A piece of forensic equipment or forensics software used in procedural dramas that does not exist in the real world. Often used to solve a crime when the writers aren't intelligent or creative enough to have the characters use real world crime solving techniques.
Did you see "Bones" last night? They put a fragment of wrist bone in the Crime-a-lator to create a full facial reconstruction of the victim.
by gehern October 23, 2008