stranger vision (DNA facial recreation art)

[PhoenixAsh]

With all the discussions surrounding DNA, phenotype and genome expression...I think this may be interesting to people.

And artist uses DNA traces left behind on object she found in the street to recreate the image of the person that may have used it. This is art. Do follow the links on the main page however...because while this is art...this is also a real thing right now in law enforcement.

http://deweyhagborg.com/strangervisions/about.html

http://deweyhagborg.com/strangervisions/portraits.html

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/05/stranger-visions-dna-collected-from-found-objects-synthesized-to-create-3d-printed-portraits/

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It basically just focuses on key features like race, hair color, etc. We're still pretty far away from actually being able to construct faces just based on DNA

[PhoenixAsh]

Yes. However...that is a progressing science.

http://www.identitascorp.com/

http://www.nature.com/news/mugshots-built-from-dna-data-1.14899

You can do very interesting things with this already.

What it does is distinguish several SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) and plot it against standard models based on chance of likelihood to appearance to create rough images and outlines that have already been implemented to some degree of success in criminal investigations. And while the program started with 20 SNP they are now up to 180 in under two years.

[PhoenixAsh]

And another website from the artist. The idea is amazing:

http://deweyhagborg.com/statement.html

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Yea it can have applications for crime investigations, but it seems kind of pointless for the artist to do it given that she only looks at some key features. She may as well just make a random face and it'd probably match at least someone in the city just as well as the ones using the DNA. Also it seems kind of misleading, since the faces look really elaborate and precise but a lot of it was guesswork.

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Since you seem interested in this, I recall a story about environmentalists in Hong Kong threatening to out litterers:

http://news.asiaone.com/news/asia/new-hong-kong-campaign-uses-dna-identify-shame-litterers