What kinds of technology are used to create virtual crime scenes?

Image courtesy Silicon Graphics, Inc.

Detectives swarm over the scene of a recent crime, collecting every bit of evidence they can find in order to figure out exactly what took place, who was involved and how the perpetrator did what he or she did. Unfortunately, many crimes take a long time to solve, and it is rare that the scene of a crime will remain undisturbed for the entire length of the investigation. Police need a way of preserving a crime scene so that it is exactly the same every time they return to it. Hand-drawn sketches and photographs can help establish what a crime scene looks like when police arrive, but these two-dimensional media can miss details, and they can also fail to convey the precise dimensions of the scene.

This is where virtual crime scene technology enters the equation. Some police forces around the world have begun to supplement their photographs and sketches with immersive, three-dimensional simulations of crime scenes that are rendered by computers. There are two common types of virtual crime scene creation: photogrammetry, and three-dimensional rendering based on measurements.

In three-dimensional rendering, investigators have to measure the real crime scene's dimensions and the distance between objects, often using a laser distance meter or a surveyor's total station in order to make sure all measurements are exact. Measurement data is fed into a specialized computer program by a trained operator. After some calculation, the program yields a three-dimensional rendering of the crime scene, which the operator can tweak for accuracy and immersive design.

A photogrammetry system uses a stationary tripod to take a comprehensive series of pictures of an area. This is advantageous when it comes to crime scene imaging because there's no need for trained computer programmers or graphic designers: The photogrammetry machine and computer program can automatically assemble a fully realized, 360-degree digital image of a room with very little help from an operator. Plus, the photogrammetry images are actual pictures of the scene and not just representations. The automatic picture-taking system is much more efficient than a human photographer.

Discovery Channel

http://people.howstuffworks.com

What are the advantages and disadvantages of virtual crime scenes?

Imagine you're a detective - - you've been called in to investigate a shooting that took place inside a small apartment. You examine the situation, interview witnesses, take photographs and collect physical evidence. Eventually, you have to leave the scene and let the apartment's tenants get on with their lives - - but what if you're not through figuring out how the crime took place?

Traditionally, police would create hand-drawn sketches of crime scenes and return to them later. These days, some police have moved towards virtual crime scene technology. Virtual crime scenes are controlled, digital re-creations of existing crime scenes. They're usually rendered with the help of surveying technology and specialized computer software. Some virtual crime scene software packages use physical measurements or building plans to create three-dimensional models of crime scenes, while other programs take photographic evidence in order to create 360-degree visual simulations.

Virtual crime scenes can help investigators revisit real crime scenes long after they've been cleaned up, altered or abandoned. Detectives can use virtual scenes to aid in data visualization - - if a detective needs to check a bullet's trajectory to figure out an attacker's position, he or she can do so within the three-dimensional model. Investigators can also use virtual crime scenes to imagine various scenarios and test theories about how a crime could have been accomplished. Plus, virtual crime scenes are useful for jogging witnesses' memories and testing witness testimony for accuracy. In addition, virtual crime scenes are outstanding training tools for new investigators. In the trial portion of the case, a virtual crime scene can be shown to a jury to illustrate a crime and demonstrate probable scenarios, or to clarify the testimony of a witness.

One of the biggest disadvantages to virtual crime scene technology is that police departments need someone who knows how to work the computer software that creates and displays the virtual crime scene. Even the simplest virtual crime scene programs require the operator to have some amount of expertise in order to create an accurate rendering of the scene and tweak it for exactness. A second disadvantage is that no matter how good the virtually rendered scene is, it is never a perfect copy of the real crime scene.

Discovery Channel

http://people.howstuffworks.com

Still From Sharky's Machine

Living the Dream: An Interview with William Diehl by Sunnye Tiedemann

November 15, 2000

Sunnye Tiedemann, who teaches writing in her community and on AOL, writes short mysteries and is the national newsletter editor for Sisters In Crime. She is working on her first mystery novel.

"I've always wanted to write a book but I just don't have time" must top the list of Comments Authors Hear Most Often. William Diehl, author of the thrilling bestseller Reign in Hell, might have said that. Instead, when he realized he wanted to write a novel and it didn't look like he was going to, he made time -- quit his job -- and wrote the best seller, Sharky's Machine. In Part One he spoke of how he made his dream come true. A warm man, Diehl loves to tell what he's learned about writing, and he's generous with wholehearted encouragement and useful advice.

William Diehl's life is rich with unusual experiences, from childhood on. Mae West was his babysitter (before her Hollywood days); he was a witness to the Hindenberg tragedy; he was a bellygunner on a B-17 in World War II; and he was Martin Luther King, Jr.'s official photographer. Now, after 20 years during which he has spent writing eight best sellers, all in print, Diehl nears the height of his literary powers. He writes about a huge variety of subjects with powerful imagery and energy. There doesn't seem to be anything he can't conjure on a page; there doesn't seem to be any subject that's off limits.

