Augmented reality in forensics and forensic medicine - Current status and future prospects.

Forensic investigations require a vast variety of knowledge and expertise of each specialist involved. With the increase in digitization and advanced technical possibilities, the traditional use of a computer with a screen for visualization and a mouse and keyboard for interactions has limitations, especially when visualizing the content in relation to the real world. Augmented reality (AR) can be used in such instances to support investigators in various tasks at the scene as well as later in the investigation process. In this article, we present current applications of AR in forensics and forensic medicine, the technological basics of AR, and the advantages that AR brings for forensic investigations. Furthermore, we will have a brief look at other fields of application and at future developments of AR in forensics.

Sperm hunting on optical microscope slides for forensic analysis with deep convolutional networks - a feasibility study.

Microscopic sperm detection is an important task in sexual assault cases. In some instances, the samples contain no or only low amounts of semen. Therefore, the biological material is transferred onto a glass slide and needs to be manually scanned using an optical microscope. This work can be very time consuming, especially when no spermatozoa is present. In such a case, the result needs to be validated. In this article we show how convolutional neural networks can perform this task and how they can reduce the scanning time by locating the sperm cells on images taken under the microscope. For this purpose, we trained a VGG19 network and a VGG19 variation with 1942 images, some containing sperm cells and some not.

The forensic holodeck - Recommendations after 8 years of experience for additional equipment to document VR applications.

The forensic holodeck was first introduced in 2013, using the first upcoming commercially available virtual reality gaming headsets to visualize forensic 3D reconstructions. Following the publication of this development virtual reality was introduced in case work in a variety of different ways. After 8 years of using virtual reality in a professional forensic capacity this professional practice report will show, which equipment is necessary in addition to a virtual reality setup. This mostly includes audio-visual and broadcasting technology for complete documentation of the application of virtual reality, but also some other IT equipment, which should be available for as low as 20'000 US$. Guidelines, hints and tips regarding equipment acquisition, setup and use will be provided and discussed.