A Virtual Reality Framework for Training Incident First Responders and Digital Forensic Investigators Umit Karabiyik (B ) , Christos Mousas, Daniel Sirota, Takahide Iwai, and Mesut Akdere Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA {umit,cmousas,dsirota,tiwai,makdere}@purdue.edu Abstract. This paper presents the basic functionalities of a virtual real- ity framework developed for training first responders and digital foren- sic investigators. The framework is divided into two modules: training and evaluation. The framework provides a variety of functionalities and behaviors that can be assigned to virtual objects and allows training and evaluation of crime scenes to be easily customized. During the train- ing module, an individual can be trained to perform various procedures, pipelines, and task execution sequences. After the training is completed, the individual can then be immersed in and interact with a virtual real- ity crime scene by collecting as much evidence as possible. This process allows the system to evaluate the trainee’s performance and the train- ing process in general. In the evaluation process, the developed frame- work captures several types of information regarding the individual’s performance, including missing evidence, the task execution sequence, and the task completion time. The collected data can then be provided to the trainee or supervisor for evaluation. A simple customizable scoring method was also developed and incorporated into the developed frame- work to provide immediate performance feedback to the trainee. Keywords: Virtual reality · Training · Digital forensics · First responders · Task evaluation 1 Introduction Digital forensics incident response and investigations are performed by individu- als who receive ongoing training in their technical domains. The required train- ing typically has the following characteristics: (i) lengthy, due to the significant changes in technology and the proliferation of digital devices; (ii) costly, because of the use of commercial products [19]; and (iii) provides less creativity where radical solutions may be needed. Training for digital forensics incident response and investigations has, traditionally, been conducted through simple presenta- tions and on-site visits as investigators are required to travel to specific facilities to get proper training. However, due to the democratization of virtual reality c  Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 G. Bebis et al. (Eds.): ISVC 2019, LNCS 11845, pp. 469–480, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33723-0_38