User Guide

To identify a photo, you need to follow the new multi-step facial recognition-based identification process of Photo Sleuth. You can initiate this identification process in two ways.

A) If you upload a photo, you are automatically taken to the first step of the identification process right after you provide the metadata and evidence information.

B) If you are on the photo page, scroll down to the "Identities" section and click the "Identify Face" button to go to the first step of the identification process.

Here are the steps to follow:

1. First, the interface will ask if you already know the identity of the person in the photo. If Yes, you will see a form asking for details of the identity. You also have to provide the source of your information.
   
   Note: this step does not yet identify the photo. This information will help us find other photos with the same name in the database.



2. After that, you will be taken to the search filters page. If uniform tags are available for the photo (left side of the page), the search filters will be automatically populated (right side of the page). You can also manually update the search filters. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the "Search" button to go to the next step. The facial similarity checkbox indicates that facial recognition will be used in the next step.

   

   

3. Now, you just have to wait while the website uses these search filters to filter the candidate pool to all soldiers who might ever have held these positions, including promotions, demotions, and transfers. Then, facial recognition will then search for similar-looking people in this candidate pool. This may take some time.
   
   After face recognition is done with the search, the search results page will display all the soldier/civilian portraits that satisfy the search filters, and have a facial similarity score of 0.50 and more with the photo you are trying to identify. These results are sorted by facial similarity score.
   
   This page shows displays two different types of results. The first type (on the top) shows if there are any profiles matching the identity you provided in the first step. You will not see these type of results if you did not provide any identity information in the first step. The other type of results are basically the similar-looking candidates retrieved by face recognition.
   
   Note: We advise you to deliberate carefully through multiple search results before making a final decision.



4. On the Search Results page, you can compare different photos with the unidentified photo. You can do this by hovering over a search result and clicking on the "Compare" button.

   

   Clicking the "Compare" button will bring up the comparison interface. This is the final identification step, which we have broken into two steps.
   
   First, you will compare the unidentified photo with the candidate photo, solely on the basis of facial similarity. Here, you can answer whether both photos show the same person, or not. If you feel they show the same person, you need to specify whether they are a Facial Match (i.e. if they are different photos of the same person) or a Replica (i.e. if both photos are exact duplicates of each other). Please note: you are not supposed to factor in the identity of the search result here. If the person in the search result has multiple photos, you will be asked to compare the unidentified photo with all the photos.
   
   

   

   Now, based on the photo comparison(s) and the available biography information for the search result, you may identify whether the unidentified photo is the person or not. Here, you also have to answer how confident you are about the identification. If your response is Yes - Slightly Confident or Yes - Highly Confident, the unidentified photo will be identified as the person.
   
   

   

   Note: if you are comparing the search result for an identity you provided in the first step of the overall identification workflow, the steps are reversed in the compare interface; i.e., you can identify the photo first as the person and then compare with other photos of the person.

   

   Note: We advise you to deliberate carefully while comparing and identifying photos. This will help curb potential misidentifications on the website.
5. If you have already gone through the search results but did not find any match for the unidentified photo, then you can manually identify the photo by clicking the "Add Identity" button on the top of the search results page.

   

   This will take you to the "Add Person" page. Learn more about manually adding an identity here.

To identify a photo, you first need to follow the identification steps in detail here. On the "Search Results" page, if have already checked the similar-looking candidates retrieved by facial recognition but did not find any matches for the photo you are trying to identify, you can manually add the identity by clicking the "Add Person" button on top of the "Search Results" page. This will take you to the "Add Person" page.

On the "Add Person" page, you can add the following information:

1. Name of the Identity
2. Identification Source
3. Identification Confidence
4. Biography Information
5. Biography Source

If you know the identity of the person, you can answer the first question ("Do you know the identity of the person?") as Yes. This will open the form so you can add identity details. Please provide the source of the identity, i.e., where you learned about the photo's identity. You can learn more about identification sources here. Please also indicate how confident you are about the identity.

On the same page, you can enter biography information (demographics and service records) for the identity. To add the military service information, click the "Add Service" button. This will open up a form where you can add the army, unit, rank and branch information for the person. If you want to add multiple units, you can just click the "Add Service" button. Please provide the source of the biography, i.e., where you learned about the military service or demographic information of the identity.

If you do not know the identity of the person but want to add some biographical details, you can also do that by answering the first question ("Do you know the identity of the person?") as No. This will hide the identity form, and you can simply enter the biography details. However, because this identity lacks a name, it will be considered as a "partial identity". Learn more about partial identities here.

Sometimes, two photos may show the same person, i.e., both the persons look very similar to each other. However, the biographical details may tell a different story. To make the identification process more clear, we break it down into two steps. First, you compare the photos, and second, you identify using the available evidence. We believe this two-step process will help capturing the most useful information from users, and also give the CWPS team better insights about the identification process.

Yes, you can suggest any number of identities for a photo. The steps are same as identifying a person.

On the photo page, you can edit the biography by clicking the "Edit Biography" section within an identity card. Learn more about editing a biography here.

There are three ways to add an identification source for an identity.

1. If you already know the identity of the photo, you can provide the source type and details in the first step of the identification process. On the search results page, if you find a match for the same person, then the ID source will automatically get added when you identify the photo using the "Comparison Interface". This will then become an original identification source for the photo; i.e., this ID source came with the photo.
   
   
2. If you are identifying a photo manually via the "Add Person" page, then you can provide the source type and details there. This will then become an original identification source for the photo; i.e., this ID source came with the photo.
   
   
3. If you are identifying a photo as a person via the comparison interface and have already compared the unidentified photo with other photos of that person as either "facial match" or "replica", then those photos will automatically become an identification source for the unidentified photo.
   
   To better understand this, consider this scenario. You are trying to identify Photo 2. On the search results page, you find a compelling match in John Smith. Another user had previously identified Photo 1 as John Smith, and provided period inscription (Primary Source) as the source type. Now, you compared Photo 2 and Photo 1, and found them to be a "facial match". You are also convinced by the biographical information that Photo 2 is indeed John Smith, and therefore, you identify Photo 2 as John Smith.
   
   Photo 1 now becomes an identification source for Photo 2, and will be listed as a "Primary Source", linked via "facial match". Similarly, Photo 2 also becomes an identification source for Photo 1. If Photo 2 does not have an original identification source of its own, then it will be listed under "Visual ID Source" for Photo 1 and the source type will be set to "facial match". If it has an original identification source of its own, it will be listed under the relevant source category.
   
   

Original identification sources, i.e., the ID source came originally with the photo, will not have a comparison chart next to it. Linked identification sources will have a comparison chart next to it.