NCJ Number
174997
Journal
Law Enforcement Technology Volume: 25 Issue: 10 Dated: October 1998 Pages: 112-114-116
Date Published
1998
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Digitizing wrecked cars accurately is the key to preserving evidence and creating computer animations that help investigators understand vehicular accidents.
Abstract
Forensic Productions in Tucson, Ariz., digitizes and models both exemplar and crushed vehicles, aircraft, machinery, and component parts for engineering analyses and as evidence for criminal and civil legal proceedings. Some clients, plaintiffs, and defendants will use the models as rendered still diagrams or for highly accurate computer animations for juries to view. Others, such as safety engineers, will use the data to help formulate and demonstrate their opinions. The digitizing team starts the model-building process by collecting thousands of position points with an instrument designed by FARO Technologies, Inc., of Lake Mary, Fla. The instrument, known as the FaroArm, can collect data as single points or as a stream of points in 6- foot to 12-foot spherical working diameters. The hybrid analog- digital transducers at each of the arm's six joints provide a point's position and orientation. The ability to collect points accurately translates into accurate models. Raw data from the measurement process can be converted into engineering-quality drawings with Forensic Productions' software. Two models can be constructed from the digitized data, one at high resolution for animation and the other at low resolution for engineering analyses. For some civil cases, technicians work with in-house and outside experts on biomechanics, occupant kinematics, and event reconstruction to determine how bodies move during an accident. The FaroArm has been essential to Forensic Productions' business, since the speed and accuracy of data collection has improved with the FaroArm, and the digitizing process has been brought in-house.