NCJ Number
146640
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 39 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1994) Pages: 21-27
Date Published
1994
Length
7 pages
Annotation
The ribbon analysis workstation (RAW-1), developed in Great Britain, is a computer-driven electromechanical device designed to help questioned document specialists transcribe and analyze a wide range of multirow, single-strike carbon film ribbons.
Abstract
The time-consuming method of manually reading a single- strike ribbon makes the RAW-1 a unique labor-saving instrument. In addition, the RAW-1 has reportedly been admitted as a scientific instrument in the British legal system. Three main elements of the RAW-1 are the electromechanical unit, the computer, and the printer. The electromechanical unit is used to spool the typewriter ribbon in front of a line scan camera that captures images on the ribbon. The computer controls the action of the electromechanical unit and stores captured data for processing and transcription. The printer generates the contents of the typewriter ribbon after recording. The current study examined the RAW-1's ability to reproduce an accurate transcription of an original text from a carbon film ribbon. Ten single-strike ribbons, with a predetermined text of 10,000 words, were processed using the RAW-1. Texts from ribbons were then compared to the printout from the RAW-1 for accuracy and repeatability. When typewriter ribbons were spooled with even tension and all parameters were properly set, the RAW-1 printout was in complete agreement with the typed research text. 2 references and 3 figures