I.T. Times
Volume 4. No 2 Information Technology News of the University of California, Davis October 1995


Identity on the Internet

Imaging Technology Used to Analyze Gang Clothing

by Anne Jackson, Information Technology Publications

Think of imaging technology as adding eyes to a computer - and, in the process, revolutionizing the work of people who think and work in visuals.

Ask Janet Hethorn, Assistant Professor of Design in the Department of Environmental Design. For the past several years Hethorn has been painstakingly gathering information and photographs documenting the apparel preferences of two distinct population groups - adolescents and skiers - and organizing the material into traditional Excel databases.

Until recently that work required using words to describe images, particularly difficult when it came to defining features like pattern, texture, shape, and color. But now, with the help of Ultimedia Manager/2, which can "see" those attributes, Hethorn can call up images to the computer screen, click on, for example, a polka-dot pattern, click on a color, or choose color combinations from a color wheel, specify apparel type, such as shorts or shirts, and ask the computer to display all images from the database embodying those characteristics.

"This technology is giving (the projects) a huge shot in the arm," says Hethorn. "It allows me to do things I haven't been able to do before, like sort by color, shape, composition, and texture without using key words. It builds a way for me to look at the data in ways I wasn't able to do before the technology became available and maybe answer questions I wasn't able to even address in the past."

"An essential part of moving these projects has been working with I.T. They've been able to put me in touch with the people who can help me," adds Hethorn, whose imaging projects also received funding from IBM.

What about the projects' application in the real world? Hethorn is focusing her adolescent clothing research on understanding gang identity, helping school officials and law enforcement agencies differentiate between gang clothing and benign juvenile clothing styles, and documenting those differences in the face of rapid changes in style and meaning.

The purpose, says Hethorn, is to help officials devise appropriate intervention strategies and to avoid stigmatizing youngsters who may look like gang members, but who instead may be simply responding to fashion trends.

"Schools are imposing dress codes and uniforms without understanding the real meanings being communicated or the dynamics of clothing and identity," says Hethorn. "I hope this will inform those policies. An adult may look at a kid and say that their clothing represents a gang, when it might be just a fashion thing. But meanwhile the idea that they're something they're not becomes communicated to the kid. My strong feeling is that dress codes don't work unless they're done properly."

Working with midwest gang investigators and a Los Angeles County gang task force, Hethorn has interviewed dozens of gang members and youngsters from areas where gangs are prevalent. She has now collected some 500 images illustrating expressions of gang identity and non-gang street style clothing. She is incorporating those images into the Ultimedia Manager/2 database as a resource for schools, law enforcement officials, and community-based organizations working with young people.

Meanwhile, with the help of Ken Weiss and Steve Faith of I.T.'s Distributed Computing Analysis and Support unit, Hethorn has created an electronic field guide to gang identity to go on the Internet. The guide will be accessible to anyone through the World Wide Web.

And what about her research on ski clothing? Hethorn has collected more than 1,000 images, the product of seven years' worth of interviews with people at ski resorts, recording what they like and don't like about their ski apparel. Many of those images have now been built into an Ultimedia Manager/2 database, which Hethorn hopes will help the skiwear industry analyze market trends and develop new products.

Hethorn is also busy creating still another database, this one on apparel for older women - a group, says Hethorn, that "the apparel industry sizing standards don't consider." For that project Hethorn collaborated with data collectors to measure and interview more than 7,000 older women in senior centers around the country. In addition, Hethorn photographed subjects from Northern California and asked them additional style and fit questions.

"I'm hoping to publish the results soon, so the information can be used by the industry for design decision-making," says Hethorn.


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