In the Minority Report movie, police officers used an innovative user interface which let them manipulate crime scene visualisations, looking for crucial clues to identify offenders in a race against time.

Now as part of their entry for Microsoft’s Design Expo 2017 University of Washington Interactive Design Program students have envisioned a police crime scene investigation tool which would make much of that technology real.

They imagine investigators using the Microsoft HoloLens and associated software, TRACE, to scan and preserve crime scenes in 3D, annotate important exhibits, process clues such as blood splatter patterns, and enable walk throughs and visualisation after the fact using virtual reality, allowing collaborative investigations by both the prosecution and defence, resulting in fairer outcomes.

The interesting thing, of course, is that there is no new technology needed to make the application real, making one wonder why investigators have not adopted this or similar technology already.

Fortunately, the team appears eager to take their idea forward into a real product, and they report that, if they are able to confirm the accuracy and fidelity of the technology, police departments would be eager to pick up the devices.

The full event, which includes a number of other HoloLens-based concepts, can be seen here. TRACE starts at around the 1h 24min mark, for around 15 minutes.