The forensic holodeck – Recommendations after 8 years of experience for additional equipment to document VR applications

Sieberth, Till; Seckiner, Dilan; Dobay, Akos; Dobler, Erika; Golomingi, Raffael; Ebert, Lars C.

doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2021.111092

Cited by 15 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…While the introduction of new technologies into legal case materials is not trivial, there have been innovations towards new visualisation modalities. For example, 3D printing of skull models has been tested in the UK [18], while others have used VR to present 3D crime scenes to the authorities [19]. The challenges of introducing technology include differences in legal procedures across countries, and the necessary consideration of the emotional impact of unfamiliar visualisation modalities on jurors [20].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

FATAL: A Forensic AuTopsy Annotation tooL for digital recording of autopsy findings

Petersen,

Thomsen,

Hansen

2024

Preprint

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The findings from forensic autopsies, where cause of death must be established and reported to legal authorities, are reported in paper-based formats. Practitioners are required to map 3D injury findings to 2D space. Here, we design and describe a digital Forensic AuTopsy Annotation tooL (FATAL), that can be used by practitioners to record systematically detailed autopsy findings onto an interactive 3D body model. We employ a user-centred design process involving an expert forensic medicine team. We describe the iteration process and the final functionality determined, based on in-depth analyses of forensic clinical workflows, and feedback on the types of complex cases confronting practitioners. FATAL functions include freehand drawing, a layer system for injury categorisation, trajectory plotting, surface area markings, and point-of-interest marking. Relevant external images, such as investigative report or autopsy photographs, can be loaded into the FATAL tool and assigned to individual annotations. The application streamlines workflows, supports template-driven documentation, and collates all forensic data into a single interface. Findings from the digital tool can be exported to a 2D report (PDF). We highlight the advancements in accuracy, efficiency, and reproducibility afforded by a digital tool for forensic autopsy documentation. Potential applications in forensic medical examinations beyond autopsies are described, along with specific areas for extension, such as supporting touch screen and pen inputs, export for 3D printing models and extending the tool's compatibility with custom 3D body models.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

FATAL: A Forensic AuTopsy Annotation tooL for digital recording of autopsy findings

Petersen,

Thomsen,

Hansen

2024

Preprint

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“…In consideration of the increasing application of VR in police and forensic work, the application of VR for identifications presents an advanced and contemporary method as an investigative tool [9,27,32,34,37].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The following table presents the preliminary results of VR modality, displaying the scene, position of the person to be identified in the line up, confidence of the student in their own examination, and the time taken. This recording could potentially be combined with their statement as an audio recording, and external cameras to show the movement of the person in the real space [37].…”

Section: Tablementioning

confidence: 99%

Identification Parade in Immersive Virtual Reality - a Technical Setup

Sieberth

Seckiner

2022

SSRN Journal

Self Cite

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“…The scientific literature shows that Virtual Reality (VR) is not new to forensic science. Previous studies examined the implementation of this technology as an instrument to support a variety of applications, including but not limited to witness interrogations (Sieberth et al 2019;Sieberth and Seckiner 2023), courtroom presentations (Ma et al 2010;Sevcik et al 2022;Sieberth et al 2021;Reichherzer et al 2022;Wang et al 2019), educational purposes (Kader et al 2020;Khalilia et al 2022;Jani and Johnson 2022;Drakou and Lanitis 2016), forensic examination of injuries (Koller et al 2019) and evidence (Guarnera et al 2022), and training of forensic practitioners (Mayne and Green 2020;Karabiyik et al 2019). However, much of the research has not considered virtual reality as an operational tool for forensic investigations.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examination of fire scene reconstructions using virtual reality to enhance forensic decision-making. A case study in Scotland.

Rinaldi,

Robertson,

Strong

et al. 2024

Virtual Reality

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When attending a crime scene, first responders are responsible for identifying areas of potential interest for subsequent forensic examination. This information is shared with the police, forensic practitioners, and legal authorities during an initial meeting of all interested parties, which in Scotland is known as a forensic strategy meeting. Swift documentation is fundamental to allow practitioners to learn about the scene(s) and to plan investigative strategies, traditionally relying on word-of-mouth briefings using digital photographs, videos, diagrams, and verbal reports. We suggest that these early and critical briefings can be augmented positively by implementing an end-to-end methodology for indoor 3D reconstruction and successive visualisation through immersive Virtual Reality (VR). The main objective of this paper is to provide an integrative documentation tool to enhance the decision-making processes in the early stages of the investigation. Taking a fire scene as an example, we illustrate a framework for rapid spatial data acquisition of the scene that leverages structure-from-motion photogrammetry. We developed a VR framework that enables the exploration of virtual environments on a standalone, low-cost immersive head-mounted display. The system was tested in a two-phased inter-agency fire investigation exercise, where practitioners were asked to produce hypotheses suitable for forensic strategy meetings by (1) examining traditional documentation and then (2) using a VR walkthrough of the same premises. The integration of VR increased the practitioners’ scene comprehension, improved hypotheses formulation with fewer caveats, and enabled participants to sketch the scene, in contrast to the orientation challenges encountered using conventional documentation.

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The forensic holodeck – Recommendations after 8 years of experience for additional equipment to document VR applications

Cited by 15 publications

References 30 publications

FATAL: A Forensic AuTopsy Annotation tooL for digital recording of autopsy findings

FATAL: A Forensic AuTopsy Annotation tooL for digital recording of autopsy findings

Identification Parade in Immersive Virtual Reality - a Technical Setup

Examination of fire scene reconstructions using virtual reality to enhance forensic decision-making. A case study in Scotland.

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