Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Patripas]

hello everybody.
I have been trying to translate a spanish word: "retrato robot". but, in the dictionary, I have only seen a bad translation: "portrait robot"
a "retrato robot" is: when someone wants to describe a thief, a robber or a suspicious person, he tells the description to a policeman. the policeman makes a picture of the robber with the computer. RETRATO ROBOT is the picture that have made the policeman with the victim description.
now, I need your help, please.
HOW CAN I SAY "RETRATO ROBOT" IN ENGLISH??? I�m sure that in a vocabulary book it could appear.
please please please... I need you. tell me the translation please!!!!

[dduck]

I think the expression you're looking for is a "mug shot". Normally, this is just a picture: head and shoulders only. I don't know if there is a written description associated with a mug shot.

Iain
_________________

Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.
--Chinese Proverb

[obelix]

There used to be a device called "Identikit" which enabled a trained policeman to generate a picture of a suspect based on a witness' description.
It consisted of clear plastic sheets each of which would have a different type of facial feature (mouth, eyes nose etc.). The witness would pick whichever feature seemed the most like the suspect's and by laying the sheets on top of each other a picture would be made.
This used to be called an "Identikit picture"

I think they have now transferred this to computers and it is much more flexible and accurate.
This is useually referred to as a "computer-generated likeness of a suspect"

[dduck]

[bud]

In the US, I think that they call a picture made from a witness's description a composite picture, or a composite drawing or a composite sketch. The first would be used for the methods referred to by Obelix. The last two would be used if an artist drew the picture.