Difference between revisions of "Final Report 2012"

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The ultimate goal of this project is to help the police to solve the mystery. Whilst this is a rather lofty and likely unachievable goal, by working towards it we may be able to provide useful insights into the case and develop techniques and technologies that are applicable beyond the scope of this single case. We have taken a multi-pronged approach to give a broader perspective and draw in different aspects that, taken in isolation, may be meaningless but taken as a whole become significant. The two main focuses of this project are cracking the code found in the Rubaiyat, and trying to identify the victim. To further break down cracking the code, the web crawler and pattern matcher are used to trawl the internet for meaning in the letters of the code, and directly interrogating the code with various ciphers to try and find out what is written. In order to be able to identify the victim so long after his death, we need to recreate how he might have looked when he was alive, firstly by making a three-dimensional reconstruction from a bust taken after he was autopsied, and then by manipulating the resulting model to create a more life-like representation, complete with hair, skin and eye colours (which can be found in the coroner's report).
 
The ultimate goal of this project is to help the police to solve the mystery. Whilst this is a rather lofty and likely unachievable goal, by working towards it we may be able to provide useful insights into the case and develop techniques and technologies that are applicable beyond the scope of this single case. We have taken a multi-pronged approach to give a broader perspective and draw in different aspects that, taken in isolation, may be meaningless but taken as a whole become significant. The two main focuses of this project are cracking the code found in the Rubaiyat, and trying to identify the victim. To further break down cracking the code, the web crawler and pattern matcher are used to trawl the internet for meaning in the letters of the code, and directly interrogating the code with various ciphers to try and find out what is written. In order to be able to identify the victim so long after his death, we need to recreate how he might have looked when he was alive, firstly by making a three-dimensional reconstruction from a bust taken after he was autopsied, and then by manipulating the resulting model to create a more life-like representation, complete with hair, skin and eye colours (which can be found in the coroner's report).
  
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===Methodology===
+
===Previous Studies===
 +
====Previous Public Investigations====
 +
During the course of the police investigation, the case became ever more mysterious. Nobody came forward to identify the dead man, and the only possible clues to his identity showed up several months later, when a luggage case that had been checked in at Adelaide Railway Station was handed in. This had been stored on the 30th November, and it was linked to the Somerton Man through a type of thread not available in Australia but matching that used to repair one of the pockets on the clothes he wore when found. Most of the clothes in the suitcase were similarly lacking labels, leaving only the name "T. Keane" on a tie, "Keane" on a laundry bag, and "Kean" (no 'e') on a singlet. However, these were to prove unhelpful, as a worldwide search found that there was no "T. Keane" missing in any English-speaking country. It was later noted that these three labels were the only ones that could not be removed without damaging the clothing. \cite{wiki12}
 +
 
 +
At the time, code experts were called in to try to unravel the text, but their attempts were unsuccessful. In 1978, the Australian Defence Force analysed the code, and came to the conclusion that:
 +
* There are insufficient symbols to provide a pattern
 +
* The symbols could be a complex substitute code, or the meaningless response to a disturbed mind
 +
* It is not possible to provide a satisfactory answer \cite{wiki12}
 +
 
 +
What does not help in the cracking of the code is the ambiguity of many of the letters.
 +
 
 +
[[Image:The_Code.png|thumb|300px|center|The code found in the back of the Rubaiyat linked to the Somerton Man.]]
 +
 
 +
As can be seen, the first letters of both the first and second (third?) lines could be considered either an 'M' or a 'W', the first letter of the last line either an 'I' or a 'V', plus the floating 'C' at the end of the penultimate line. There is also some confusion about the 'X' above the 'O' in the penultimate line, whether it is a part of the code or not, and the relevance of the second, crossed-out line. Was it a mistake on the part of the writer, or was it an attempt to underline (as the later letters seem to suggest)? Many amateur enthusiasts since have attempted to decipher the code, but with the ability to "cherry-pick" a cipher to suit the individual it is possible to read any number of meanings from the text.
 +
 
 +
 
 +
 
 +
==Methodology==
  
  

Revision as of 12:11, 22 October 2012

Executive Summary

History

On December 1st 1948, around 6.30 in the morning, a couple walking found a dead man lying propped against the wall at Somerton Beach, south of Glenelg. He had very few possessions about his person, and no form of identification. Though wearing smart clothes, he was without a hat (an uncommon sight at the time), and there were no labels in his clothing. The body carried no form of identification, his fingerprints and dental records didn’t match any international registries. The only items on the victim were some cigarettes, chewing gum, a comb, an unused train ticket and a used bus ticket.

The Somerton Man shortly after autopsy

The coroner's verdict on the body stated that he was 40-45 years old, 180 centimetres tall, and in top physical condition. His time of death was found to be at around 2 a.m. that morning, and the autopsy indicated that, though his heart was normal, several other organs were congested, primarily his stomach, his kidneys, his liver, his brain, and part of his duodenum. It also noted that his spleen was about 3 times normal size, but no cause of death was given, the coroner only expressing his suspicion that the death was not natural and possibly caused by a barbiturate. 44 years later, in 1994 during a coronial inquest, it was suggested that the death was consistent with digitalis poisoning

Of the few possessions found upon the body, one was most intriguing. Within a fob pocket of his trousers, the Somerton Man had a piece of paper torn from the pages of a book, reading "Tamam Shud" on it. These words were discovered to mean ``ended or ``finished in Persian, and linked to a book called the Rubaiyat, a book of poems by a Persian scholar called Omar Khayyam. A nation-wide search ensued for the book, and a copy was handed to police that had been found in the back seat of a car in Jetty Road, Glenelg, the night of November 30th 1948. This was duly matched to the torn sheet of paper and found to be the same copy from which it had been ripped.

