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Forensic Animation, Jurors and the CSI Television Effect

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One of the reasons CED Technologies frequently attends legal and insurance conferences, is to stay abreast of the emerging needs of our clients and any new technologies that may address them.

At these conferences, the cry for better, more economical animation capabilities is regularly heard.  The reason for this consistent demand is easy to see.  Historically, adding animation to any case would also add a significant expense to the overall cost.  A client would have to wait weeks for the first draft.  Then any changes, tweaks or polishing would take additional precious days to complete.  With short time periods leading to a deliverable date, the results were less than spectacular.

Spectacular is what the client really wants.  He or she knows that juries are comprised of people and people are notoriously influenced by visual cues and stimuli.  Animations take cold numbers and translate them into a medium that can be intuitively understood and easily believed.  Jury members no longer have to rely on their own imaginations to visualize an accident reconstruction.  With animation, they can essentially watch a compelling reenactment.  Viewable evidence can also create a “CSI Effect” that resonates with well with many young juries who associate clever discovery and credibility with visually rendered information. 

In response to this demand, CED has adapted a new software technology that is not only a fraction of the cost of its predecessors, but also much quicker to work with.  With ARAS 360, there is now a reasonable expectation that a first draft can be completed and reviewed with the client and then a second draft completed and ready for review…all in one day.  Drafts are not in boxy 2 dimensions, waiting to be fleshed out in the final version.  From the first draft on, animations are in an attractive 3-D.

ARAS 360 is more than just a pretty face to put on numbers.  With over 200 integrated formulae, it is designed to cover all equation processes and contains almost every formula or equation in the field of crash reconstruction science.  For those situations that require a more tailored analytical approach, the program accommodates the user in allowing them to build their own equations.  The program also allows for the input of variations on a particular value to see if the overall result would change.  This is particularly useful in situations where there is uncertainty surrounding the precise value of a particular input.  Persuasive charts and graphs can also be created in 2-D or 3-D to add emphasis and draw attention to a crucial point.

Any credible animation program is only worth as much as the science and data that it is built upon.  An advantage that CED brings with this tool is that the actual engineers who collected and analyzed the crash data will also be the ones creating the animation.  Having everything done in-house means that raw data is analytically applied and seamlessly expressed into a powerful demonstrative tool for the courtroom.  The speed and efficiency of this program, along with the removal of the designer-to- engineer disconnect, translates not only into a better product, but a much less expensive one also.  It is now possible to economically add quality animation to cases that previously had no budget for one.

ARAS 360 reflects the cutting edge of animation technology available today.  As CED Technologies is dedicated to respond to the current and future needs of our clients, we are pleased to announce this additional value to our services.  For questions or inquiries, please contact us at 800.780.4221 or please contact one of our regional offices to speak with a case specialist.

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