As virtual reality hardware are getting cheaper, crime scene investigators are keenly evaluating its use in forensic science. Virtual reality is slated to be a standard tool within the next decade for crime scene investigations.
The biggest challenges facing forensic scientists are what are called Type 1 and Type 2 errors. A type 1 error is committed when a suspect is incorrectly convicted and the type 2 error when a guilty is unable to get punished due to lack of evidence. Virtual reality can provide a viable platform to learn, teach and practice forensic science.
Crime scenes are prone to contamination of evidence due to natural or logistical reasons. While some evidence and settings can be naturally diminishing, others can be impractical to retain. VR can help forensic teams in virtualization the crime scene which can be revisited and reevaluated numerous times. They can also be used as case studies for training and can be produced in court for jury.
A case in point is a case study developed by MAGES Studio, Singapore where a learner has to visit a scene of incident to gather evidence, evaluate testimonies and form a hypothesis. A victim is hit by a drone as a result of which he is hospitalized. The simulation is a prime example of how VR is being used on mobile phones towards solving a practical law enforcement problem.
The process stands to improve the efficiency of investigations and turn-around time for courts. VR can be used to tell a compelling story in the courtrooms. Each case study can be archived and searched and can also be used for data analytic. The possibilities are just beginning to manifest themselves.
Many crimes go unsolved due to evidence damage. If a crime has taken place in a busy subway for example, law enforces cannot afford to seal the location till the crime is solved. This makes it difficult to build a case but VR can change that. Using photoprogrammetry and 360-degree video capturing techniques, a crime scene can be virtually preserved and then analyzed, studies, presented and used for scenario generation.
VR when combined with AR as in Mixed Reality can be sued for superimposing a per-recorded simulation over current existing crime scene to present new perspectives difficult or impossible to achieve before.
