  As an advanced research topic in forensics science, automatic shoe-print
identification has been extensively studied in the last two decades, since shoe
marks are the clues most frequently left in a crime scene. Hence, these
impressions provide a pertinent evidence for the proper progress of
investigations in order to identify the potential criminals. The main goal of
this survey is to provide a cohesive overview of the research carried out in
forensic shoe-print identification and its basic background. Apart defining the
problem and describing the phases that typically compose the processing chain
of shoe-print identification, we provide a summary/comparison of the
state-of-the-art approaches, in order to guide the neophyte and help to advance
the research topic. This is done through introducing simple and basic
taxonomies as well as summaries of the state-of-the-art performance. Lastly, we
discuss the current open problems and challenges in this research topic, point
out for promising directions in this field.
