Help with Daubert

A reader wrote in to ask about the Daubert ruling and if it applies to his home state. The majority of states either apply Daubert directly or have created a sort of hybrid. California is one of (I think) 5 states that do not use Daubert.

Here's a link to an outstanding set of notes on Daubert, written in the aftermath of the decision.

Enjoy.

NCIS: Los Angeles - surveillance video

From TV Technology: "CBS primetime drama "NCIS: Los Angeles" is using JVC ProHD camcorders to produce the "surveillance video" monitored by undercover agents who are on a mission to thwart criminals that threaten national security.

The visual narrative of the series relies heavily on this surveillance footage which, according to the show's writers, is procured by a variety of sources ranging from security monitoring systems in banks and parking lots to "spycams" worn by the agents and installed in vehicles. The video is regularly displayed at the headquarters of their "Office of Special Projects," making it an element that has to be on set, ready for playback during the shoot.

A dedicated playback unit was created to provide the surveillance video to the set. Footage shot alongside the first unit on location is processed into clips with graphics, text, maps and photo montages during the first part of the shoot. It's quickly prepared for the portions of the episode shot inside the "NCIS:Los Angeles" headquarters, appearing on video monitors that include a large translucent screen, a touchvision screen and a wallsized main screen.

CREATING 'THE LOOK'

During the show's first season (2009-2010), Director of Photography Victor Hammer experimented with a variety of recording devices, including some consumer-grade security cameras, to create different "looks" for the surveillance footage. But—in the interest of efficiency, quick turnaround and budget concerns—the process had to be simplified.

The playback unit's "Plan B" opted for footage from four small JVC GYHM100U HD camcorders that serve as stand-ins for any kind of surveillance recording device. JVC footage was degraded and otherwise altered in post production as needed. These camcorders output to dual SDHC memory cards formatted in Native Final Cut Pro. The playback unit also had a file-based in-house processing network built around Apple's Final Cut Pro editing system ..."

To continue reading this article, click here.

Enjoy.

Headphone mystery

A reader wrote in to ask a question about a piece of equipment he saw on a TV series. There's a new show on the USA network called Covert Affairs. There's a character in the show called Augie - a blind tech genius. He's often seen with a rather distinctive set of headphones. The reader wrote in to ask if I recognised them.

It turns out that I did. They're Grado RS1i headphones, part of the Grado Labs Reference series of headphones. From the spec sheet on them, they look awesome. Unfortunately, at $695 retail, they're a bit out of my price range. I'll have to stick with my ear buds for now.

Enjoy.

Grant Writing and Management Academy

The Bureau of Justice Assistance has established The Grant Writing and Management Academy for criminal justice practitioners and state, local, and tribal jurisdictions that apply for or receive federal grants. This training provides an overview of project planning, management, administration, and assessment of federally funded programs. The training encourages participants to think strategically about how they develop and fund projects. Participants are introduced to a variety of methods and tools used to identify community problems, administer and manage projects, and assess performance.

Training topics include:

• Project Strategy and Design 
• Problem Validation and Data Gathering 
• Partnerships 
• Management Strategies 
• Project Integrity, Accomplishments, and Sustainment 
• Resource Development

Quick tip for shooting tethered

Here's a tip for those that shoot tethered from the folks at TetherTools.com:

Quick Tethering Tip - Proper Tethering Cable Care and Storage

As a photographer, you invest in the best tools available to help get the finest results. As you may already know, for equipment to last and work properly, special care is always needed. There is nothing worse than setting up for a photo shoot and discovering a piece of equipment was damaged in transport or not working properly.

Your tethering cable is no different. A good quality tethering cable is an investment and proper care and storage will help you get the most life out of it. Inside your USB, FireWire or Cat6 cable are sensitive wires and shielding designed for fast transmission speed and noise-reduction. Although fairly durable, if folded, bent or pinched you could experience communication errors. When storing, always try to lightly roll your cables into a loose coil going with the natural curve of the wire. When not in use, try storing your tethering cable in a protective case where dust and impurities will not get lodged into the connector ends.

Enjoy.

Creative Suite 5 solutions for Public Safety, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice agencies

I've penned a guest blog post over at the Adobe Government blog. They posted it yesterday. Check it out by clicking here.

Enjoy.

Child porn case sheds light on search and seizure laws

From the Utica Observer-Dispatch on-line: "About a week after Stephen DeProspero was arrested in May 2009 for possessing child pornography on his computer, the Rome man’s state employers alerted prosecutors that he might have victimized some of the young disabled children he once worked with, according to court documents.

But for nearly nine months after DeProspero’s initial arrest, evidence that he allegedly had recorded himself sexually abusing a severely autistic 9-year-old boy went unnoticed on one of his seized digital cameras, documents show.

The camera was never thoroughly examined by the New York State Police computer crimes lab, documents stated.

Only after DeProspero, 36, had pleaded guilty to a lesser pornography possession charge, had been sentenced to six months in jail and had asked for his property back, did police do one last-minute search of his cameras and computer, attorneys said.

