MR CSI isn’t SciFi

Believe that we’re still years away from Minority Report-like interfaces? Think again. At a recent Microsoft demo showcasing some of the latest work from its HoloLens partner agencies, I was rather blown away by what Rik Hepworth, the IT Director at Black Marble was showing off.

This was called tuServ, an application for mobilising Command and Control Units. It effectively allows police officers to produce holographic, virtual, mobile command and control centers, which can be dynamically deployed anywhere at short notice, and bring together all the available information in a way that enhances real-time information sharing.

“It brings together all the available elements onto an overall map view,” explains Hepworth. “You can then pull out individual pieces of evidence and reorganize them by resizing and dragging the skills around any room which you happen to want to make into a control room.”

He makes it clear that they’re not out to replace existing Command and Control or Crime Scene systems, but rather to enhance, or — rather appropriately, augment — them.

“We want to be the tool for presenting that information, because at the moment these systems area all about…