Correlation of Topography Measurements of NIST SRM 2460 Standard Bullets by Four Techniques

Published

January 1, 2006

Author(s)

Jun-Feng Song, Theodore V. Vorburger, Thomas Brian Renegar, Xiaoyu Alan Zheng, Hyug-Gyo Rhee, John M. Libert, Li Ma, K Bogart, Susan M. Ballou, B Bachrach

Abstract

Three optical instruments including an interferometric microscope, a Nipkow disk confocal microscope and a laser scanning confocal microscope are used for the measurements of bullet profile signatures of a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Standard Reference Material (SRM) 2460 standard bullet.  The 2D profile signatures are compared with the virtual bullet standard signature established by a stylus-based measurement system at NIST.  The bullet signature differences are quantified by the maximum cross-correlation function CCFmax.  If the compared signatures were exactly the same, CCFmax would be 100%.  Comparison results show close agreement among the four techniques for bullet profile signature measurements.  The average CCFmax values are higher than 90%.  This supports the possibility of using surface topography techniques for ballistic identifications as an alternative to the current technology based on image comparisons.

Citation

Measurement Science & Technology

Volume

17

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

auto-correlation function, confocal microscope, cross-correlation function, standard bullet, standard reference material, topography comparison

Citation

Song, J. , Vorburger, T. , Renegar, T. , Zheng, X. , Rhee, H. , Libert, J. , Ma, L. , Bogart, K. , Ballou, S. and Bachrach, B. (2006), Correlation of Topography Measurements of NIST SRM 2460 Standard Bullets by Four Techniques, Measurement Science & Technology (Accessed October 7, 2025)