It would be just great if Sherlock Holmes from the works of Arthur Conan Doyle a real person. This detective, easily was studying the most ingenious crimes, probably would have brought our society many benefits. But it is just fiction writer, who lived in the early XX century. However, no one bothers scientists to create a computer likeness of the detective in the form of advanced artificial intelligence. Something like that tried to bring to life the staff of Middlesex University in North London.
The problem of investigation of many crimes is that a huge amount of collected information and evidence is scattered in different police departments. Because of a poorly-established process of information exchange between these departments the evidence can easily just get lost in the gears of a giant mechanism of legal machine that will put investigators in a standstill or even lead to the closure of the case. Despite the fact that computers make life easier for police and detectives, this system is still far from perfect.
Middlesex University is one of several institutions of higher education who is currently involved in the development of the system VALCRI. The acronym stands for Visual Analytics for sense-making in Criminal Intelligence analysis. The system is a kind of automated Sherlock Holmes, who is studying huge amounts of data stored in police databases, builds connections between interrogating suspects, studying photos from the crime scenes, browse videos, and then trying to associate investigated the evidence between themselves and come to any conclusion.
Work on the project began in 2014, when researchers from Middlesex University have received a grant for its implementation in the amount of $ 17 million. Since then, the system acquires new abilities and gradually developed. VALCRI explores the personal deeds of the criminals and shares their patterns of behavior into separate categories. The handwriting of the offender, the system will immediately offer the investigators some of the most suitable candidates who were able to commit this crime. Moreover, the information will be offered to the police in an intuitive and very user friendly graphical interface.
At the moment the system is undergoing preliminary testing in the UK. But it is possible that over time, the system will be adopted by other States.
Created an artificial intelligence, solving crimes
Sergey Grey