Abstract: The researches on postmortem interval （PMI） estimation are very important and meaningful in forensic science. PMI estimation is also an important issue that must be solved in practice of forensic pathology. There are many defects existing in traditional methods for PMI estimation, so it is imperative to introduce new pathways. With the emergence of various new technologies, the researches on PMI estimation have a tendency from simple to complex with a growth of data. The present review firstly summarizes a series of methods used for PMI estimation, and then gives an outlook for the application of artificial intelligence algorithms in this field.

Key words: forensic pathology, postmortem interval, big data, artificial intelligence, review