Citation

Ebert LC, Nguyen TT, Breitbeck R, Braun M, Thali MJ, Ross S. Forensic Sci. Med. Pathol. 2014; 10(4): 623-626.

Affiliation

Institute of Forensic Medicine, Virtopsy, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190/52, 8057, Zurich, Switzerland, lars.ebert@virtopsy.com.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s12024-014-9605-0

PMID

25315842

Abstract

PURPOSE: In forensic investigations, crime scene reconstructions are created based on a variety of three-dimensional image modalities. Although the data gathered are three-dimensional, their presentation on computer screens and paper is two-dimensional, which incurs a loss of information. By applying immersive virtual reality (VR) techniques, we propose a system that allows a crime scene to be viewed as if the investigator were present at the scene.

METHODS: We used a low-cost VR headset originally developed for computer gaming in our system. The headset offers a large viewing volume and tracks the user's head orientation in real-time, and an optical tracker is used for positional information. In addition, we created a crime scene reconstruction to demonstrate the system.

DISCUSSION: In this article, we present a low-cost system that allows immersive, three-dimensional and interactive visualization of forensic incident scene reconstructions.

Language: en