THE USE OF EXPERT SYSTEM TO ESTIMATE THE POST MORTEM TIME INTERVAL

Abstract

Expert systems are software programs designed to assist human experts in solving problems in a given subject domain. They help experts to improve their productivity and non experts to reach the level of an expert. Estimation of the Post-mortem interval is one of the most challenging branch of Forensic Pathologist's work. Most investigators restrict themselves to the familiar methods of determination of the Post-mortem interval, leading to disagreements. Some times a doctor not trained in forensic Science is the only one available at the scene of crime. He needs to be able to reasonably estimate the time of death, which can be difficult at best. The above situations can be tackled effectively by an Expert System designed to estimate the time of death. It gives the Forensic Pathologist a quick way to compare his conclusion with those of other standard methods. It gives a non-specialist doctor too to give a reasonable estimate based on the facts he can ascertain To achieve this a Java based expert system shell (JESS) was used to develop the system. Necessary information were gathered with the help of Forensic Experts and converted into a rule set using the JESS Language.