An online application for the classification and evidence evaluation of forensic glass fragments

We present an easy-to-use and freely accessible online application for the analysis of forensic glass fragments. The application is browser based and takes as input .csv or .txt files containing measurements from glass fragments obtained using a scanning electron microscope with an energy-dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX) spectrometer. The application was developed to (i) classify glass fragments into use-type categories (classification), and (ii) compute the evidential strength of two sets of fragments under competing propositions (evidence evaluation). Detailed examples of how to use the application for both tasks are given, which highlight its user-friendly interface. The suitability of the statistical methods used by the application was checked using simulation studies, and improvements upon previous methods were found in both tasks.