All of the Techs were in the AV lab listening to Adam speak. "Look, each of you have seen a Virtopsy. This isn't much different."
Adam looked up when one of the newer lab techs snorted and grumbled, "Easy for you to say, you actually understand all of that techno-crap. Give me a microscope and something physical to view or measure any day over all of this crazy AV Boy comic book stuff."
Adam was about to open his mouth on a comment when Kendall smarted off, "Geez Randy, you're such a little ray of sunshine. Your mother is going to really miss you when you finally get around to moving out of her basement."
Since the man was in his late-thirties and had been overheard bragging about having turned his mother's basement into his "man cave apartment" a few other female lab techs had to bite their lips to keep from laughing.
"Yo, c'mon. No shedding of blood," Adam said, though he was smiling a bit himself. "This isn't going to add to the work load around here. I'm beta testing it is all … but the potential is there to really make a name for our lab … and those of us that work here." Trying to get them to see the possibilities he started with the most vocal opponent. "Randy, you said you were planning on going to graduate school right? Wouldn't it add to your application to say that you worked in a lab with a cutting edge, functional 3D imaging system?"
Unwilling to admit it Randy just shrugged while maintaining his sour disposition. Adam wanted to get nasty with the guy for trying to suck the joy out of the new for everyone but decided to ignore him instead. "The Virtopsy technique was created over in Switzerland then imported here. It's an accepted procedure that is now admissible in court."
Kendall, seeing both the possibilities and shortcomings, said, "For determining manner of death but the equipment still falls short where cause of death and mechanism of death. It isn't a perfect device and I've seen it deposed on several occasions for lack of human oversight at critical points."
"Sure. Nothing is ever going to completely replace human examination of evidence, whether that is physical evidence gathered at the scene or autopsy of a body. Technology is a tool, but it is still going to have to be wielded by man … uh … or woman … geez, you know what I mean."
His attempt at avoiding some of the more pointed stares by his female colleagues drew a few chuckles and then someone who had just transferred in from another part of the state asked, "Fine, explain the Virtopsy for me. I got a glimpse during my orientation but they don't have anything like it where I was working before."
Adam ordered his thoughts for a moment. Mac had asked him to introduce the equipment to the other Lab Rats so they'd know what was going on but it was proving more complicated than saying, "Here you go kids, welcome to the 21st century in forensic science."
He cleared his throat then said, "Ok, I'm going to try and simplify the process. If you have any questions just stop me. After a body comes in and for whatever reason there's a determination that a virtual autopsy is needed to clarify an existing physical autopsy or for some other reason such as the body itself being too hazardous or fragile for a physical autopsy that would risk obliterating potential evidence. First thing that happens is that the body is prepared for imaging by the Virtibot which places markers on the outside of the body. After the markers are placed the Virtibot then takes a 3d color model of the body. This scan uses stereoscopic cameras to capture the color image and a projector to cast a mesh pattern on the body. The resolution of the cameras is extremely high, about two-tenths of a millimeter. Once this image is created the picture can be manipulated on a computer screen so that identifiers such as tattoos or other surface marks can be noted. The beauty is that this is all mechanized so that it takes as little as 10 seconds, much less time than required by the human eye to catalogue the same information."
Kendall nodded and said, "We use that technique for physical evidence here in the lab all the time. You're essentially taking an extremely high def photo and blowing it up so that microscopic anomalies can be viewed by the naked eye."
"Pretty much," Adam agreed. "And using that same example the Virtopsy is a type of radiographic examination tool that has been enhanced to make it even more useful. What happens after the surface scan is that the body is brought to the Tomography and MRI labs double-wrapped inside a special body bag through which X-rays can easily pass and is laid on the sliding table of the CAT, MRI and MRS equipment. The bag remains closed while the body is scanned both to respect privacy of the dead and maintain cleanliness of the surroundings. The bag also prevents any potential contaminants from compromising any personnel in the room. Not to mention, this part of the procedure also ensures evidence integrity allowing the findings to stand up in court by addressing the issue of cross contamination. Long story short, the body in the bag then undergoes a computed tomography (CT) scan. The a process only takes about 20 seconds and creates up to 25,000 images, each one a slice through the body. Same thing happens in the hospital when a CT scan is ordered on a live subject. After this the body is also subjected to MRI and MRS scans. The information from all the internal and external scans is fed in our mainframes where the data is combined and rendered using CAD-style programs and ultra-powerful graphics processors."
Another Lab Rat said, "Sounds about like what my sister does. Only under normal circumstances each of those tests are done separately in different parts of the lab at the hospital."
Adam nodded. "Sure, but there your dealing with live humans. Cost is an issue as well, just like it is for us here. In the hospital costs are shaved by narrowing the type of scan to the one which will provide the best results. For the medical examiner's office, costs are shaved by reserving the Vitropsy for only those cases where it will provide the greatest benefit as well."
Unbeknownst to Adam and the other lab techs Mac, Sid, and Jo were observing. Sid was very intrigued. "That young man has surprising talents."
Jo nodded agreeing with Sid while Mac looked on, a great deal less surprised than he would have been had he witnessed such a display even six months ago.
