A computer image of the face is built up

Scientists from the University of Sheffield were asked to help the US law enforcement agency develop a way of identifying often blurry faces caught on video footage.

Now 3,000 volunteers at the Magna Centre in Rotherham are to have their heads scanned to form a three-dimensional image which can then be compared with enhanced CCTV footage.

Researchers at the university's department of forensic pathology hope the resulting technique will revolutionise the way CCTV evidence is used in court cases on both sides of the Atlantic.

The research team is led by Dr Martin Evison

The team will be using a high-tech 3D scanner to capture every aspect of the volunteers' heads.

Dr Martin Evison from Sheffield University told the BBC: "There have been big problems with miscarriages of justice where CCTV is used to identify the faces of offenders in criminal cases.

"We're trying to do research on the mathematics of the shape of the face which is why we're asking for volunteers to give us their photographs in 3D.

"We also want to do a population study so that when we have a shape of a face we can say how frequent that shape is in the general population."

Visitors to the Magna Centre who have their photographs taken will be able to take home a CD ROM of their image.