Solving crimes gets laser focus help
Seminole County using 3D tech to create virtual crime scenes
A tool being used by the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office can help solve crimes by using 3D technology to virtually place investigators, lawyers and jurors in the middle of a crime scene.
The Sheriff ’s Office has been using the Focus 3D laser scanner — made by the Lake Marybased Faro Technologies, Inc. — for about five years. The device is deployed at major crime scenes, including all homicides, Crime Lab Analyst Eric Brothers said.
“It’s a really, really good way to show someone who wasn’t on a crime scene what it looks like,” Brothers said.
The tool is a bit larger than a car battery and placed on a tripod in the middle of a scene. Crime-scene investigators then set the device to rotate 360 degrees, using a laser to map out every minute detail of a room or outdoor area.
The Sheriff’s Office obtained the device through a grant, sheriff ’s spokesman Bob Kealing said. Software, hardware and 3D imaging cost an extra $30,000.
At its lowest setting, about 5 million data points are created by the laser, forming a threedimensional cloud while also taking about 10 pictures while it rotates. It’s then able to overlay the images on top of the 3D space. Investigators can pull up
the results on a computer in a format that looks very similar to Google’s Street View.
From the computer, analysts can see a crime scene from above and below, zoom in and out, and even set up animations that virtually show the steps a subject may have taken in the scene.
At its normal setting, which creates a black-andwhite representation of a crime scene, the device takes less than 10 minutes to scan a room. At its highest resolution and in color, it can take just under two hours. Previously, investigators would manually have to log and measure every piece of a crime scene in a tedious process that could take several hours.
“That’s one of the reasons we like it,” Brothers said. “We can set it and forget it.”
Analysts and investigators are able to measure the distance between points in a room — such as two bullet holes — to within hundredths of a millimeter, Brothers said. The device can also be used to map the trajectories of bullets.
It can work day or night, inside or outside and even in the rain. The only surfaces the tool doesn’t like are mirrors, Brothers said.
For jurors, the device has the added bonus of being a visually interesting aid to the testimony of crimescene investigators. Instead of painstakingly walking jurors through photos, exhibits and measurements, analysts like Brothers can immerse them in a crime scene without ever having to leave a courtroom.
“You could quite literally walk a jury, a lawyer or an investigator virtually through a crime scene,” he said.