"The subject matter has to attract me," he says. "I once spent two days with a very proficient counterfeiter. I had three hours of interviews with him on the art and decided to do a book based on that knowledge. I got about 100 pages into it and realized it was not going anywhere -- in fact, I was getting bored with it. So I trashed it and wrote 27 instead."

27, reissued last year as The Hunt, is set in World War II Germany. A master German
actor/spy/master-of-disguise embarks on a scheme that will cast the fortunes of war in Hitler's favor. Diehl's most charming hero, Francis Scott Keegan, gets wind of the plot and the hunt is on, ending in a showdown piece de resistance at Jekyll's Island, Georgia. Actual history mixed with imagination and Diehl's brand of word imagery guarantee a breath-holding read. He's a powerful writer who has a lot to say and says it through explosive characters in fast-moving fiction. Each book is different from the others. He has so much to say that you wonder what he'll get into next.

"After Ginny [Diehl's wife] and Temple [his daughter] finished Reign they both said, ‘What are you going to do now? You've gotten everything you hate off your chest in this one. The trial sums up pretty much what I'm concerned about: Corrupt politics, pollution, bribery, PAC money disenfranchising the taxpayer, the average voter. All my books have underpinnings of things I want to say. Reign in Hell reflects the political situation in this country. In the end it is a battle between two egos -- two zealots -- which I felt was the simple way to focus on what the book is about."

In his books, ideas based on what he sees wrong in society, structures based on "what happens next," and strong intuition based in good sense combine to make his style. He claims not to have a set style. "I change it consciously. I am always conscious of point-of-view. For instance, Hooligans is told from two points of view, both told in first person. When my editor finished that one he said the nicest thing anyone has ever said about my writing. He said, ‘Nobody else would have the guts to try something that radical. And you're the only one I know who could pull it
off.' "

The point of view in Reign changes five times in the first five chapters, from Stampler to Vail to the man and his son to the head of the ambush squad to the President. "But I have to be careful not to parody myself. That's why I change my books -- until Vail they were all quite different -- by design. The danger is you get smug, it's easy, and so all books sound the same. I think a lot before I write: How I'm going to do this, how I'm going to do that. I've written characters in blank verse just to see how it works. It worked and we left it in.

"Look, style is two things, the quality of writing and the individuality of the vision. Everything else contributes to that. You can learn the craft, how to structure a sentence, how to research, but a lot of it comes from inside you. You are a channeler. You channel it all into one focal point; and when it's clicking, that's as good as it gets."

Although his books are about issues he considers major, Diehl says he never thinks about theme. Telling the story shares top priority with the creation of unforgettable characters. He even outlines -- backwards. There's a lot going on when Diehl's finding out what happens next. "Every night when I quit, I outline what I've written to keep track of what I've done. I use a program called Writer's Blocks which enables you to move chapters around. It automatically resequences the story. I do that quite often -- change chapters around -- mostly for the continuity of the story, sometimes for pacing."

When he's working on a book, Diehl goes at it in long stretches and he begins with characters. "I usually write 15- or 20-page bios on them [in Vail's case, the first take on him was 50 pages long] and then I write a book sequentially. As I create plots and subplots I usually have to stop and do research. I spent nine months researching Reign. Had to read the Bible, which I had never done
before, had to attend snake-handling services at a church in South Georgia, had to study the Nez Perce Indians, spend some time with militia members, learn how to structure a RICO (racketeering case) and learn the protocol involved in meetings with the President and his Cabinet."

The character Martin Vail (whom Richard Gere played in the movie of the first book in the Vail trilogy, Primal Fear) is "loosely" based on an Atlanta attorney. Every once in a while a friend will show up in a book sporting his own name, like Geoff Isaacs, a Canadian promoter and dear friend of Diehl's. But the best character Diehl has created is Francis Scott Keegan, the hero in The Hunt.

"I love Keegan," Diehl says. "He is as close to me as any character I have ever written. When I wrote 27 I decided in advance the historical events I wanted to use in the book, then just wrote to them as I was writing. Also the real historical characters like Dillinger, Hitler and Roosevelt. It was a tough book to write and is still my favorite, although I really like Reign because I did what I set out to do."

Aaron Stampler may be the most surprising villain to come along in fiction in a long time. Readers often wonder where a character like that came from. "Created straight from my warped imagination, to make a point, as usual. When I created Aaron Stampler in Fear I thought he was innocent, and Vail had a great challenge to prove him so. But as the book progressed the evil nature of that character grew and grew in my mind. Incidentally, the last line of that book came to me when I got to it. I leaned back and said to myself, ‘So that's what this book was all about.' What I now know is that subconsciously I was building to that climax all along, but just had not dealt with it until the end. So in the end I realized it was about a man so obsessed with winning that he was blinded to the truth.

