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Virtual anthropology? Reliability of three-dimensional photogrammetry as a forensic anthropology measurement and documentation technique

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Abstract

Osseous remains provide forensic anthropologists with morphological and osteometric information that can be used in building a biological profile. By conducting a visual and physical examination, an anthropologist can infer information such as the sex and age of the deceased. Traditionally, morphological and osteometric information is gathered by physically handling remains for analysis. With the advancement of digital technology, there has been a shift from direct to indirect methods of analysis by utilizing models generated from three-dimensional (3D) imaging, which includes computed tomography (CT) scanning and 3D photogrammetry. Although CT scanning is more common, photogrammetry has found application in a range of fields such as architecture, geography and road accident reconstruction. The application of modern-day photogrammetry for forensic anthropology purposes, however, has not been discussed extensively. The aim of this research was to validate the accuracy of 3D models generated by photogrammetry by comparing them to both 3D models generated by CT scanning and the actual physical models. In this study, six 3D models were created using photogrammetry (n = 3) and CT scanning (n = 3). The 3D models were generated from three different Bone Clone® human skulls. A mobile phone camera was used to capture images, which were then processed in Agisoft Metashape®. Intrarater, interrater, and intermethod reliability tests gave correlation coefficients of at least 0.9980, 0.9871, and 0.9862, respectively; rTEM results ranged from 0.250 to 6.55%; and an analysis of variance (ANOVA) yielded P values under 0.05 for all measurements except one. Statistical tests therefore showed photogrammetry to be a reliable and accurate alternative to more expensive CT scanning approaches.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the Anatomy Department of Murdoch University for supplying two Bone Clone skull casts which were used in this research. Additionally, the author would like to acknowledge The Animal Hospital at Murdoch University for allowing us to use their CT scanner and the volunteers who took time out of their day to perform measurements of the samples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical, Molecular and Forensic Sciences, Murdoch University, 90 South Street, Murdoch, 6150, Western Australia

    Rita Omari, Cahill Hunt, John Coumbaros & Brendan Chapman

  2. Forensic Science Laboratory, ChemCentre, Bentley, 6102, Western Australia

    John Coumbaros

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  1. Rita Omari
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  2. Cahill Hunt
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  3. John Coumbaros
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  4. Brendan Chapman
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Contributions

Rita Omari: Methodology, investigation, writing—original draft preparation and writing—review and editing

Cahill Hunt: Methodology, investigation, writing—review and editing and supervision

John Coumbaros: Conceptualization, writing—review and editing and supervision

Brendan Chapman: Conceptualization, formal analysis, resources, writing—review and editing and supervision

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Correspondence to Brendan Chapman.

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Omari, R., Hunt, C., Coumbaros, J. et al. Virtual anthropology? Reliability of three-dimensional photogrammetry as a forensic anthropology measurement and documentation technique. Int J Legal Med 135, 939–950 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-020-02473-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-020-02473-z

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