Infinite Reality: The Hidden Blueprint of Our Virtual Lives

by Jim Blascovich

identification via “police lineups.” Compared to witnesses looking at suspects’ photographs, which is how approximately 75 percent of police lineups occur in the United States, a virtual sequence of suspects embedded in a re-creation of the crime scene itself can improve eyewitness accuracy. A witness wearing a head-mounted display and walking among the avatars can see them from novel angles. Moreover, she is able to get extremely close to their heads and faces—something actual witnesses are not only prevented from doing but are often afraid to do. If the crime occurred in a liquor store, the witness could view the lineup in a virtual re-creation of the liquor store without ever having to physically return to the scene of the crime. This is particularly useful for witnesses who would be traumatized by a return to the actual crime scene, or when the crime scene no longer exists (as is often the case with arson, for instance).