Geomatics and Forensic: Progress and Challenges

Since graphics hold qualitative and quantitative information of complex crime scenes, it becomes a basic key to develop hypothesis in police investigations and also to prove these hypotheses in court. Forensic analysis involves tasks of scene information mining as well as its reconstruction in order to extract elements for explanatory police test or to show forensic evidence in legal proceedings. Currently, the combination of sensors and technologies allows the integration of spatial data and the generation of virtual infographic products (orthoimages, solid images, point clouds, cross‐sections, etc.) which are extremely attractive. These products, which successfully retain accurate 3D metric information, are revolutionizing dimensional reconstruction of objects and crime scenes. Thus, it can be said that the reconstruction and 3D visualization of complex scenes are one of the main challenges for the international scientific community. To overcome this challenge, techniques related with computer vision, computer graphics and geomatics work closely. This chapter reviews a set of geomatic techniques, applied to improve infographic forensic products, and its evolution. The integration of data from different sensors whose final purpose is 3D accurate modelling is also described. As we move into a highly active research area, where there are still many uncertainties to be resolved, the final section addresses these challenges and outlines future perspectives

Development of an Ontology Based Forensic Search Mechanism: Proof of Concept

This paper examines the problems faced by Law Enforcement in searching large quantities of electronic evidence. It examines the use of ontologies as the basis for new forensic software filters and provides a proof of concept tool based on an ontological design. It demonstrates that efficient searching is produced through the use of such a design and points to further work that might be carried out to extend this concept

Evaluation of bone excision effects on a human skull model - II: Finite element analysis

Patient-specific computational models are powerful tools which may assist in predicting the outcome of invasive surgery on the musculoskeletal system, and consequently help to improve therapeutic decision-making and post-operative care. Unfortunately, at present the use of personalized models that predict the effect of biopsies and full excisions is so specialized that tends to be restricted to prominent individuals, such as high-profile athletes. We have developed a finite element analysis model to determine the influence of the location of an ellipsoidal excision (14.2 mm × 11.8 mm) on the structural integrity of a human skull when exposed to impact loading, representing a free fall of an adult male from standing height. The finite element analysis model was compared to empirical data based on the drop-tower testing of three-dimensional-printed physical skull models where deformations were recorded by digital image correlation. In this bespoke example, we found that the excision site did not have a major effect on the calculated stress and strain magnitudes unless the excision was in the temporal region, where the reduction in stiffness around the excision caused failure within the neighboring area. The finite element analysis model allowed meaningful conclusions to be drawn for the implications of using such a technique based on what we know about such conditions indicating that the approach could be both clinically beneficial and also cost-effective for wider us

A LOW-COST PANORAMIC CAMERA FOR THE 3D DOCUMENTATION OF CONTAMINATED CRIME SCENES

Crime scene documentation is a fundamental task which has to be undertaken in a fast, accurate and reliable way, highlighting evidence which can be further used for ensuring justice for victims and for guaranteeing the successful prosecution of perpetrators. The main focus of this paper is on the documentation of a typical crime scene and on the rapid recording of any possible contamination that could have influenced its original appearance. A 3D reconstruction of the environment is first generated by processing panoramas acquired with the low-cost Ricoh Theta 360 camera, and further analysed to highlight potentials and limits of this emerging and consumer-grade technology. Then, a methodology is proposed for the rapid recording of changes occurring between the original and the contaminated crime scene. The approach is based on an automatic 3D feature-based data registration, followed by a cloud-to-cloud distance computation, given as input the 3D point clouds generated before and after e.g. the misplacement of evidence. All the algorithms adopted for panoramas pre-processing, photogrammetric 3D reconstruction, 3D geometry registration and analysis, are presented and currently available in open-source or low-cost software solutions

Forensic Analysis

It is my pleasure to place before you the book ''Forensic Analysis - From Death to Justice'' which presents one of the major portions of the broad specialty of Forensic Science comprising mainly of Thanatology and Criminalistics. This book has been designed to incorporate a wide range of new ideas and unique works from all authors from topics like Forensic Engineering, Forensic Entomology and Crime Scene Investigation. I hope that it will be useful to practitioners of forensic medicine, experts, pathologists, law makers, investigating authorities, undergraduate and postgraduate medical school graduates of medicine

Evaluation of bone excision effects on a human skull model - I: Mechanical testing and digital image correlation.

The mechanisms of skull impact loading may change following surgical interventions such as the removal of bone lesions, but little is known about the consequences in the event of subsequent head trauma. We, therefore, prepared acrylonitrile butadiene styrene human skull models based on clinical computed tomography skull data using a three-dimensional printer. Six replicate physical skull models were tested, three with bone excisions and three without. A drop tower was used to simulate the impact sustained by falling backwards onto the occipital lobe region. The impacts were recorded with a high-speed camera, and the occipital strain response was determined by digital image correlation. Although the hole affected neither the magnitude nor the sequence of the fracture pattern, the digital image correlation analysis highlighted an increase in strain around the excised area (0.45%–16.4% of the principal strain). Our approach provides a novel method that could improve the quality of life for patients on many fronts, including protection against trauma, surgical advice, post-operative care, advice in litigation cases, as well as facilitating general biomechanical research in the area of trauma injuries