School of Criminal Justice, University of Lausanne, Dorigny, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland.
University Centre for Legal Medicine Lausanne-Geneva, Chemin de la Vulliette 4, 25, 1000, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Int J Legal Med. 2019 Jul;133(4):1167-1176. doi: 10.1007/s00414-018-1973-7. Epub 2018 Dec 1.
3D surface scanning is a technique brought forward for wound documentation and analysis in order to identify injury-causing tools in legal medicine and forensic science. Although many case reports have been published, little is known about the methodology employed by the authors. The study reported here is exploratory in nature, and its main purpose was to get a first evaluation of the ability of an operator, by means of 3D surface scanning and following a simple methodology, to correctly exclude or associate an incriminated tool as the source of a mock wound. Based on these results, an assessment of the possibility to define a structured methodology that could be suitable for this use was proposed. Blunt tools were used to produce 'wounds' on watermelons. Both wounds and tools were scanned with a non-contact optical surface 3D digitising system. Analysis of the obtained 3D models of wounds and tools was undertaken separately. This analytical phase was followed by a qualitative and a quantitative comparison. Results showed that in more than half of the cases, we obtained a correct association but the prevalence of wrong association was still high due to mark deformation and other limitations. Even if the findings of this exploratory study cannot be generalised, they suggest that the simple and direct comparison process is not reliable enough for a systematic routine application. The article highlights the importance of an analysis phase preceding the comparison step. Limitations of the technique, ensuring needs and possible paths for improvement are also expounded.
三维表面扫描技术是为伤口记录和分析而提出的一种技术，以便在法医学和法庭科学中识别造成伤害的工具。尽管已经发表了许多案例报告，但对于作者所采用的方法知之甚少。本研究报告的性质是探索性的，其主要目的是通过三维表面扫描并采用简单的方法，对操作者的能力进行初步评估，以正确排除或关联有嫌疑的工具作为模拟伤口的来源。基于这些结果，提出了评估是否有可能定义一种适合这种用途的结构化方法的可能性。使用钝工具在西瓜上制造“伤口”。使用非接触式光学表面三维数字化系统扫描伤口和工具。分别对获得的伤口和工具的三维模型进行分析。在这个分析阶段之后，进行了定性和定量比较。结果表明，在超过一半的情况下，我们得到了正确的关联，但由于标记变形和其他限制，错误关联的比例仍然很高。即使这项探索性研究的结果不能推广，它们也表明简单直接的比较过程对于系统的常规应用来说不够可靠。本文强调了在比较步骤之前进行分析阶段的重要性。还阐述了该技术的局限性、确保需求和可能的改进途径。
