An ethical framework for the creation and use of 3D printed human remains in crime reconstruction

There is currently a lack of clear guidance setting out ethical best practice in 3D forensic science broadly, and for 3D printing human remains specifically. This paper presents nine ethical principles identified by Carew et al. [4,7] that provide a foundation for establishing ethical practice. The relevance of the nine key normative ethics principles (justice transparency, proportionality, beneficence, context, non-maleficence, anonymity, consent, and autonomy) is outlined, and a hierarchical ethics framework is presented that sets out a synthesis of these nine principles at societal, case, and task levels. This framework sets out key principles to be considered at different stages in the forensic science process and in operational planning, as well as identifying the accountability of key decision makers at each stage. The hierarchical ethics framework provides an adaptive tool that forensic actors can use in practice, to take each ethical principle into consideration and develop best ethical practice, that ensures 3D printed human remains are created and used in an ethical manner

3D forensic science: A new field integrating 3D imaging and 3D printing in crime reconstruction

3D techniques are increasingly being used by forensic scientists in crime reconstruction. The proliferation of 3D techniques, such as 3D imaging and printing being employed across the various stages of the forensic science process, means that the use of 3D should be considered as a distinct field within forensic science. '3D Forensic Science' ('3DFS') is therefore presented in this paper as a field that brings together a range of 3D techniques and approaches that have been developed within different areas of forensic science for achieving crime reconstructions and interpreting and presenting evidence. It is argued that by establishing this distinct field, defining its boundaries, and developing expertise, best practice and standards, the contribution of 3DFS to the criminal justice system can be maximised and the accuracy and robustness of crime reconstruction endeavours can be enhanced

Suitability of 3D printing cranial trauma: Prospective novel applications and limitations of 3D replicas

3D printed reconstructions of skeletal material offer a novel, interactive and increasingly used tool to support courtroom testimony and aid juror interpretation of expert testimony. While research has begun to address the accuracy of 3D printed skeletal material, there has been little consideration of the diverse applications of prints to support trauma demonstrations, particularly in relation to gunshot trauma. This study explored the suitability of three printed human crania replicas exhibiting either gunshot trauma or blunt force trauma for identifying whether the prints were sufficiently accurate for the presentation of trauma wounds. The data indicate that metric measurement and qualitative assessment of trauma macromorphology was possible from the 3D printed reconstructions. The findings also offer an indication that it is possible to obtain data around the accuracy of 3D printing bullet wounds and for establishing a bullet path. However, some limitations of prints reconstructed from post-mortem computed tomography (PMCT) data were identified including the observation that not all fracture lines were successfully replicated which indicates that at present virtual models should be used concurrently with 3D prints in court

Exploring public perceptions of creating and using 3D printed human remains

3D printed human remains offer an alternative presentation format to traditional photographs, that could be more effective and less emotive. However, the perception of the public regarding key questions, such as the use, ownership, and disposal of 3D printed remains in courts of law has not yet been established. This study explored whether the creation of 3D printed human remains could be considered as an ethical practice by members of the public. A survey comprised of 36 questions was designed to gather responses from members of the public (n = 400) about their attitudes to the creation and use of 3D printed human remains. A majority of respondents believed it was ethical to use 3D prints in courtroom demonstrations (more than 90%) and that this may help jurors to better understand expert testimony over photographs. Respondents also indicated that the context of the case and whether consent had been received from next of kin were important considerations. The results of this study indicate that there is a recognition that there is a direct connection between 3D printed remains and the individual from whom a print derives, and that there is a clear public interest in ensuring that prints are used ethically and responsibly. Yet there are currently no guidelines for what constitutes best ethical practice for the creation and utilisation of 3D prints. As we look forward, there is a need to identify how best to treat 3D printed remains with dignity and respect in casework in a manner that is also contextually appropriate

Task-Projected Hyperdimensional Computing for Multi-Task Learning

Brain-inspired Hyperdimensional (HD) computing is an emerging technique for cognitive tasks in the field of low-power design. As a fast-learning and energy-efficient computational paradigm, HD computing has shown great success in many real-world applications. However, an HD model incrementally trained on multiple tasks suffers from the negative impacts of catastrophic forgetting. The model forgets the knowledge learned from previous tasks and only focuses on the current one. To the best of our knowledge, no study has been conducted to investigate the feasibility of applying multi-task learning to HD computing. In this paper, we propose Task-Projected Hyperdimensional Computing (TP-HDC) to make the HD model simultaneously support multiple tasks by exploiting the redundant dimensionality in the hyperspace. To mitigate the interferences between different tasks, we project each task into a separate subspace for learning. Compared with the baseline method, our approach efficiently utilizes the unused capacity in the hyperspace and shows a 12.8% improvement in averaged accuracy with negligible memory overhead.Comment: To be published in 16th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence Applications and Innovation

The shifting narrative of uncertainty: a case for the coherent and consistent consideration of uncertainty in forensic science

