For police, prosecutors, forensic scientists, and forensic experts, new technology will almost certainly revolutionize the future of forensic medicine by making criminals more effective at catching and preventing. These technologies can assist investigators in missing persons cases, deaf cases that cannot be resolved for years, cases of sexual assault and murder. While the potential privacy risks are controversial about the use of these technologies, it seems clear that these ten cutting edge innovations in the forensic and forensic science of the future will also bring tremendous benefits to authorities, victims, victims' families and society at large.
Face recognition algorithm
Smartphones and other mobile devices equipped with facial recognition software can already identify people under ideal conditions, such as having a good quality photo in a database that can be compared in real time, but such conditions often simply do not exist. In addition to this, people's faces change over time, and putting on a pair of sunglasses or growing a beard can be a big hindrance to technology. A video offering a series of shots could, in theory, provide a better chance for forensic scientists to identify the subject, but this is not always the case. The explosion at the Boston Marathon showed that when testing three face recognition systems, only one identified Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and none recognized Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who had put on the glasses.
Animetrics may have an answer to these questions. The company has developed software that converts 2D images into simulated 3D models of a person's face in about a second, and users of the software can change the position or facial expression of a suspect. The resulting image can be analyzed by all face recognition algorithms. On a sufficiently powerful laptop, a picture can be compared with a million faces. Smartphones will have less power and lower efficiency. Experts are confident that the limitations of smartphones will be lifted over time through the use of cloud algorithms. This technology will then be in the hands of a police officer who can instantly identify suspects.
Fingerprint analysis
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Although computers speed up the search for fingerprints in the database for similarities to those obtained at the crime scene, it is the analyst who makes the final judgment as to whether the fingerprint is adequate. If there is no suitable fingerprint in the database, matching cannot be done in principle, regardless of the quality of the crime scene fingerprint. But even if there is no coincidence or the two analysts do not agree, the fingerprint will have evidentiary value.
Annemieke van Dam of the University of Amsterdam's Academic Medical Center notes that fingerprints are made up, inter alia, of "proteins and fats secreted by our skin" that "could reveal a lot of information about the person who left them," including diet. In the future, van Dam predicts, fingerprints will even be able to determine whether their owner was a meat-eater or vegetarian.
Other researchers have found that fingerprints can also show whether the wearer was wearing a condom, and if so, which manufacturer. Van Dam is confident that such fingerprint analysis will become commonplace in the future. But that's not all. In the future, DNA prints will allow a "genetic profile" of a suspect to be compiled, on the basis of which forensic scientists will be able to recreate his physical appearance.
Eye and hair color forecast
A forensic procedure known as phenotyping allows researchers to predict a suspect's hair and eye color. This means that police do not have to rely on a person's DNA profile, which is already stored in the database. Using 24 DNA variants that predict eye and hair color, and six genetic markers, the HirisPlex system can predict blond hair with 69.5% accuracy, brown hair 78.5%, red hair 80%, brunettes 87.5%.
The system can also distinguish between brown-eyed black-haired people of European and non-European descent with 86 percent accuracy. Tests show that geographic ancestry does not affect results. Although this tool is not yet widely used, it is likely to become an important forensic tool in the near future.
Microbiological identification
Many microscopic organisms live on our skin. In the future, these communities of microorganisms, known as microbiomes, will aid in the capture of criminals. In addition to the fact that microbiomes outnumber our cells twenty times, there are no two people with the same microbiome, and these communities remain stable for a long time, except perhaps except for sexual intercourse.
Although pubic hair recovered from suspected sexual assaults may not contain roots that contain the suspect's own DNA, the microbiomes in the hair can help convict him. Microbial DNA differs between men and women, as different microbial communities live on the pubic hair of men and women. And since these communities are unique to each individual, they determine the involvement in the crime. After sex, the microbiomes of both men and women are passed from one side to the other, making the normally stable communities of microorganisms more similar to each other. This indicates that intercourse took place between the man and the woman.
Although this advanced technology is not yet ready for use in the courtroom because it needs to be brought to “low false positives and false negatives” first, scientists predict its use in convicting sexual assaults will soon become commonplace. And will provide investigators and prosecutors with an effective new tool to combat sexual violence.
Matching tattoos
The use of a database containing low-quality pictures of tattoos captured by security cameras, the disguises worn by the attackers, and the overuse of keywords to search the database made it difficult to investigate the crime. TattooID, a new computer program, has improved this situation.
