Development of a Forensic Body Fluid ID Test Card Reader

Project description

This project aims to reduce subjectivity in the interpretation of medical and forensic tests. Something that is vital for the accurate diagnosis and classification of important biochemical markers. The successful completion of this project will see the design, construction and testing of a standardised and automated process to image and interpret a variety of immunological test cards. Forensic Science SA (FSSA) is the South Australian provider of forensic expertise, providing services for the SA Police, the coroner, defence and the community. Of common interest in criminal investigations and trials is the presence of body fluids that may be important to the alleged scenario. FSSA uses immunological test cards to test for the presence of multiple different body fluids (each with their own card). A typical process is for the test cards to be manually interpreted as positive or negative after a defined period (in much the same way as COVID RAT cards or pregnancy tests). In forensic situations there may be low levels of the body fluid or other compounds present in the sample, both of which can affect the intensity and appearance of the band, complicating interpretation of the result. Forensic Science also has an accreditation requirement to store the results of tests, and recently the idea of storing photographs of the test card result has been proposed. However, how these photographs are taken (e.g. lighting and angles) could have an affect on the interpretation of the results. Finally, the manual interpretation of results is a possible source of subjectivity that would ideally be removed. Research in many forensic fields have shown the benefits of automating manual interpretations tasks, such as reading test card results, and this project is aimed at developing tools to allow objective and automated reading of test card results. The project will consist of designing and producing a camera holder in which the test cards can be placed and situated so that the test area is held in the right area for photographing. The holder will need to have internal lighting so that consistent images are produced. The second component of the project is to produce an application that can analyse the card test window image and produce a graph of the intensity of the test band. This would then be used as an objective and repeatable way of assessing the card result. Initial work can investigate the best imagine processing methods to extract the information, with the ultimate aim to produce an application that would do the card reading automatically and generate a report of the result.

Co-supervisors

Dr Duncan Taylor

Industry involvement

Forensic Science South Australia

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