This review of academic, policy and case law materials identifies current challenges in reaching a coherent understanding of uncertainty in forensic science in terms of articulating a definition, and the types and characteristics of uncertainty. It is identified that there is a shifting narrative characterized by a move from avoiding uncertainty, towards an increasing awareness of its complexity and acceptance of its unavoidable and ineliminable nature at every stage of the forensic science process. Despite this shift, there is still significant progress to be made in order to reach the requisite level of clarity in how uncertainty is understood and conceptualized for the purposes of developing more holistic and effective frameworks for its evaluation and reporting. This review sets out a basis for developing a coherent and consistent understanding of uncertainty in forensic science across institutions and stakeholders

Memory Aware Synapses: Learning what (not) to forget

Humans can learn in a continuous manner. Old rarely utilized knowledge can be overwritten by new incoming information while important, frequently used knowledge is prevented from being erased. In artificial learning systems, lifelong learning so far has focused mainly on accumulating knowledge over tasks and overcoming catastrophic forgetting. In this paper, we argue that, given the limited model capacity and the unlimited new information to be learned, knowledge has to be preserved or erased selectively. Inspired by neuroplasticity, we propose a novel approach for lifelong learning, coined Memory Aware Synapses (MAS). It computes the importance of the parameters of a neural network in an unsupervised and online manner. Given a new sample which is fed to the network, MAS accumulates an importance measure for each parameter of the network, based on how sensitive the predicted output function is to a change in this parameter. When learning a new task, changes to important parameters can then be penalized, effectively preventing important knowledge related to previous tasks from being overwritten. Further, we show an interesting connection between a local version of our method and Hebb's rule,which is a model for the learning process in the brain. We test our method on a sequence of object recognition tasks and on the challenging problem of learning an embedding for predicting $$ triplets. We show state-of-the-art performance and, for the first time, the ability to adapt the importance of the parameters based on unlabeled data towards what the network needs (not) to forget, which may vary depending on test conditions.Comment: ECCV 201

The reincorporation and redistribution of trace geoforensic particulates on clothing: An introductory study

Two experimental studies were undertaken to investigate the processes of reincorporation and redistribution of trace evidence on garments when worn by a suspect or a victim ( reincorporation) or after the garments have been seized and packaged for subsequent forensic analysis (redistribution). The first experiment utilised UV powder, an established proxy for geoforensic trace particulates and the second experiment utilised daffodil pollen transferred onto garments under conditions that mimicked forensic reality. It was demonstrated that reincorporation of trace particulates occurs from upper to lower parts of the same garment and also from upper garments to lower garments. Reincorporation also occurred to all areas of the lower garments, however the highest concentration of particulates was found to be the lap area of the jeans. Particulates also tended to be preserved around technical details such as stitching or relief design features of the garments. Thus the decay of particulates after a contact has been made does not necessarily involve a loss of those particulates from the entire system. These findings have implications for the interpretation of trace evidence when seeking to establish the source of initial contacts or the chronology of pertinent events. The second study demonstrated that folding and packaging items of clothing leads to a redistribution of any trace particulate evidence that is present thereby eliciting an alteration in the spatial distribution of that evidence. There is therefore a necessity to take the context of trace evidence into account and also to follow protocols that are sensitive to these aspects of trace evidence behaviour as a failure to do so may have consequences for the correct interpretation of such evidence. (c) 2010 Forensic Science Society. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

MOS CCDs for the wide field imager on the XEUS spacecraft

In recent years the XEUS mission concept has evolved and has been the subject of several industrial studies. The mission concept has now matured to the point that it could be proposed for a Phase A study and subsequent flight programme. The key feature of XEUS will be its X-ray optic with collecting area ~30-100x that of XMM. The mission is envisaged at an orbit around the L2 point in space, and is formed from two spacecraft; one for the mirrors, and the other for the focal plane detectors. With a focal length of 50m, the plate scale of the optic is 6.5x that of XMM, which using existing focal plane technology will reduce the effective field of view to a few arc minutes. Cryogenic instrumentation, with detector sizes of a few mm can only be used for narrow field studies of target objects, and a wide field instrument is under consideration using a DEPFET pixel array to image out to a diameter of 5 arcminutes, requiring an array of dimension 70mm. It is envisaged to extend this field of view possibly out to 15 arcminutes through the use of an outer detection ring comprised of MOS CCD

Simulating forensic casework scenarios in experimental studies: The generation of footwear marks in blood

A study was designed to investigate the effects of external variables, including blood type, flooring surface, footwear tread depth and blood dryness, on the appearance of blood-based footwear marks, with particular reference to simulating a specific casework scenario. Results showed that footwear marks left in human blood tended to be of greater quality than those in equine blood, highlighting a potential issue in applying data generated with equine blood to human bloodstains in casework. Footwear tread effects were also dependent on blood type, but the type of flooring surface did not affect the appearance of the mark. Under some conditions, as the blood dried, the amount of detail retained from footwear contact decreased. These results provide the beginnings of an empirical evidence base to allow a more accurate interpretation of blood-based footwear marks in forensic casework. When applied to a disputed bloodstain in a specific case, these results also demonstrate the importance of such experiments in narrowing the range of explanations possible in the interpretation of forensic evidence