NCJ Number
181232
Journal
Western Criminology Review Volume: 1 Issue: 2 Dated: 1999 Pages: 1-19
Date Published
1999
Length
19 pages
Annotation
The Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) provides a new technique in computer graphics that can animate and investigate complex crime maps by allowing the user to examine a map conveniently by walking around or flying through it, as if it were a small object held at arm's length.
Abstract
Current crime maps have restricted applicability due to the difficulty involved in presenting more than a limited amount of data on a static, two-dimensional map. VRML addresses these shortcomings. It significantly enhances the understanding of a map by offering a feeling of reality beyond a picture on the computer screen. The user can navigate through different types of crime maps by translating, rotating, zooming, and tilting them to gain a better understanding of the data. VRML can depict spatial locations, temporal information, and changing scenarios and thus can show how an area changes into a crime hot spot as time changes. Users can also examine the changing nature of crime over different periods in terms of changing ecology such as routine activities in the area. Users need a VRML browser or plugin such as CosmoPlayer to view VRML scenes, but the reader does not need the CosmoPlayer plugin to examine them. Efforts are underway to add other features to this computer software to make it more meaningful to the police practitioner. 41 references (Author abstract modified)