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"[Science fiction is] an integration of the mood and attitude of science (the objective universe) with the fears and hopes that spring from the unconscious."
- Gregory Benford
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| Police Sketch Artist Software | ||
| A tablet-style computer with sketch pad software to help identify suspects. |
At this point in the story, one of the officers has seen the bad guy. She describes him to a police "sketch artist."
(Software sketch artist from the film Runaway)
| "He had different eyes."
"Is that him?" "Face was narrower... and his eyes were squintier..." "More like that?" |
| Technovelgy from Runaway,
by Michael Crichton. Published by Tri-Star Pictures in 1985 Additional resources -
|
The sketch artist software operator would work with the controls and alter the picture based on the description of the witness.
(Police sketch artist pad detail)
Best of all, the resulting "sketch" could be animated; a moving picture of someone is a much better means of identification.
As far as I know, the earliest police sketch artist software to actually be used came out in 1995. Suspect ID by Imageware would allow an officer with no artistic background to create an image good enough to be used on the street.
This same company now offers an enhanced version of the same software, as well as face-recognition software to take images and search for suspects in databases.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Runaway
More Ideas
and Technology by Michael Crichton
Tech news articles related to Runaway
Tech news articles related to works by Michael Crichton
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'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'
'Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.'
'...it rears and spreads its fan. It can pick one man out of a crowd.'
'...a new plastic with the characteristics of an avian eggshell.'
'It was a pushpot, which could not possibly be called a jet plane because it could not possibly fly. Only it did.'
'She wouldn't stop until Antar had told her everything he knew about whatever it was that she was playing with on her screen.'
'Does thinking you're the last sane man on the face of the Earth make you crazy?'
