crime scene
Latest
AR goggles take crime scene technology to CSI: Miami level
Dutch researchers are looking to catapult crime scene investigation into the 21st century through the use of augmented reality (AR). The prototype system, designed by the Delft University of Technology, employs a pair of AR goggles, two head-mounted cameras and a portable laptop rig to allow investigators to build virtual crime scenes by tagging evidence and placing objects they are viewing. After mapping an area, additional law enforcement personnel can review the investigator's work and request additional information -- asking the CSI to define or place additional objects. Researchers hope that the 3D renders will be used as court-admissible evidence in the near future; the technology is set to be tried on a real Dutch crime scene later this year. We can see it now: Lieutenant Horatio Caine whips off his shades and tosses on a pair of (equally stylish) crime-fighting goggles... YEAAAAAAAAH!
Researchers develop 'blood camera' to spot crime scene stains in a flash
Could inspecting a crime scene for even the most minuscule blood stains one day be as simple as taking a picture? It will if some research now being conducted at the University of South Carolina in Columbia pans out. A team there led by Stephen Morgan and Michael Myrick have developed a so-called "blood camera" that uses a combination of infrared light and a transparent layer of the protein albumin -- the latter of which acts as a filter and is able to highlight blood stains by filtering out wavelengths that aren't characteristic of blood proteins (or so we're told). That's as opposed to current methods for detecting blood at a crime scene, which rely on the chemical luminol to make the stains appear in the dark. As New Scientist notes, however, that method can also dilute blood samples and make DNA difficult to recover, and create false positives. The researchers don't seem to be stopping at blood, though -- they say the camera could also be easily adapted to detect trace amounts of other materials that aren't visible to the naked eye, like drugs or explosives.
Investigate a Crime Scene trailer
Having gotten the obligatory joke out of the way in the first post about SouthPeak's Crime Scene, we're now free to look at, you know, the game and stuff. And it certainly delivers on the promise of the title! It's basically a crime scene on the DS for you to explore. You have to comb through whole rooms, collecting fingerprints, footprints and other evidence. You get to tweeze -- and swab. Crime Scene is one of the few M-rated games on DS -- joining an elite club comprising games like Resident Evil: Deadly Silence, the Dementiums, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, and, of course, Touch the Dead. With that rating, it may turn out to be a more realistic, serious take on crime than the other cop games on DS. %Gallery-71109%
