A Conceptual Architecture and Validation Roadmap for Digital Chain of Custody in Forensic Scene Management

Background/Objectives: The Automated Forensic Intelligence and Chain of Custody (AFIC) framework is proposed as a conceptual, human-supervised architecture linking scene imagery, three-dimensional reconstruction, candidate detection, review prioritization, and digital provenance. This article examines the information these components should exchange and the validation needed before operational use. Methods: We specify design requirements, module interfaces, a normalized heuristic for ordering human review, provenance controls, and a staged validation protocol. Three hypothetical scenarios illustrate design constraints. No prototype was implemented, no empirical dataset was generated or analyzed, and no performance was measured. Results: The design connects preserved source files and their derivatives to human-review events and conventional physical-evidence records. Its contribution lies in these interfaces, explicit uncertainty records, and validation requirements; the individual technologies are established approaches. Conclusions: AFIC provides an architecture and a roadmap for future testing. Its accuracy, operational utility, security, and jurisdiction-specific legal acceptability require empirical assessment. Improvements in documentation time, contamination risk, or efficiency have not been demonstrated.