The landscape for forensic video processing has never been more complex. A plethora of recording formats are in use in the field, from older VHS time lapse recorders, to covert-acquisition DV gear, to today's all-digital surveillance recorders. No matter the format, one thing is certain: It's worthless if it doesn't show you what you need to see. Assuming it doesn't, what can be done?

Before we answer that, we'll take a moment to "de-Hollywood" the process and explain what cannot be expected:  It's not possible to read a license plate number reflected in a window that's reflected off the gloss of a passerby's eyeball reflected off a puddle of rainwater on the sidewalk. In the movies, yes. In the real world? Sorry, no.

Levity aside, amazing things can be accomplished with today's technology, and our digital toolbox is stocked with the best of the best. After months of meticulous research, we chose Ocean Systems' dTective package as the core around which our forensic video services are built.

Over the next several screens, we'll show you the most common problems faced in video footage, along with the processes that can be used to overcome those problems.






Throughout this section, click the camera to continue
to the next section, after you've finished viewing the
demo images and processes in each section.

  

 FACT: Every time a videotape is played, the quality degrades. Many surveillance systems record in poor quality to begin with, and since the recording often takes place on a tape that is used over and over, the problem is compounded.

Pausing and rewinding a certain segment is even more brutal on the tape, and the segment that receives this treatment is virtually always the most important part of the tape from an evidentiary perspective. Bottom line? It's easy for critical video evidence to be rendered unuseable after only a few playings.

SOLUTION: Don't play an evidence videotape for viewing purposes. Its only playing should be the process of digitizing it into a computer for viewing and analysis.

Multiplexing:  The process of simultaneously recording signals from multiple cameras onto a single tape or into a single computer file.

Time-Lapse:  Recording fewer than the standard 30 frames of video per second, in order to conserve space on the media.

 

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