In the back of the book was written a series of five lines, with the second of these struck out. Its similarity to the fourth line indicates it was likely a mistake, and points towards the lines likely being a code rather than a series of random letters.

WRGOABABD

MLIAOI

WTBIMPANETP

MLIABOAIAQC

ITTMTSAMSTGAB


Introduction

Project Breakdown

For 60 years the identity of the Somerton Man and the meaning behind the code has remained a mystery. This project is aimed at providing an engineer’s perspective on the case, to use analytical techniques to decipher the code and provide a computer generated reconstruction of the victim to assist in the identification. Ultimately the aim is to crack the code and solve the case. The project was broken down into two main aspects of focus, Cipher Analysis and Identification, and then further into subtasks to be accomplished:

The first aspect of the project focuses on the analysis of the code, through the use of cryptanalysis and mathematical techniques as well as programs designed to provide mass data analysis. The mathematical techniques looked at confirming and expanding on the statistical analysis and cipher cross off from previous years. The mass data analysis expanded on the current Web Crawler, pattern matcher and Cipher GUI to improve the layout and functionality of these applications. The second aspect focuses on creating a 3D reconstruction of the victim’s face, using the bust as the template. The 3D image is hoped to be able to be used to help with the identification of the Somerton Man. This aspect of the project is a new focus, that hasn’t previously been worked on. The techniques and programs we have been using have been designed to be general, so that they could easily be applied to other cases in used in situations beyond the aim of this project.

Motivation

For over 60 years, this case has captured the public's imagination. An unidentified victim, an unknown cause of death, a mysterious code, and conspiracy theories surrounding the story - each wilder than the last. As engineers our role is to solve problems that arise, and this project gives us the ideal opportunity to apply our problem solving skills to a real world problem, something different from the usual "use resistors, capacitors and inductors" approach in electrical \& electronic engineering. The techniques and technologies developed in the course of this project are broad enough to be applied to other areas; pattern matching, data mining, 3-D modelling and decryption are all useful in a range of fields, or even of use in other criminal investigations such as the (perhaps related) Joseph Saul Marshall case.

Project Objectives

The ultimate goal of this project is to help the police to solve the mystery. Whilst this is a rather lofty and likely unachievable goal, by working towards it we may be able to provide useful insights into the case and develop techniques and technologies that are applicable beyond the scope of this single case. We have taken a multi-pronged approach to give a broader perspective and draw in different aspects that, taken in isolation, may be meaningless but taken as a whole become significant. The two main focuses of this project are cracking the code found in the Rubaiyat, and trying to identify the victim. To further break down cracking the code, the web crawler and pattern matcher are used to trawl the internet for meaning in the letters of the code, and directly interrogating the code with various ciphers to try and find out what is written. In order to be able to identify the victim so long after his death, we need to recreate how he might have looked when he was alive, firstly by making a three-dimensional reconstruction from a bust taken after he was autopsied, and then by manipulating the resulting model to create a more life-like representation, complete with hair, skin and eye colours (which can be found in the coroner's report).

Previous Studies

Previous Public Investigations

During the course of the police investigation, the case became ever more mysterious. Nobody came forward to identify the dead man, and the only possible clues to his identity showed up several months later, when a luggage case that had been checked in at Adelaide Railway Station was handed in. This had been stored on the 30th November, and it was linked to the Somerton Man through a type of thread not available in Australia but matching that used to repair one of the pockets on the clothes he wore when found. Most of the clothes in the suitcase were similarly lacking labels, leaving only the name "T. Keane" on a tie, "Keane" on a laundry bag, and "Kean" (no 'e') on a singlet. However, these were to prove unhelpful, as a worldwide search found that there was no "T. Keane" missing in any English-speaking country. It was later noted that these three labels were the only ones that could not be removed without damaging the clothing. \cite{wiki12}

At the time, code experts were called in to try to unravel the text, but their attempts were unsuccessful. In 1978, the Australian Defence Force analysed the code, and came to the conclusion that:

  • There are insufficient symbols to provide a pattern
  • The symbols could be a complex substitute code, or the meaningless response to a disturbed mind
  • It is not possible to provide a satisfactory answer \cite{wiki12}

What does not help in the cracking of the code is the ambiguity of many of the letters.

The code found in the back of the Rubaiyat linked to the Somerton Man.

As can be seen, the first letters of both the first and second (third?) lines could be considered either an 'M' or a 'W', the first letter of the last line either an 'I' or a 'V', plus the floating 'C' at the end of the penultimate line. There is also some confusion about the 'X' above the 'O' in the penultimate line, whether it is a part of the code or not, and the relevance of the second, crossed-out line. Was it a mistake on the part of the writer, or was it an attempt to underline (as the later letters seem to suggest)? Many amateur enthusiasts since have attempted to decipher the code, but with the ability to "cherry-pick" a cipher to suit the individual it is possible to read any number of meanings from the text.


Methodology

Results

Conclusion

Future Development

Project Management

Timeline

Budget

Risk Management

Project Outcomes

Significance and Innovations

Strengths and Weaknesses

Conclusion

References


See Also

References and useful resources

Back

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