Cyberforensics

Cyber forensics is used to solve crimes that would be impossible to solve otherwise. One example is a robbery in Chicago. A fast food worker was robbed at knifepoint. The responding officer got the surveillance video from the restaurant and took it to the Chicago Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory to be enhanced. The picture was made clearer and then compared to the Illinois Drivers License database. A match was found and the suspect was apprehended.

There were many cases solved with the assistance of a Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory, or RCFL, in 2007 and ever since. What are RCFL’s you might ask? RCFL’s are networks of “digital forensics labs sponsored by the FBI and staffed by local, state, and federal law enforcement personnel” (FBI.gov, 2008). They have labs in 17 states, which are available free to 4,750 law enforcement agencies.

RCFLs are used majorly in cyber crime cases, but they can contribute to investigations of terrorism, espionage, civil rights, public corruption, white-collar crime, violent crime, and organized crime. In today’s world, it is hard to find a criminal who doesn’t use a computer. And when they do, the RCFL is used to get the information that can be used as evidence.

The Future of Graphic Design

I believe the next step in computer graphics will be an actual three dimensional workspace. The world of 3D is changing from the old red and blue glasses we have come to know and love. NVIDIA has created new 3D glasses that connect to a computer and use shutter speed to create the illusion of three dimensions. As far as 3D software in the work place, Microsoft has created their “TouchLight” technology which allows designers, engineers, and other business professionals to manipulate three dimensional images on screen by hand. Microsoft licenses its TouchLight software as part of their IP Ventures program which gives early-stage software to new companies in order to help them grow.
At Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology researchers have created a small cube that displays a three dimensional image on three sides. It is called the GCubiks. Right now it can be used to show an image of a friend or family member like a 3D picture you can carry in your pocket. The GCubiks was displayed in the United States in Los Angeles at a SIGGRAPH convention. The GCubiks is still in its prototype phase. The plan for the finished product is that it will be able to display the image on all six sides and that it will be able to show real time motion.
My belief is that these two technologies combined could completely change the world of computer graphics. With Microsoft’s software and the NIICT’s hardware, designers could work with a three dimensional model in a three dimensional workspace, as opposed to a simulation on a two dimensional video monitor. And once technology advances far enough, I believe we will see engineers and designers working on images or products like Tony Stark in the movie Iron Man. Additionally, this technology will eventually become a consumer product. Then designers will have to be able to create three dimensional objects in order to have them displayed on the customers’ three dimensional display.