"Look, we are all storytellers. That's what a novel is all about. How you construct a story to keep a reader drawn into it is one of the most important aspects. I'm a reader when I'm writing a book and I figure as long as I am hooked and happy, so will be the reader. But I must always remember that it is the spine of the story that counts, so sometimes I trash things I really like in order to keep the story on track. I don't want to cheat the reader.

"It's all in focus -- focus on the work, and nothing else matters. Don't accept the first thing that pops in your mind. Keep honing your craft. Avoid stifling your imagination at all costs. Don't stereotype. Think of a new reason why things happen, why characters are the way they are. I try new things in every book to keep it challenging and exciting. When I'm writing, that's the action. It keeps me thinking you, completely independent, and it's my job. I actually work for a living."

Diehl keeps faith in his dream, and he sincerely believes that the same dream can come true for new writers today, in spite of the clouds of doom and dark predictions of disaster hovering over the publishing industry. Persistence, he believes, is still the key. "Publishers are always looking for the next Grisham or King or Rice -- the big million-dollar writers -- and they will always buy a writer of talent who can tell a story. Only 10% of fiction books are bestsellers, but the margin is smaller now. Middle- and lower-echelon writers are disappearing, but think...Cold Mountain, Angela's Ashes: first novels [or memoirs]. So the market is there; it's just a little more cautious."

And the dream is there for us all, like the golden ring on the merry-go-round, glistening among our hopes, ready for us to claim it. William Diehl is the perfect example of what can happen when you decide to have your dream come true.


http://www.writer-on-line.com/content/view/968/66/~Articles/Fiction-Writing/Living-the-Dream,-Part-Two:-An-Interview-with-William-Diehl.html

Is the FBI Crime Lab different from other forensic labs?

The FBI Crime Lab is one of the world's largest forensic labs. In fact, the Crime Lab makes up an independent division within the FBI - - the Laboratory Division. The Crime Lab analyzes all sorts of evidence, including hair, blood, DNA, latent fingerprints and handwriting. The scientists at the FBI Crime Lab have even developed new methods for analyzing evidence. Forensic scientists from all over the country can attend training sessions at the FBI's Forensic Science Research and Training Center (FSRTC). The FBI has also pioneered criminal investigative analysis, i.e. profiling. The members of the Behavioral Analysis Unit look at both the evidence from the crime scene and the situation surrounding the crime. They then build a profile that the perpetrator may fit. This helps detectives narrow the list of potential suspects. Profilers sometimes build a geographic profile for a series of crimes. This helps investigators narrow the area of interest.

Discovery Channel

Real Life CSI: Crime Autopsy

How Bloodstain Pattern Analysis Works (Infographic)

By Eric Rogell

You know how it goes: Right before Horatio Caine puts on his sunglasses and throws off a corny one-liner as the The Who screams, the forensics team is looking at a blood splatter on the wall and determining that it was a gunshot wound from close range by a six-foot tall, left handed shooter who wore sandals and had a limp.
READ MORE: Whisky, Buried in Antarctic Ice for 100 Years, is Finally Ready for You to Drink
Far fetched? Maybe not. You’d be surprised at the amount of detail a simple blood spatter can reveal. The folks at Forensic Nursing have put together a guide to Blood Pattern Analysis for budding CSIs, so the next time you stumble across a crime scene you’ll be able to tell if the spatter is from a blunt force trauma with a baseball bat, or a wounded perp on the run.
READ MORE: 7 Tips for Surviving a Shark Attack

Infographic courtesy of ForensicNursng.org

Image Credits DCL

Copyright © 2011 Discovery Communications, LLC. The number-one nonfiction media company.

Discovery Channel

Unusual fatal mechanisms in nonasphyxial autoerotic death

The diagnosis of autoerotic death is most often made when there has been accidental asphyxia from ropes or ligatures used by the deceased as a part of his or her autoerotic ritual.

Three cases of probable autoerotic death are reported in which the mechanisms of death involved hyperthermia, sepsis, and hemorrhage, respectively.

Case 1: A 46-year-old man was found dead in bushland clothed in a dress, female undergarments, and seven pairs of stockings/pantyhose. The underwear had been cut to enable exposure of the genitals. The recorded daily maximum temperature was 39 degrees C, and the deceased had been taking the drug benztropine. Death was attributed to hyperthermia due to a combination of excessive clothing, high ambient temperature, and prescription drug side effect.

Case 2: A 40-year-old man was found dead in his boarding house. At autopsy, a pencil was found within his abdominal cavity with perforation of the bladder and peritonitis. Death was attributed to peritonitis/sepsis following intraurethral introduction of a pencil.

Case 3: A 56-year-old man was found dead lying on his bed following massive rectal hemorrhage. A blood stained shoe horn was found nearby. Death was attributed to hemorrhage following laceration of the anal canal with a shoe horn. The diagnosis of autoerotic death may be difficult when typical features are absent, however, any unusual injury associated with genitourinary manipulation must raise this possibility.

Forensic Science Centre, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. rbyard01@forensic.sa.gov.au