Skull identification by electronic photo-composition can, with the help of a video-animation compositor, be further developed beyond the pure superprojection technique into an animated picture difference image. The employment of this combined technique to be recommended on account of the improved possibilities of control to be realized in the congruity of the superprojection composite picture.
In 1985 at the cemetery in Embu near Sao Paulo, Brazil, parts of a skeleton were exhumed, and now these parts have been examined to determine whether they are the remains of the corpse of Dr. Josef Mengele, the camp doctor of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The osteometrical and osteological findings ascertained correspond completely and consistently without contradiction with all the available personal data of Josef Mengele. Through a method of electronic visual mixing for the identification of the skull, it was determined that all the authentic pictures available used for comparison correspond definitely and consistently to the exhumed skull.
The photographic identification of a skull through the well-known superprojection technique can be modified and decisively improved by the use of a video-tape system. The identification method based on electronic photo composition is methodically simple to use. It offers the examiner the possibility to recognize the relationship between bone and soft part proportions, and the structure of the bone surface and the details of the soft part shape, as a concrete, tangible characteristic of identity to a substantially greater extent. The large number of controllable characteristics inherent in the ihgh degree of individuality of the skull offers not just an either/or "The skull fits"/ "It does not fit" into a photograph, but achieves proof of disproof of identity.
The possibility of using the video superimposition technique for the identification of a skull by comparing it with photographs of missing persons is based on the fact that the human skull, unlike any other part of the human skeleton, shows unmistakable individual characteristics. In order to obtain a quantification, the individuality of human skulls is defined in terms of craniometric data and their probability distribution. First calculations based on the coordinates of some important encephalometric points of 52 European skulls suggest that there are individual aspects comparable to those of fingerprints. Under certain conditions, the video superimposition technique can establish very strong evidence for the identity of an unknown skull, provided that it is applied correctly and carefully.
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