A group of researchers in Scotland at the Joseph Bell Centre for Forensic Statistics and Legal Reasoning have developed a program that analyzes the circumstances around a death and determines the cause. An article from the New Scientist describes the basics of the program.

This software is part of a series of programs created by the Centre for use in assisting with police investigations. It is designed to look at all facts, without predisposition, and to run down all lines of inquiry to determine the likely cause of death.

One interesting thing about the stated goals of this software package is that it is designed to remove that which has often been considered both a boon and a bane to law enforcement, the initial impressions of the investigating officer (be that a coroner or a police officer).

It will be interesting to see whether this proves useful as a tool in its own right or whether some kind of additional training will be determined to be more helpful.