FORENSIC ANIMATION HAS BECOME a popular tool in courtroom presentations. An animation is a rendering of an expert’s testimony on a monitor, set in motion and utilizing lighting and shading to make the elements appear three-dimensional. Since the early 1990s, dozens of companies have sprung into existence offering animations of everything from car accidents to airplane crashes to homicides. Instead of having a medical expert drone on about the angle of firing and position of the victim, a savvy prosecutor can create a computerized animation sequence that is accompanied by the expert’s explanation. Complex testimony becomes straightforward when reduced to visual terms.
Additionally, there is far more emotional impact in showing a bullet traveling in Matrix fashion toward a victim, the victim falling to his knees and being shot again, point-blank, than there is in having an expert recite the same events. Jurors are being converted into witnesses to the crime rather than passive listeners as attorneys tap into familiarity—conditioning might not be too strong a word—with television.
Computer simulations are different from the animations now in widespread use in that simulations allow the introduction of extrapolative evidence that is not a strict rendering of expert testimony. Simulations project logical outcomes, called scenarios, based on input provided to the computer. Alternative theories about how the crash occurred or the victim was killed can be played out in real time. Trial judges now rule on the acceptability of computerized presentations on a case-by-case basis. Judges seem more and more accepting of straightforward animations to help an expert witness make a point. Scenarios, because of their speculative nature and ability to captivate and convince a jury, can be excluded as prejudicial.
Developing scenarios about homicides sounds a lot like the investigative process already done by law enforcement personnel. Detectives have been doing this with their minds, chalkboards, and stray bits of paper for a long time. Recording the crime scene has gone from drawings to photographs to videos to panoramic three-dimensional images that allow an investigator to return to the scene of the crime on his office computer. There’s still one problem, though. The actual crime is in the past. The investigator is looking at the results and making inferences, some based on fact, some on experience, and some on a cop’s instincts.
It’s a small leap of the imagination—but a large leap of technology—from there to fully immersive virtual reality (VR) crime scenes that not only allow the investigator to watch a crime unfold but to participate in it as the criminal, victim, or witness. Immersive means that the investigator wears gear that isolates him from the real world as the computer creates a life-sized world he can experience by exploring. The investigator actually remains in one place while the virtual world moves around him. A close representation of what the killer saw and heard can be achieved, and the investigator can try out new theories on the fly. Senses beyond sight and hearing are in the works to enhance the experience. Interaction with the virtual world is vital to the experience. If a knife is on the kitchen counter, an investigator can grab it and stab the victim.
The virtual reality techniques in this book are almost all possible today, even though they may seem futuristic. One twist I have added is the use of artificial intelligence (AI) coupled with the virtual reality, so that the computer can creatively suggest ways that the crime might have been committed. The computer has become an investigator on the case—a partner with an off switch.
Forensic virtual reality is on the way to becoming an accepted law enforcement tool, just as psychological profiling was in the 1970s and DNA fingerprinting was in the 1980s. There are hurdles to overcome in terms of cost, acceptance by law enforcement personnel, and admissibility as courtroom evidence. If a police department has to organize a community fund-raiser to buy bulletproof vests or a trained police dog, it isn’t likely that the department will be pushing for the equipment and staff needed for a state-of-the-art forensic VR program. As costs come down and acceptance rises, forensic VR will be added to the detective’s tool bag just as onboard computers are showing up in police cruisers. PJ Gray and Leo Schultz might be fictional pioneers, but within a decade or two, they will have plenty of real-life counterparts.
It isn’t difficult to see immersive VR in use as detectives formulate theories. It’s much harder to imagine the progression from the investigative side to the prosecutorial. Picture this: jurors fully immersed in a crime scene, standing right there in the living room with the defendant watching every blow and blood spatter as he beats his wife. Will judges ever allow it, and what defendant would stand a chance if so?
While virtual reality is an interesting aspect of this book, it is really about the people on both sides of the homicides: the human dynamics of crime-solvers and the killers they hunt.
S.K.