Virtual reality has made waves in the gaming community, actually putting the player inside the game, and now researchers want to see if the same technology can be used in the court of law.
Researchers in the United Kingdom believe the virtual reality technology could help judges and juries better examine crime scenes and analyze evidence. The technology is being developed by Staffordshire University’s Center of Archaeology and Forensic and Crime Science department in hopes of giving lawyers and juries an inside look into the scene of the crime. They believe the virtual reality technology will help juries better understand the logistics of how a crime actually took place.
Recreating The Crime Scene
Dr. Caroline Sturdy Collins said current methods are laborious and presented to non-experts in sometimes confusing ways. These new methods could paint a clearer picture of what transpired at the scene of a crime.
“A number of novel, digital non-invasive methods now exist which have the potential to increase search efficiency and accuracy, permit access to difficult and/or dangerous environments, create a more accurate record of buried or concealed evidence and provide more effective means of presenting evidence in Court,” said Dr. Collins.
Simon Tweets, the head of justice at Staffordshire Police, said researchers are attempting to create a headset that could be worn by jurors while they are sitting in the courtroom.
“Doing that [presenting evidence in court] in a way that is far easier for juries to understand and appreciate – which can only be good for everybody, for prosecution and defense, in understanding precisely what has happened and what has gone on,” said Tweets.
The technology won’t be here over night, but researchers just secured a big victory for the technology in the form of a $203,000 grant from the European Commission. Should the technology be successful, it would not be surprising to see similar devices make their way into courtrooms here in the US.
