“Today’s focus on the legal system was pretty eye opening. There are just so any exceptions and gray areas for what officials can and can’t do. There are dozens of situations that would qualify for an exception of not actually needing a warrant. I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. Should I be glad that officials have more flexibility for catching criminals or concerned that they have too much power and that could lead to me eventually losing some of my rights? I guess it shouldn’t be too much of a concern right now if I am a law abiding citizen (And of course I am!). The afternoon’s photogrammetry lesson was fun. I’m glad I didn’t have to write such a complex program but ti really is amazing what you can do with it. My group had some problems with our model because the legs and an arm weren’t portrayed right however, seemed like other groups also had problems too. Hopefully the bugs can be worked out for when we build models of our actual crime scene. What did show up in the model was pretty accurate though. You could clearly see the skull and curvature of the spine. Most of all I’m excited so see our indoor crime scene tomorrow. I wonder how big it’ll be and what kind of crime it will have been.”
Janeane S. – Participant
“Today was the first time I had ever heard of photogrammetry, and I have to say it is a fascinating tool. It has so many practical applications. Unfortunately, the software was not cooperating today, but I can still see the potential for this kind of technology. There are techniques in biological anthropology that are destructive to the material, such as carbon isotope analysis of fossil teeth to determine diet. The costs and benefits always have to be weighed for that kind of destructive sampling, but photogrammetry can significantly reduce those costs. Nothing can replace the original sample, but these 3-D models can make a huge difference. I am excited to try these techniques out on the crime scene; I just hope the recreation is a little more accurate than what we got today.”
Brandon C. – Participant