Forensic techniques of the future in the CSI Lab
A crime scene (CS) that always remains intact and open to examination. In the specially built CSI Lab a virtual CS can be examined, long after the real crime scene has been released. Uniquely innovative, there is no other forensic training facility like the CSI Lab in the world.
You can only examine a crime scene once. Any traces of evidence that are missed are lost forever. The consortium CSI The Hague, in which the Netherlands Forensic Institute is collaborating with prominent knowledge institutes and high-tech companies, is busy developing the forensic techniques of the future. With the aid of these techniques, a CS may be stored in digital form and examined virtually.
Within CSI The Hague, a tablet and a kind of ‘virtual reality’ visor have been developed. By using these, investigators are able to make 3D recordings of a CS and then use augmented reality techniques to add findings and notes. Cameras that record heat traces and blood traces have also been developed in the lab. The images that have been created can be projected and kept safe within the lab. And at a later stage, long after the real crime scene has been released, detectives and forensic investigators will still be able to use ‘serious gaming’ techniques to virtually examine the CS and test out hypotheses.
“The ability to store a crime scene digitally and three-dimensionally is relevant not only to the people who actually examine the CS, but also helps the Public Prosecutor, judges, solicitors and barristers to gain an insight into what has possibly happened,” explains the Netherlands Forensic Institute’s Andro Vos, who is the project leader of CSI The Hague.
Virtual and physical training possibilities
It is also possible to create a reliable simulation of real scenarios virtually within the CSI Lab to train people in applying new and existing investigation methods at a CS. In addition to the virtual CS, a real CS has also been constructed in the CSI Lab, thereby enabling virtual and physical training methods to be combined.
Increasing complex insights
While examining a physical CS, it is possible to monitor and analyse the behaviour of the forensic investigators. For example, the heartrates and pathways taken by those present can be followed from the observation room. This information increases our insights into the complexities of CS investigation. We can then use it as a basis to develop new investigation methods and further improve existing ones.
The future: consolidation and validation
“The project was launched in 2009 and we are now able to make use of the CSI Lab. It’s the place where we can combine the techniques that we’ve developed, and we are very proud of it. But we’ve not yet finished. We will continue working together as a consortium to create new innovations. Next year, for instance, we will be concentrating on two different challenges. The first will be to combine all the possibilities we have in a convenient and open way. And the second will be to validate the techniques we have developed in order to allow them to be applied more broadly,” says Vos.
About CSI The Hague
The following parties are working together within CSI The Hague: the Academic Medical Centre of the University of Amsterdam, Capgemini, Chess, E-Semble, Eagle Vision, Forensic Technical Solutions, The Hague University, Noldus, TIGNL, Philips, Thales Nederland, TNO, TU Delft and the NFI. The partners within CSI The Hague are making existing technologies, including those used in medical science and space travel, suitable for application within the forensic domain.