Using structured light three-dimensional surface scanning on living individuals: Key considerations and best practice for forensic medicine

Non-contact three-dimensional (3D) surface scanning methods have been applied to forensic medicine to record injuries and to mitigate ordinary photography shortcoming. However, there are no literature concerning practical guidance for 3D surface scanning of live victims. This paper aimed to investigate key 3D scanning issues of the live body to develop a series of scanning principles for future use on injured victims. The Pico Scan 3D surface scanner was used on live test subjects. The work focused on analysing the following concerns: (1) an appropriate 3D scanning technique to scan different body areas, (2) the ideal number of scans, (3) scanning approaches to access various areas of the body and (4) elimination of environmental background noise in the acquired data. Results showed that scanning only a required surface of the body area in the stable manner was more efficient when compared to complete 360°-scanning; therefore, it used as a standard 3D scanning technique. More than three scans were sufficient when trying to obtain an optimal wireframe mode presentation of the result. Three different approaches were suggested to provide access to the various areas of the body. Undertaking scanning using a black background eliminated the background noise. The work demonstrated that the scanner will be promising to reconstruct injuries from different body areas, although the 3D scanning of the live subjects faced some challenges.