New Technology Might Help Find Missing Kids

The kidnapping of 9-year-old Florida girl Jessica Lunsford, whose body was found yesterday by police, underscores the importance of fast and efficient information sharing among law enforcement agencies in missing children cases.

West Virginia is testing a new program called AmberView, which captures a computerized image of a child's face from every angle -- as easily as taking a photograph.

The images, which can be viewed three-dimensionally, will be stored in a database to be shared in an Amber Alert if a child is missing.

Pilot Program Attracting Interest

Maria Watson-Gaddis, the aunt of a seventh-grader whose image was captured by AmberView, likes the idea.

"Knowing that she's in the database, should anything happen to her, I know that law enforcement would have her picture out all over the United States immediately," Watson-Gaddis said.

This pilot program is just a few weeks old, but it already has attracted interest from officials as far away from each other as California and Utah.

"We think that it dovetails very, very well with what we're trying to do and what public school systems across the country are trying to do -- ensure the safety of the kids while they're in our care," said Carl Friebel, a West Virginia school superintendent.

Making a Mold with Light

AmberView uses biometrics -- the science of identifying people using biological details -- to make a mold of a person's face with light.

"It's just like taking a big cube of light and pressing someone's face right into it," said Michael Oliverio, who coordinates West Virginia's AmberView project. "What you're left with is a perfect 3-D image."