In the context of preventing and fighting crime, the analysis of mobile phone traffic, among actors of a criminal network, is helpful in order to reconstruct illegal activities on the basis of the relationships connecting those specific individuals. Thus, forensic analysts and investigators require new advanced tools and techniques which allow them to manage these data in a meaningful and efficient way. In this paper we present LogAnalysis, a tool we developed to provide visual data representation and filtering, statistical analysis features and the possibility of a temporal analysis of mobile phone activities. Its adoption may help in unveiling the structure of a criminal network and the roles and dynamics of communications among its components. Using LogAnalysis, forensic investigators could deeply understand hierarchies within criminal organizations, for e.g., discovering central members who provide connections among different sub-groups, etc. Moreover, by analyzing the temporal evolution of the contacts among individuals, or by focusing on specific time windows they could acquire additional insights on the data they are analyzing. Finally, we put into evidence how the adoption of LogAnalysis may be crucial to solve real cases, providing as example a number of case studies inspired by real forensic investigations led by one of the authors.
Another remarkable tool is GeoTime @cite_6 , that visualizes the spatial interconnectedness of information over time overlaid onto a geographical substrate. It uses an interactive 3D view to visualize and track events, objects, and activities both temporally and geo-spatially. One difference between GeoTime and is that the feature regarding the spacial dependency of data is not yet allowed by our tool, and this makes GeoTime a useful addition to for such type of investigations. On the other hand, the functionalities provided by in terms of analysis of temporal dependencies of data improve those provided by GeoTime , as highlithed in Section --.
@cite_6
1695704110
Analyzing observations over time and geography is a common task but typically requires multiple, separate tools. The objective of our research has been to develop a method to visualize, and work with, the spatial interconnectedness of information over time and geography within a single, highly interactive 3D view. A novel visualization technique for displaying and tracking events, objects and activities within a combined temporal and geospatial display has been developed. This technique has been implemented as a demonstratable prototype called GeoTime in order to determine potential utility. Initial evaluations have been with military users. However, we believe the concept is applicable to a variety of government and business analysis tasks