'Zoom and enhance': A much-mocked CSI trope becomes reality

Scientists figure out the image enhancement technique that TV cop dramas have been using for years

Corneal reflections
(Image credit: (2013 Jenkins, Kerr))

It's a standard television crime drama trope: The only thing the good guys have to work with is a dark, grainy, and heavily pixilated surveillance tape, but by crowding around the computer and saying "zoom and enhance" a lot (as if it's some sort of magic spell), they're able to get crystal-clear pictures of the bad guy's face or a license plate or whatever else they need. That technical wizardry seems a little less absurd now thanks to the recent work of a pair of scientists from the United Kingdom.

Stare at someone eye to eye and you'll see yourself, in miniature, reflected in their eyeball. In a new study, psychologists Rob Jenkins and Christie Kerr show that, when captured in a hi-res photo, those reflections can reveal the kind of details and information that would make any prime-time cop jealous — including identifiable images of bystanders who weren't in the photo.

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