Advanced DNA Phenotyping for Superior Tactical Intelligence

Parabon’s Snapshot DNA Phenotyping System, which stems from an SBIR Phase II project, predicts ancestry, pigmentation, and face shape from forensic DNA samples, giving investigators information about suspects or unidentified remains they could not have obtained previously. In December 2014, Snapshot was made commercially available, and since that time has been used in over 100 criminal cases. Its accuracy has been demonstrated through numerous blind evaluations, but there is still room for improved applicability for the DoD. Snapshot’s accuracy in populations of interest to the DoD could be improved by the expansion of the input data to include large numbers of diverse individuals from these populations. The major barrier to collecting large numbers of subjects is the need for an expensive, delicate 3D camera for capturing face shape. In this project, Parabon proposes to develop software that can capture an accurate 3D image of a face using only a mobile phone’s camera. This will allow collection of new, diverse subjects from around the US and, eventually, the world. These new subjects will be used to improve Snapshot’s existing face composite prediction capability for use in a variety of DoD operational scenarios.