Madeleine McCann computer works out how she would look today on her 17th birthday.Madeleine McCann would be celebrating her 17th birthday if she was with us today. Now, thanks to computer technology, a photo shows how she could look today which its creators hope might prompt people to think 'I know someone who looks like this'.
Advanced AI technology has been used to create a photo of what Madeleine McCann might look like on her 17th birthday today – and its creators hope it can be used to help find her.
Madeleine McCann went missing from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal in 2007 days before her 4th birthday on May 12 while her parents were dining in a nearby tapas restaurant.
Her disappearance remains a mystery to this day and Kate and Gerry McCann have campaigned ever since she went missing in the hope they will see their little girl again.
Now, a new picture, produced by Bradford University professor Hassan Ugail, shows what missing Maddie could look like today on her 17th birthday.
Professor Ugail says he is "fairly sure" the image will be an accurate representation of Madeleine, having been created by their computer-based modelling system, which is one of the most advanced in the world.
The system uses machine-learning to teach the computer how different people age, while also taking in the resemblance of family members to produce a photo-quality image.
Discussing the new photo, he told Daily Star Online: “We have taken in a huge database of people from different ethnicities, different races and obviously different gender and we have asked the machine-learning algorithm to actually learn about how humans age.
“For example a caucasian, white female ages very differently to a white male - and drastically differently from a black or asian person.
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“So all different races and genders age differently so we have taken that onboard with our algorithm and we can also filter in siblings, parental and other family matters as obviously people resemble others in their family so we also take this on board.”
Professor Ugail’s technology was first unveiled by Bradford University in 2017 and has been refined over the past two years.
He also explained how the process works.
“We take a photo, it doesn’t matter what age the person is really, any age. So in the case of Madeleine it’s when she was three," he said.
"Then first of all we get a picture of mum and dad and put it into the system and that provides our template and we put the age in as 17.
“When we say 17, we can’t guarantee that but it will be something like 15 to 17 in a two to three year range.”
“That’s one reason we wanted to do this, to see if there’s any hope. Anybody who looks at this picture and will think ‘I know someone who looks like this’.
“Or even better if the police can run it through large databases and then identify potential looking people and then it can help with their investigation.”
Back in 2018, the professor was able to identify two of the suspects behind the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in the Wiltshire town of Salisbury.
Ex-chief inspector Mick Neville, who founded the Met Police’s Central Forensic Image Team in 2012, has already expressed an interest in analysing the image.
He now runs Super Recognisers International, formed of recruits who can remember 80% of the faces they see.
This allows them to pore through CCTV footage and pictures to identify criminals and missing people.
He said: “What they could do with it (the new picture) is what they can do with any picture, they need other images.
“What we’d have to do is put pressure on Facebook because the facial recognition they use in America is one of the best in the world.
“We could run it across all the images and speak to Interpol or Europol.”
Facebook identifies peoples’ features in newly uploaded photos and can recognise individuals even when they’re not tagged.
Neville believes an up-to-date photo of Madeleine could be lurking somewhere on social media, potentially in someone else’s selfie.
The forensics expert has offered his service to the Find Madeleine campaign, detailing what his super recognisers are capable of.
During the London riots in 2011, more than 200,000 hours of CCTV footage were analysed by facial recognition software and only one criminal was identified.
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/madeleine-mccann-computer-works-out-22009629
