb=ra+mh;
ca=oc+pw*(c);
cb=ca+mw;
patch = im(ra:rb,ca:cb,:);
readings(r+9*c,chan) = mean(mean(patch(:,:,chan)));
end
end
end

Can Digital Photography Replace The Visual Assessment of Bruise Age?

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Can Digital Photography replace the

Visual Assessment of Bruise Age?

B.Sc. in Photography & Digital Imaging

1. The Role of Bruising in Forensic Science 8

2. The Science of Colour............................ 16

3. Measuring the colour of bruises.. 35

Aims & Objectives.......................................... 40

5. Experimental and results........................... 56

A & E = Accident and Emergency (English equivalent of an Emergency Room)

Lastly I would like to thank the subjects who took part.

1. The Role of Bruising in Forensic Science

1.1. What is a Bruise?

1.2 The Science of Bruising

1.3 The Appearance of a Bruise

The development and appearance of a bruise depends on several factors

Appearance of the skin: Skin colour is determined predominantly by the

Severity of the trauma: According to Shepherd8, the damage to blood vessels

Illness: These includes bleeding disorders, supportive tissue disorders, and

1.4 The biochemistry of bruising and its repair.

Figure 1.4 The structure of haem

Figure 1.5 The structure of Biliverdin

Figure 1.6 The structure of Bilirubin

1.5 Visual assessment of a bruise

cautions against using them as a “clock” to age a bruise. He quotes “research in

According to the twenty three forensic experts interviewed by GrossmanError:

4. Other criteria named included swelling, texture such as “pitting”,

All the FMEs placed considerable emphasis on colour in their assessments.

haemoglobin then becomes oxidised and is degraded. These changes result in

2. The Science of Colour

There is no standardisation of this descriptive terminology. It becomes a

Figure 2.1 Spectral power distributions of three common illuminants

Most objects do not themselves possess intrinsic “colour”. It is the interaction of

Figure 2.2 A picture of a bruise taken under an unknown illuminant with

thus important in the reproduction of colour that colour temperature of the

2.2 The human visual system

Figure 2.3 A cross-section of a typical human eye.

phenomena known as metamerism, were spectrally differing lights are

Figure 2.4 Normalised spectral sensitivities of the S, M and L cone types.

2.3 Colour Perception and Appearance

2.4 The inadequacies human visual system

Whether the bruise is viewed in vivo or in vitro (thus ignoring matters of

age24 that in an advanced form is known a cataract. While this is usually

2.5 Basics of Colour Reproduction

spectrums are perceived to be the same colour. (Reproduced from

2.7 Colour matching and the CIE colorimetry system

Before the availability of spectrophotometers, methods, such as the Lovibond

Figure 2.11 CIE1931 xyY Chromaticity diagram for the 2 oobserver

2.8 Colour Spaces and Colour Management

Any colour space should in theory be able to be converted to any number of

opposition and b* approximating blue-yellow opposition. From a* and b* the hue

As the CIE L*a*b* space is perceptually relevant it can be used to calculate

Figure 2.12 CIE L*a*b* space at three values of L*

3. Measuring the colour of bruises

The chemical components of a bruise have different spectral characteristics.

3.2 Colourimetry using tristimulus colourimetry

A practical approach is to use reflectance spectrophotometry to measure the

The use of sophisticated equipment is not normally applicable in the A & E

3.3 Colourimetry using digital cameras

In computing it is desirable for files to be of as small a file size as possible in

Aims & Objectives

Following my review of the literature relating to forensic aspects of bruises and

 To establish a reproducible and standardised system for producing

 To establish a reproducible and effective system for the digital

As the CIE Lab* space is perceptually relevant it can be used to calculate

Figure 2.12 CIE Lab* space at three values of L*

% Load spreadsheet containing measured CIE Lab* values of

Bruise CodeDate TimeBU05/05/200914:00BL05/05/200914:45MR05/05/200915:00ML05/05/200914:15