Fire Pattern Analysis, Junk Science, Old Wives Tales, and Ipse Dixit: Emerging Forensic 3D Imaging Technologies to the Rescue?

Forensic science is undergoing a period of transformation as legal and scientific forces converge and force older forensic sciences toward a new scientific paradigm. Fire investigative undertakings are not an exception to this trend. Skeptical defense attorneys who routinely formulate astute Daubert challenges to contest the scientific validity and reliability of every major forensic science discipline are one catalyst to this revolution. Furthermore, a steady influx of novel scientific advances makes possible the formulation of consistent and scientifically-based quantitative forensic evidence analyses to overcome the “undervalidated and oversold” problems affecting many areas of forensic science

A 200Hz small range image sensor using a multi-spot laser projector

Abstract — In this paper, a high-speed range image sensor using a multi-spot laser projector is constructed. Several high-speed range image sensors have been developed recently. Their sampling rate is around the video rate (30Hz or so) and a faster sensor is required. The proposed sensor has achieved 200Hz measurement. It consists of a commercially available laser projector and a high-speed CCD camera. The number of pixels is 361 and the measurement range is 800-2000mm. Although the acquired range image is sparse, the proposed sensor is thought to be adequate for several applications such as robot vision because of its high-speed imaging and compactness. Some characteristics such as measurement errors are discussed, and the effectiveness of the proposed sensor is verified by experiments. I

The ModelCamera: A Hand-Held Device for Interactive Modeling

An important goal of automated modeling is to provide computer graphics applications with high quality models of complex real-world scenes. Prior systems have one or more of the following disadvantages: slow modeling pipeline, applicability restricted to small scenes, no direct color acquisition, and high cost. We describe a hand-held scene modeling device that operates at five frames per second and that costs $2,000. The device consists of a digital video camera with 16 laser pointers attached to it. As the operator scans the scene, the pointers cast blobs that are detected and triangulated to provide sparse, evenly spaced depth samples. The frames are registered and merged into an evolving model, which is rendered continually to provide immediate operator feedback. 1

The ModelCamera: A Hand-Held Device for Interactive Modeling

An important goal of automated modeling is to provide computer graphics applications with high quality models of complex real-world scenes. Prior systems have one or more of the following disadvantages: slow modeling pipeline, applicability restricted to small scenes, no direct color acquisition, and high cost. We describe a hand-held scene modeling device that operates at five frames per second and that costs $2,000. The device consists of a digital video camera with 16 laser pointers attached to it. As the operator scans the scene, the pointers cast blobs that are detected and triangulated to provide sparse, evenly spaced depth samples. The frames are registered and merged into an evolving model, which is rendered continually to provide immediate operator feedback. 1