Cool Crime-Solving Gadgets Exist Outside 'CSI'

April 6, 2006 — -- The real star of the TV show "CSI" is the cutting-edge equipment that solves the crimes -- and many of it actually exists.

The Annual Forensic Science Technology Fair on Capitol Hill showcased the latest and most high-tech, crime-solving equipment from the front lines of forensics.

The fair exhibited the crime light, which makes all bodily fluids look fluorescent when one wears the special glasses, and the Spheron V-R , which captures crime scenes in 3-D using a 360-degree camera with a fisheye lens.

The goal of the Consortium of Forensic Science Organizations, which hosts the fair, is to push Congress to fund other CSI advances, not just the DNA-evidence technology that grabs all the headlines.

"There are a lot of other areas that are just as important, which have not been getting the same level of attention," said Barry Fisher, director of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Crime Lab.

Forensic experts say, unlike on the TV show, real-life CSI investigations can last months, even years. But the cool technology you see on the show is real. Motorola allows crime scene investigators to e-mail fingerprints from the field back to the office. A different device creates 3-D enhancing of fingerprints, since the depth of the ridges in your swirls are just as distinctive as the unique pattern.

Other technologies allow investigators to find DNA, including software that locates often-hidden sperm in a smear on a slide.

"We found sperm quickly with this, and it saves time," said Dale Laux, a forensic scientist at the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification.

Having the latest technology could mean the difference between solving crimes and criminals walking free. But despite the enormous success of "CSI," "CSI: Miami" and "CSI: New York," CSIs in real life are underfunded, and even the well-funded laboratories for DNA analyses have backlogs in the hundreds of thousands.