Adam continued his explanation. "In as little as 10 minutes, data representing thin X-ray slices of the body are reconstructed into crisp, detailed images of bone and tissue. Different tissues, bodily substances and foreign objects (such as bullets) absorb the scanner's X-rays in varying amount and the different absorption levels are rendered into a 3-D visualization of different colors and opacities; similar to what we do in the lab with physical evidence. A pathologist can then peel through layers of virtual skin and muscle with the click of a computer mouse, or in the case of the latest upgrades, by designated hand motions that correspond with various 'tools' such as the magnifier. Just to simplify things further, I've got it pretty well where the tools are standardized with the photo tools we use up here in the AV lab."
Someone choked off a laugh and asked, "You call this simple?"
Adam smiled. "OK, so everyone here is smart enough to realize that my explanation is a little oversimplified but essentially that is the way that the Virtopsy system works. And pretty much that is also going to be how the 3D imager for our virtual crime scene will work as well once the system is fully developed. Right now we are restricted to external data only … take enough pictures of a scene, make sure the resolution is extremely tight, then mesh all of the data points and project them into a virtual theater which allows you to 'walk' through a crime scene without actually being there. The HD aspect will allow an investigator to magnify any given area, look for specific shapes or colors and highlight them, determine textures, etc."
"We can do that now," Kendall pointed out.
"Yes … and no. We can examine individual pictures. I've even taken all of the photos from all of the cellphones at a party and created a virtual picture of a crime scene … but the results have been strictly two dimensional … at least up until now. What we are talking about is true three dimensional photography. The computer builds the model and then the user can even rearrange furniture, determine the angle of light based on weather and time of day, remove room features … or add them. We can even place people in the scene. Hang on … let me give you a partial example."
From the other side of the glass Sid bit his lip excitedly and said, "Now this I wanna see."
Adam spent the morning setting up the panels and projectors while the computer built the data points for yesterday's crime scene so that it could be viewed down in the Virtopsy room. He took a flash drive and plugged it into a USB port and there was a symphony of taps as his fingers ran across the unit's keyboard setting up his demonstration.
Adam explained, "You've all met Emi. Well last night she was playing with my nephew and kind of running her own experiment. She's working on a new project model where she combines sketches and real settings and then runs it through an animation program. She combined her experiment with wanting me to see what they were doing while I wasn't around … and she has this thing about documenting stuff and this was Charlie's first science experiment. She set her tablet to record the action in the room only as you'll see things went a little … mmm … awry."
Into the space created by the panels a virtual representation of their kitchen appeared. "I took these pictures playing with a camera to see how realistic I could get the virtual model to be. I know the kitchen well … it's where the cookies are baked … and I gotta say, so far so good, though taking pictures in the field is different from taking them in the lab and I'm thinking perhaps dedicated cameras on a tripod with 360-degree capability in various locations at a scene may be what is ultimately needed to keep there from being blank spots. Now," he said with some additional clicks. "we have the scene so let's add in the crime."
A child-sized model volcano set up appears on the kitchen table and Emi and Charlie appear and are walking within the scene. "Note that while the room is 3D, Emi and Charlie are two-dimensional. I've got ideas on how to make scene additions three-dimensional as well but for now this is what we have to work with. Now watch."
Everyone watches in fascination as Emi and Charlie laugh and set up the volcano and start to add the ingredients into the interior basin of the model where the chemical reaction will take place. Only in the middle of the last ingredient Emi suddenly looks away. Adam freezes the action.
He says, "You can't tell it since there is no sound – another limitation of the system for the moment – but Emi just heard the timer on the stove go off. She'd lost track of time playing with Charlie and the dinging startled her." He resumed the demonstration and no sooner had Emi turned back to the volcano than it "exploded." The look on Emi and Charlie's faces was classically comedic causing everyone in the lab to burst out laughing.
Kendall could barely ask, "What happened?!"
"Let me back it up … you see Emi get startled by the timer going off but what else happens?"
It only took the group a moment to see it. Emi had been measuring ingredients into the cavity but as she turned she'd joggled the box so that a clump of one of the dry ingredients had fallen into the cavity without her noticing. When she'd added the teaspoon of additional dry ingredient the chemical reaction had become violent and instead of gently oozing out of the cavity and over the sides of the "volcano" they instead wound up with an "explosion" of goop that flew in every direction.
Adam was laughing as much as the others were. Danny had, who'd stopped by to investigate the noise said, "I only have one question professor. Did she save the cookies?"
Adam answered, "Oh yeah, definitely. And a good thing too. It took us a couple of hours to clean both Charlie and the kitchen"
A little snidely Randy asked, "What about Emi? Did you clean her up too?"
Kendall, having found a new target for her snark answered, "Well I can see you need to find yourself a tutor Randall if you plan on going to grad school. That particular topic is not covered under chemistry. That's biology 101. Get it straight will you?"
Randall beat a hasty retreat after realizing Kendall wasn't the only one that wasn't going to let him try to pick a fight with the so-called King of the Lab Rats. For his part Adam decided that while Randy would bear watching, he wasn't much of a threat. After everyone else had filed away, back to their work stations, Sid all but skipped into the AV lab and said, "I'm teaching a post-grad course next semester at NYU and you're invited to be a guest speaker. As a matter of fact, you and Emi are both invited."
Adam's mouth opened and stayed that way as panic slowly entered his eyes.