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NASA to Start Helping Detectives

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the right-hand-meet-left-hand dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "With a new photographic laser device developed to check damages on the Space Shuttle, NASA is going to help the FBI to investigate crime scenes. The Laser Scaling and Measurement Device for Photographic Images (LSMDPI) was designed to provide a non-intrusive means of adding a scale to a photograph, which is very useful when looking at an object in space when there is no size reference. But the LSMDPI, which weighs only a half-pound and can be attached directly to a camera's tripod, will also be used on Earth in crime and accident scene investigations. It also could be used for oil and chemical tank monitoring or aerial photography."

1 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. Replace a $1 ruler with... "lasers" by Ancient_Hacker · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Another lousy and expensive solution looking for a problem.

    This kind of thingy is somewhat less useful and accurate than a "ruler" in the picture:

    • You have to calibrate the laser dot spacing against a ruler anyway, so you don't save the cost or weight of carrying around a ruler.
    • The calibration is only good at ONE distance and perpendicular to the lasers.
    • Rulers and tape measures can be used to measure other things, that lasers can't- like skew distances, or circumferences.
    • Rulers always show up as the right brightness on a photograph. Lasers have to be adjusted in brightness to match the scene, and may wash out if a flash is used.
    • Red laser light is not too visible if the object is like, red, or covered with blood.
    Don't go put all your money on this company.. oh wait...