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"I have been a soreheaded occupant of a file drawer labeled 'Science Fiction' and I would like out, particularly since so many serious critics regularly mistake the drawer for a urinal."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
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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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More Ideas
and Technology from Runaway
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Tech news articles related to Runaway
Tech news articles related to works by Michael Crichton
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'Aerostat meant anything that hung in the air. This was an easy trick to pull off nowadays.'
'The Ringworld had no horizon. There was no line where the land curved away from the sky.'
'An adjustment panel outside the door would cause it to extrude various appurtenances in memory plastic...'
'Annealed in any shape for a time, and codified, the structure of that shape is retained down to the molecules.'
It's not really polite to tear the limbs off robots.
'...the imaginary companions discovered by needful children.'
''Pardon me, Struthers,' he broke in suddenly... 'haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?''
'I opened the oblong box, where lay the automatons side by side...'
'They tied the memory to the bloodline and that was their record!'
