Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Profile \Pro"file\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Profiled; p. pr. & vb. n. Profiling] [Cf. F. profiler, It. profilare. See Profile, n.]
to draw the outline of; to draw in profile, as an architectural member.
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(Mech.) To shape the outline of an object by passing a cutter around it.
Profiling machine, a jigging machine.
Profiling \Pro"fil*ing\, n. (Fort.) In the construction of fieldworks, the erection at proper intervals of wooden profiles, to show to the workmen the sectional form of the parapets at those points.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
by 1852 as a term in field engineering, verbal noun from profile (v.). The racial/ethnic stereotyping sense is attested from c.1991, American English.
Wiktionary
n. 1 The forensic science of constructing an outline of a person's individual characteristics. 2 (context military historical English) In the construction of fieldworks, the erection at proper intervals of wooden profiles, to show to the workmen the sectional form of the parapets at those points. vb. (present participle of profile English)
WordNet
n. recording a person's behavior and analyzing psychological characteristics in order to predict or assess their ability in a certain sphere or to identify a particular group of people
Wikipedia
In software engineering, profiling ("program profiling", "software profiling") is a form of dynamic program analysis that measures, for example, the space (memory) or time complexity of a program, the usage of particular instructions, or the frequency and duration of function calls. Most commonly, profiling information serves to aid program optimization.
Profiling is achieved by instrumenting either the program source code or its binary executable form using a tool called a profiler (or code profiler). Profilers may use a number of different techniques, such as event-based, statistical, instrumented, and simulation methods.
Profiling, the extrapolation of information about something, based on known qualities, may refer specifically to:
- Profiling (information science) in information science
- DNA profiling
- Forensic profiling, used in several types of forensic science
- Offender profiling
- Profiling (computer programming) in software engineering
- Racial profiling
- Sexual orientation profiling
- Geographic profiling
In information science, profiling refers to the process of construction and application of profiles generated by computerized data analysis.
This involves the use of algorithms or other mathematical techniques that allow the discovery of patterns or correlations in large quantities of data, aggregated in databases. When these patterns or correlations are used to identify or represent people, they can be called profiles. Other than a discussion of profiling technologies or population profiling, the notion of profiling in this sense is not just about the construction of profiles, but also concerns the application of group profiles to individuals, e. g., in the cases of credit scoring, price discrimination, or identification of security risks .
Profiling is not simply a matter of computerized pattern-recognition; it enables refined price-discrimination, targeted servicing, detection of fraud, and extensive social sorting. Real-time machine profiling constitutes the precondition for emerging socio-technical infrastructures envisioned by advocates of ambient intelligence, autonomic computing and ubiquitous computing .
One of the most challenging problems of the information society involves dealing with increasing data-overload. With the digitizing of all sorts of content as well as the improvement and drop in cost of recording technologies, the amount of available information has become enormous and increases exponentially. It has thus become important for companies, governments, and individuals to discriminate information from noise, detecting useful or interesting data. The development of profiling technologies must be seen against this background. These technologies are thought to efficiently collect and analyse data in order to find or test knowledge in the form of statistical patterns between data. This process, called Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) , provides the profiler with sets of correlated data usable as "profiles".
Usage examples of "profiling".
This chapter focuses on the developing technique of criminal profiling by Special Agents at the FBI Academy who have demonstrated expertise in crime scene analysis of various violent crimes, particularly those involving sexual homicide.
The agents involved in criminal profiling were able to classify murderers as either organized or disorganized in their commission of the crimes.
Nevertheless, a 1981 FBI evaluation questionnaire sent to field offices regarding the profiling service revealed that the criminal personality assessment had helped focus the investigation in 77 percent of those cases in which the suspects were subsequently identified.
The FBI Study With the development of the criminal profiling project, a study of crime scene analysis was proposed by involved FBI agents.
Second, it would identify variables, or specific characteristics, that may be useful in profiling sexual murderers and for which organized and disorganized sexual murderers differ statistically.
Criminal profiling and criminal personality assessment are ways in which law enforcement has sought to combine the results of studies in other disciplines with more traditional investigative techniques in an effort to combat violent criminal behavior.
Criminal profiling has been used by law enforcement with success in many areas and is viewed as a way in which the investigating officer can narrow the field of investigation.
Rapists and arsonists also lend themselves to criminal profiling tech niques.
A new dimension of information is available to the investigator through profiling techniques.
Criminal profiling as used by law enforcement today seeks to do more than describe the typical murderer, if in fact there ever is such a person.
In contrast, criminal profiling methods do not share with fictional techniques the reliance on one specific clue to solve a case.
Criminal profiling is best viewed as a way for law enforcement to focus its efforts in a particular area.
FBI criminal profiling experience finds a frequent component of sexual murder to be the insertion of foreign objects into the vaginal and anal cavities of victims.
Soon, the BSU was consulting on unsolved cases on a regular basis through a formalized Crime Analysis and Criminal Personality Profiling Program.
As it was originally conceived, the NCAVC consisted of four programs Research and Development, Training, Profiling and Consultation, and VICAP.