Now, because of that search, DeProspero faces a new series of felony child pornography and sex abuse charges in both Oneida County and federal courts.

This has led to defense and prosecution attorneys locking horns over whether police were right to search his property after his conviction ...

Click here to continue reading the story.

Enjoy.

Helpful advice for Packaging, Transportation, and Storage of Digital Evidence

From DFINews.com: "Digital evidence—and the computers and electronic devices on which it is stored—is fragile and sensitive to extreme temperatures, humidity, physical shock, static electricity, and magnetic fields."

The first responder should take precautions when documenting, photographing, packaging, transporting, and storing digital evidence to avoid altering, damaging, or destroying the data ..."

"Potentially valuable digital evidence including dates, times, and system configuration settings may be lost due to prolonged storage if the batteries or power source that preserve this information fails. Where applicable, inform the evidence custodian and the forensic examiner that electronic devices are battery powered and require prompt attention to preserve the data stored in them."

Click here to access the whole article.

Enjoy.

NIST Colloquium Series: Digital Forensics

Dr. Hany Farid, a distinguished professor at Dartmouth College and the "father" of digital image forensics, is an expert on authenticating images. His most famous analysis: a photograph of Lee Harvey Oswald holding a rifle and newspaper. Dr Farid concluded the photo was not altered. In this NIST Colloquium Series presentation, he discusses the impact that camera manipulation and alteration have caused.

Click here to watch the lecture on Digital Forensics on YouTube.

Enjoy.

Confronting Science: Melendez-Diaz and the Confrontation Clause

From DFINews.com: "In an interesting turn of its docket this year, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case with an almost identical issue as a controversial decision from its last term. That second bite at the apple, however, did not bear fruit, with this year’s Court issuing a one-sentence opinion and sending it back down to the Virginia Supreme Court, merely instructing its members to make their ruling consistent with last year’s Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts. The Melendez-Diaz decision addressed the practice of using evidence affidavits in lieu of in-person testimony by forensic examiners, holding that the practice violates the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This article explores this decision and its implications for prosecutors relying on such examinations."

Click here to access the full article.

Enjoy.

The challenges continue

From the Belleville News Democrat: "Defense attorneys will attack the bloody fingerprint evidence that prosecutors say connects Darrell "Rell" Lane to the triple stabbing murders of a west Belleville hairdresser and his two clients.

Lane, now 20, appearing in court with his lawyers Ethan Skaggs, Andrew Liefer and LaToya Berry, filed a motion Tuesday asking St. Clair County Circuit Judge Milton Wharton to limit testimony regarding bloodstain pattern analysis and asking for clarification regarding testimony by state's witness David W. Carter, an Illinois State Police blood pattern expert.

Wharton will hear arguments regarding the bloody fingerprint evidence and other pretrial motions on Oct. 11. Lane's trial scheduled to begin Nov. 1.

Lane is accused of three counts of first-degree murder in connection with the stabbing deaths of hair stylist Michael Cooney and his two clients, sisters Doris Fischer, 79, and Dorothy Bone, 82. They were found stabbed to death on March 2, 2005, in Cooney's home-based salon at 7813 W. Main St.

The defense has asked prosecutors Jim Piper and Jon Allard to provide them with Carter's resume', including his education and training, as well as a list of other cases Carter has testified in, plus other details, including video or audio recordings, of any experiments Carter conducted in this case.

In the motion, Liefer cited a National Academy of Science report that found the bloodstain analysis "suffers from the worst deficiencies that impair the reliable determination of scientific truth."

Click here to the read the rest of the story.

The defense bar is taking the NAS report as gospel. In a future series, I'll tackle my response to the NAS report and what we're planning to do if certain scenarios come to pass. The good news is that the Forensic Photoshop workflow remains one of the only peer-reviewed and widely published workflows for the use of Photoshop in court matters.

Enjoy.

Bizarre Border Busts

Here's a link to an interesting series of photos taken on the border. They illustrate the lengths that people will go to in order to smuggle people and drugs into this country.

Enjoy.

What codecs are installed on my PC?

If you need help identifying the codecs installed on your PC, or if you need help disabling one or more of them, you like NirSoft's Installed Codec.

"InstalledCodec is a small utility displays the list of all Codec drivers and DirectShow filters currently installed on your system. For each component the following information is displayed: Display Name, Type, Disabled Status, Installed/Modified Time, Description, Company Name, Filename, and more... It allows you to easily disable or enable any Codec/DirectShow component or export the list into text/xml/html file."

Enjoy.

True and Accurate

There's been a lot of discussion lately about compression and if a compressed photo or video of a scene "represents a true and accurate version of what really happened."

If the compression scheme, such as JPEG, throws out details and preserves the overall look and feel of the scene in order to save space ... does it accurately portray the scene that it captured? What about those DVRs that throw away ever other line of video in addition to employing some form of compression? If you are to present such files in court, and you don't know what's been lost, do you feel comfortable introducing the files as evidence?

