Virtual Reality for Crime Scene Visualization

The Swedish National Forensic Centre has been monitoring the development of 3D sensing technology for 10 years and has recently started using 3D laser scanning for measuring Swedish crime scenes. Once a crime scene is documented in 3D it is also possible to visualize it in 3D, which opens the possibility to use Virtual Reality (VR). VR have clear advantages over other visualization methods since it enables a person to virtually visit the scene of the crime in a natural manner, i.e. by means of physically walking around in the scene. One key aspect of VR is that it enables the user to understand the dimensions of the scene in a natural way. The demands for VR of the Swedish Police have been investigated and summed up to five key design guidelines. We also give an insight in which steps of the crime fighting process that will benefit most from VR. Real time streaming 360 cameras can also be used as a data source enabling a person to visit a scene without physically traveling there. We believe that this technology can deliver immersive VR experiences that can be very useful within our field.