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The adaptation of a 360° camera utilising an alternate light source (ALS) for the detection of biological fluids at crime scenes.

Sheppard, K, Cassella, JP, Fieldhouse, S and King, R (2017) The adaptation of a 360° camera utilising an alternate light source (ALS) for the detection of biological fluids at crime scenes. Science & Justice, 57 (4). pp. 239-249. ISSN 1355-0306

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Abstract

One of the most important and commonly encountered evidence types that can be recovered at crime scenes are biological fluids. Due to the ephemeral nature of biological fluids and the valuable DNA that they can contain, it is fundamental that these are documented extensively and recovered rapidly. Locating and identifying biological fluids can prove a challenging task but can aid in reconstructing a sequence of events. Alternate light sources (ALS) offer powerful non-invasive methods for locating and enhancing biological fluids utilising different wavelengths of light. Current methods for locating biological fluids using ALS's may be time consuming, as they often require close range searching of potentially large crime scenes. Subsequent documentation using digital cameras and alternate light sources can increase the investigation time and due to the cameras low dynamic range, photographs can appear under or over exposed. This study presents a technique, which allows the simultaneous detection and visualisation of semen and saliva utilising a SceneCam 360° camera (Spheron VR AG), which was adapted to integrate a blue Crime Lite XL (Foster+Freeman). This technique was investigated using different volumes of semen and saliva, on porous and non-porous substrates, and the ability to detect these at incremental distances from the substrate. Substrate type and colour had a significant effect on the detection of the biological fluid, with limited fluid detection on darker substrates. The unique real-time High Dynamic range (HDR) ability of the SceneCam significantly enhanced the detection of biological fluids where background fluorescence masked target fluorescence. These preliminary results are presented as a proof of concept for combining 360° photography using HDR and an ALS for the detection of biological stains, within a scene, in real time, whilst conveying spatial relationships of staining to other evidence. This technique presents the opportunity to presumptively screen a crime scene for biological fluids and will facilitate simultaneous location and visualisation of biological evidence.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: MD Multidisciplinary
Subjects: R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA1001 Forensic Medicine. Medical jurisprudence. Legal medicine
Divisions: Pharmacy & Biomolecular Sciences
Publisher: Elsevier
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Date Deposited: 28 Sep 2018 10:15
Last Modified: 04 Sep 2021 02:24
DOI or ID number: 10.1016/j.scijus.2017.04.004
URI: https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/9360
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