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Police Are Using DNA to Generate 3D Images of Suspects They've Never Seen

tech-historian 4y ago
When I saw Gattaca back in '97 I thought it was crazy. Now I'm not so sure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gattaca https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gattaca
- tracker1 4y ago
  I didn't think it was so crazy at the time. I can absolutely see things heading in that direction over the next century.
LinuxBender 4y ago
This was also part of a campaign in 2014/2015 in HK to stop people from leaving chewing gum on bus stop benches. [1] The Virginia-based company then used its Snapshot DNA Phenotyping Service to extract strands of DNA from the trash and identify the person's "sex, ancestry, pigmentation (skin color, hair color, eye color, freckling), and even face morphology." That information was then used to create some insanely creepy 3D renderings of what each litterbug looked like. Parabon created 27 facial composites using 24 DNA samples collected from Hong Kong's streets and 3 from volunteers. [1] - https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/roadwarriorvoices/2015/05/23/if-you-litter-in-hong-kong-your-dna-will-be-used-for-a-high-tech-public-shaming-campaign/83305522/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/roadwarriorvoices/2015...
- tech-historian 4y ago
  This is crazy. Seems like a really bad sci-fi story if it wasn't true.
rolph 4y ago
DNA is only a blueprint, it exists along with epigenetic footnotes, and a noisy variation tolerant production process. add exosomatic contributions, during the course of development [ones lifetime] and you have a thing called phenotypic plasticity. this means multiple variations occur when using the same code but different system configurations. This isnt quite like phrenology, but the mentation seems approximate.
- atoav 4y ago
  Putting people into the locker based on the shape of their head? Bad vibes.
- yarg 4y ago
  > This isnt quite like phrenology, but the mentation seems approximate. Really? Phrenology was utter bullshit - a methodology based on genetics can answer some questions correctly, and others within statistical bounds. Incorporating understanding of epigenetics would improve the model, but the failure to do so does not invalidate the model completely. As far as morphology is concerned, sex hormone levels are probably a significantly more important unconsidered factor.
  - giraffe_lady 4y ago
    > a methodology based on genetics can answer some questions correctly Sure, but can this? Just because the underlying mechanisms have validity doesn't mean any specific practical application does.
just_steve_h 4y ago
There's a sucker born every minute, and there's an entire Valley full of con men waiting to pounce with grand claims of "AI" and "genetic breakthroughs". Many of the latter are congregated right here!
- yuppie_scum 4y ago
  And plenty of LEO’s will bite for it too
theGnuMe 4y ago
Well given a database of photos and DNA, you could probably do this with stable diffusion.

When I saw Gattaca back in '97 I thought it was crazy. Now I'm not so sure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gattaca https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gattaca

tracker1 4y ago
I didn't think it was so crazy at the time. I can absolutely see things heading in that direction over the next century.

LinuxBender 4y ago

This was also part of a campaign in 2014/2015 in HK to stop people from leaving chewing gum on bus stop benches. [1] The Virginia-based company then used its Snapshot DNA Phenotyping Service to extract strands of DNA from the trash and identify the person's "sex, ancestry, pigmentation (skin color, hair color, eye color, freckling), and even face morphology." That information was then used to create some insanely creepy 3D renderings of what each litterbug looked like. Parabon created 27 facial composites using 24 DNA samples collected from Hong Kong's streets and 3 from volunteers. [1] - https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/roadwarriorvoices/2015/05/23/if-you-litter-in-hong-kong-your-dna-will-be-used-for-a-high-tech-public-shaming-campaign/83305522/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/roadwarriorvoices/2015...

tech-historian 4y ago
This is crazy. Seems like a really bad sci-fi story if it wasn't true.

rolph 4y ago

DNA is only a blueprint, it exists along with epigenetic footnotes, and a noisy variation tolerant production process. add exosomatic contributions, during the course of development [ones lifetime] and you have a thing called phenotypic plasticity. this means multiple variations occur when using the same code but different system configurations. This isnt quite like phrenology, but the mentation seems approximate.

atoav 4y ago
Putting people into the locker based on the shape of their head? Bad vibes.
yarg 4y ago
> This isnt quite like phrenology, but the mentation seems approximate. Really? Phrenology was utter bullshit - a methodology based on genetics can answer some questions correctly, and others within statistical bounds. Incorporating understanding of epigenetics would improve the model, but the failure to do so does not invalidate the model completely. As far as morphology is concerned, sex hormone levels are probably a significantly more important unconsidered factor.
- giraffe_lady 4y ago
  > a methodology based on genetics can answer some questions correctly Sure, but can this? Just because the underlying mechanisms have validity doesn't mean any specific practical application does.

just_steve_h 4y ago

There's a sucker born every minute, and there's an entire Valley full of con men waiting to pounce with grand claims of "AI" and "genetic breakthroughs". Many of the latter are congregated right here!

yuppie_scum 4y ago
And plenty of LEO’s will bite for it too

theGnuMe 4y ago

Well given a database of photos and DNA, you could probably do this with stable diffusion.