This software is effective because it identifies key points (“common spots”) in database tattoo samples and surveillance footage or police photographs of a suspect, just as other programs compare fingerprint images to match them. The program can also recognize gang members who often wear the same tattoos.
Morphometry
In the future, morphometry (measurement of body shape) may be used to determine the skeletal remains of missing children, which is now very difficult to do by ordinary forensic experts. The breakthrough came recently when scientists realized that "children's faces are taking on forms that they will have later, much earlier than they thought," says Professor Ann Ross of the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina.
The shape of the skull allows anthropologists to distinguish between different geographic populations. Now these scientists will be able to apply this procedure to younger people. In one case, Ross was able to determine the Mesoamerican origin of the remains of a ten-year-old boy using facial reconstruction. Prior to this breakthrough, it was believed that it was possible to identify only the skeletal remains of people 18 years of age and older.
Virtual autopsy
For religious, personal, or other reasons, spouses in the family sometimes do not want to conduct an autopsy, that is, an autopsy, of a murdered lover, even if this procedure could provide the information necessary to capture the elusive killer. Although in such cases the court often neglects the decisions of family members, such decisions are extremely difficult for them to accept.
In the future, physical attacks may no longer be required because virtual ones will become possible. They will neither damage the body nor interfere with the forensic examination. 3D models will be used. This procedure is not widely used at this time because it is quite expensive, but it is expected that its cost will decrease as virtual attacks become more frequent in the future. Virtual attacks have the added advantage of being available immediately after execution.
For example, in the case of a bite, the 3D images of the virtual autopsy can be compared to the suspect's jaw and dental records (if any) to help prosecutors better understand victims' injuries. Virtual autopsies are considered by some to be the "gold standard for the future of forensics."
Pollen biomarkers
Palynology, the study of pollen, has become one of the newest disciplines added to the growing field of forensic science. Pollen is found wherever flowering plants grow, including deserts and caves, and flowers bloom at different times. These two factors determine the specific “signature” of pollen grains, making them biomarkers associated with specific times and places.
The new pollen identification technique will lead to the use of palynology to solve crimes that might otherwise go unsolved. Although pollen was already used to determine where the people buried in mass graves in Bosnia originally died and allowed the robber to be linked to his crime in New Zealand, its study did not become widespread in forensic science. It can be useful in locating missing persons and in compiling a criminal's travel history.
True, this procedure is limited by the fact that there are not so many palynologists all over the world, but there are a lot of flowers. The use of barcoding and DNA sequencing, while expensive, can improve the accuracy of identifying a particular type of pollen. It is likely that pollen biomarkers will be widely used in the forensics of the future.
Forensic examination of vehicles
Two parts of motor vehicles - infotainment and telematics systems - could be a godsend for forensic scientists. The first system allows the driver or passengers to connect their smartphones using Bluetooth, or play music. The second system interacts with websites.
When drivers or passengers use their smartphones in the car, their cars keep data from the devices even after the infotainment systems are turned off: phone calls, contacts, SMS messages are all synchronized with the car. When connected using a cable, file systems, file names, timestamps, and other metadata are retained.
With 70 interconnected electronic control units scattered throughout the vehicle, data is collected and stored about where and when the car door is open, whether the airbags and seat belts are in order, and the taillights. They also control braking and acceleration. Both now and in the future, all of this information can provide valuable forensic evidence against perpetrators. It will show where and when the car was heading, what the correspondence was about and when the passengers called, which sites they visited, when they opened the doors, when they accelerated and braked. In the heat of the chase, the attacker's transport can even be controlled remotely.
Portable Police Lab
According to forensic doctor Peter Massey, "The purpose of forensic science is to take the laboratory to the scene of the crime." Portable forensic laboratories will eliminate the need to send samples and data to remote sites. Research results will be instant.
A number of new techniques will help ease this new wave of field forensics. For example, Raman spectroscopy allows researchers in the field to determine if a suspicious powder is explosive and not use substances to destroy such important things along with potential evidence. For many years, forensic laboratories have had to use large, heavy equipment to identify drugs using a variety of gases, liquids and solids, but now Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) can do the same task in less time without the need for such materials.
"Handheld electronic sniffers" can replace dogs trained to find drugs, and "handheld detectors" can replace breathalyzers. Near-infrared light scanners visualize a person's veins, identifying a potential intruder. Portable forensic laboratories can also be equipped with devices that can communicate with government databases to directly compare and contrast information.
In some countries, these technologies are already in use. But in the future they will be used more and more. The crime scene becomes a real laboratory.
ILYA KHEL