Monthly Archives: September 2011

The advantages of using a specialized forensic image processing software

Despite being successful also for many other applications, Amped FIVE has been specifically designed for forensic specialists and law enforcement groups working mainly on video footage  from video-surveillance.

What’s the traditional approach for working with surevillance video?

  1. A crime happens
  2. If there are CCTV cameras in the neighborhood go there and pick up the videos of interest along with the proper player
  3. If the video has some good quality frames of for the purpose of person or vehicle identification, we save it as image for further investigations
Now, what if there are no good frames at all? In many cases the video will be rejected without trying anything, even if some basic image processing could lead to gathering some worthwhile evidence. This apprach leads to ignoring evidence that could have helped to identify the perpetrator of the crime.
So far, one more case unsolved.
On the other side, if someone has the technical skills to try something it, it usually follows a pretty confused workflow that can consist of the time consuming tasks of:
  1. Exporting the proprietary video to a standard format.
  2. Importing and exporting between different image and video formats, since there are functions usually do-able only (or easily) with either specific video or specific image processing software. So, for example, you first extract a video, from that you grab a frame and load it in Photoshop, plus some other software or a Matlab script for some specific purpose.  The evidence can get lost in the workflow because how do you easily document what you have done?

Amped Five available in French



