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Picture is worthy of a thousand criminals

by Bruce Wiebusch, Regional Editor -- Design News, January 7, 2002

Allan Sadowski wants to use jpg files to catch criminals. That's why the Technology Officer for the North Carolina State Highway Patrol contacted Hamid Krim, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at North Carolina State University. "Sadowski said it took six to ten minutes to download jpg images of mug shots," says Krim. "Now, we are doing it in seconds." Krim and graduate student Gozde Bozkurt-Unal must work within the 10-byte capacity of the existing wireless data transmission system to develop compression algorithms that speed downloads of jpg files to police and FBI laptops. How does he do it? Krim points out that faces have many features in common. Removal of the redundant ones speeds the transmission of a jpg file that may be accessed by up to 4,000 law enforcement officers at one time in North Carolina alone. "It's not like we were trying to win any prizes with the images," says Krim. "We're just trying to help the police know quickly whether or not they are dealing with a criminal." For more information, visit www.ncsu.edu or e-mail Krim at ahk@eos.ncsu.edu.

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