Description of SOC Images

–Variation amongst SOCOs?

Chris Handy, Mariam Tariq &Khurshid Ahmad

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Variation amongst SOCO’s?

Are SOCO’s always consistent?How does this affect retrieval?

•Over the last 3-4 Round Tables, and at other occasions, we have asked our RT members to describe SoC Images.

• One of the intentions was to see the level of agreement amongst different SOCO’s about individual images.

•A consistency of description will help in automatically indexing the images for later retrieval.

Variation amongst SOCO’s?

Are SOCO’s always consistent?How does this affect retrieval?

• A consistency of description may be in the description of objects as well as the location of the objects.

• Description of an object, for us, includes, identification and further elaboration.

Variation amongst SOCO’s?

We analysed a set of images of a crime scene described by 8 different SOCOs. SOCOs typically identify, locate, and give additional information in their description.We separated each caption into 3-4 phrases. The first 2 phrases identify an object in the image: typically the first being generic the second more specific.

Variation amongst SOCO’s?

IDENTIFICATION LOCATION ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Red and silver knife handle

On alleyway floor Adjacent to building and metal gate

Variation amongst SOCO’s?

SOCO 5 Close up item 3.

SOCO 7 Close up of item 3 -

SOCO 1 Close up of knife.

SOCO 8 Close up view item 3 -

SOCO 2 Close up view of ex 3

SOCO 4 Close up view of exhibit 3

SOCO 3 Close up view of exhibit ABC/3

SOCO 6 Close view of marker 3

Identification Step 1

Variation amongst SOCO’s?

Identification Step 2

SOCO 2 a red handled lock knife

SOCO 6 against red handled knife.

SOCO 5 Knife handle.

SOCO 3 red and silver knife handle

SOCO 4 red handled flick knife

SOCO 8 red handled flick knife.

SOCO 7 red penknife.

SOCO 1 Red sides. Metal ends.

Variation amongst SOCO’s?

Location

SOCO 2 found by right hand corner of low extension

SOCO 3 on alleyway floor

SOCO 1 On edge of pathway marked?

SOCO 4 on ground.

SOCO 6 -----

SOCO 5 -----

SOCO 8 -----

SOCO 7 -----

Variation amongst SOCO’s?Additional Information

SOCO 3 adjacent to building & metal gate

SOCO 2 to left of gate on garden side of gate

SOCO 1 -----

SOCO 4 -----

SOCO 6 -----

SOCO 5 -----

SOCO 8 -----

SOCO 7 -----

Variation amongst SOCO’s?

IDENTIFICATION LOCATION ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Close view of marker 2 And object Against body’s feet.

Variation amongst SOCO’s?

Identification Step 1

SOCO 2 Close up view of body

SOCO 6 Close view of marker 2

SOCO 5 Exhibit 2."body"

SOCO 1 Shot through gate

SOCO 4 View of body showing exhibit 2

SOCO 8 View of deceased.

SOCO 7 View of item 2 -

SOCO 3 View of metal gate

Variation amongst SOCO’s?

Identification Step 2

SOCO 2 and ex 2 -syringe

SOCO 6 and object

SOCO 5 face down on passage floor.

SOCO 1 of body.

SOCO 4 Syringe.

SOCO 8 -----

SOCO 7 showing body behind metal gate

SOCO 3 and ex 2 syringe

Variation amongst SOCO’s?

SOCO 2 with pole to right of body.

SOCO 6 against body's feet.

SOCO 5 Item next to left leg.

SOCO 1 Syringe to left hand side

SOCO 4 -----

SOCO 8 -----

SOCO 7 possibly still behind gate.

SOCO 3 viewed from green area.

Location

Variation amongst SOCO’s?

“Single story church in Dempsey road.”

“View from Dempsey Road towards church (front and right view).”

“View onto Dempsey road showing church to the left hand side.”

“Front view of church on Dempsey Road.”

“View of church on corner of Dempsey Place.”

“Entirety view front of church with Dempsey Road on right hand side as viewed from the front of the church.”

Variation in vocabularyData was tabulated to evaluate variation/consistency

Observations (1)

Several observations made about the data in general.

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A variety of synonyms used by different SOCOs e.g. ’flagstone pathway’ ‘paved area’; ‘lawn’ ‘grass’ ‘green area’

Also in spatial relationships; e.g. ‘adjacent’ ‘next to’

Observations (2)

Broader (supertype)/ Narrower (subtype) used by different indexers; e.g. ‘building’ ‘church’.

SOCOs consistently more or less verbose.

Objects often given an attribute e.g. gate (closed).

Orientation information common: e.g. ‘View from’.

Observations (3)

If an object e.g. a clothed body appears in a number of different photographs –SOCOS tend to describe the clothing but will do so in captions related to different photographs.

Broader term used first followed by abbreviations or subtype; e.g. ‘church’ ‘building’

Captions seem to consist of an average of 3 sub-phrases.

Conclusions (1) -Variation

There is evidence of indexer variation at the lexical level

Conclusions (2) -VariationHowever at the conceptual level there is more consistency

Conclusions (3) -Queries

If there is variation at the lexical level in indexing it may be reasonable to suppose that there will be variation in querying.

It may therefore be helpful to have some form of query expansion. This should help recall with variation in indexing and querying, but may make precision worse.

Thank You!

The team would like to thank all who gave up their time to

complete our surveys.

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