I'd be interested to know what you think. Send me a note or post a reply.

Enjoy.

Photoshop: From the Ground Up - Part 1 - Online only workshop

From the Adobe Creative Suite User Group - San Jose: "We are happy to announce the first in a series of ongoing online webinars - "Photoshop: From the Ground Up". This new series of online meetings will cover all major aspects of Photoshop, beginning with the basics.

Our first one, slated for September 23 at 5:45 pm PST, will introduce you to Photoshop, and walk you through the interface, tools and important foundational features.

Even if you are a seasoned Photoshop user, you will learn new things. This is the workflow and content Steve and Sally use to teach Photoshop regularly, both online and in the classroom. We will be taking full advantage of Adobe Flash technology and host our meeting with Adobe Connect Pro ..."

Click here for more information or to sign up.

Enjoy.

Difficulties producing 'digital evidence' cause lawyers to lose cases

From SC Mag on-line: "... Almost all of the lawyers questioned (98 per cent) said that ‘digital evidence' identified during e-discovery had been vital to the success of legal matters in which they had been involved in the past two years.

Over half of the respondents (60 per cent) admitted they struggled with the amount of information that had to be searched; 29 per cent complained that they did not have enough time to conduct thorough investigations; while 24 per cent said they lacked sufficiently sophisticated e-discovery technology to fulfil requests effectively.

When asked how this might be alleviated, 57 per cent specifically called for 'improvements to search technology used to identify, preserve and process electronically stored information', over measures such as new legislation governing the presentation of evidence in digital formats or greater international collaboration ..."

ed: here's hoping they get the whole codec thing sorted out. As for a "universal video player," I won't hold my breath.

Click here to read the whole story.

Enjoy.

New Digital Ink Library to speed up document investigation

From the Economic Times on-line: "Analysing ink samples to determine a document's origin can be a lengthy and time consuming process, but a new Digital Ink Library is set to change all that.

Currently, the International Ink Library managed by the U.S. Secret Service is used by police to analyse an ink sample. But the process is tedious.

To speed up the painstaking process and ensure its continued accuracy, the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) teamed up to support the development of a library that has these materials in electronic form, resulting in the Digital Ink Library.

The Library is a searchable database containing the electronic version of the International Ink Library's collection.

"With this digitized search system, search times through the repository are reduced to minutes, resulting in a list of potential candidates available for comparison," said Robert Ramotowski, chief research scientist with the Secret Service Forensic Services Division.

Ink of different types creates their own colour bands, thus forming a "fingerprint."

Scientists compare the unknown sample's bands to known samples to find a match. The software automatically selects the known samples that most closely match the ink of interest.

"The e-case system renders the overall examination more transparent and allows [users] to search and retrieve case archives, which is useful when there is a need to go to court several years after the actual processing of evidence," Dr. Cedric Neumann, professor at Pennsylvania State University, said ... "

Click here to continue reading.

Enjoy.

Live Adobe Event for Law Enforcement Agencies

From Adobe: "Today, law enforcement entities — from command staff to investigators — are facing a new set of technology based challenges. Criminals are using cutting-edge modern technologies to commit crimes, while the technologies and applications for crime investigation are still lagging behind. Shrinking budgets and out-of-date-processes also compound these challenges, taking valuable field time from your officers and other employees.

To meet these challenges, law enforcement agencies need to leverage existing tools, keep up to date with modern day technology and use external resources to help them think outside the box to ensure public safety and justice.

Join Adobe for a complimentary seminar dedicated to Adobe’s Law Enforcement Solutions, designed to help your agency meet the unique challenges you face today."

I'll be floating around the LA event (9-22-10). Who knows, I may even jump up and help out during the Digital Imaging segment.

Enjoy.

Kodak’s 1975 Model Digital Camera

From the NYTimes blog: "It might not be pretty on the eyes, or easy to carry around on a vacation, but what do you expect? It was the first digital camera Kodak ever made.

Yes, that’s right, the contraption pictured above was put together in Kodak’s Elmgrove Plant labs near Rochester, N.Y., during the winter of 1975.

A post on Kodak’s Web site from 2007, written by Steve Sasson, the inventor of the digital camera, explains exactly how this camera was created, from a mishmash of lenses and computer parts and an old Super 8 movie camera.

Mr. Sasson called it “film-less photography” and took a “year of piecing together a bunch of new technology” to create a digital camera that ran off “16 nickel-cadmium batteries, a highly temperamental new type of CCD imaging area array, an a/d converter implementation stolen from a digital voltmeter.”

One of my favorite factoids about this snazzy digital camera is the fact that it took 23 seconds to record a single digital image to its cassette deck. To view the filmless photo, Mr. Sasson had to remove the cassette from the camera and place it in a customized reader that could display the image on an old black and white television."

Click here to read the rest of the story.

Enjoy.

Still Images from Flash files

I had a question come across my path about getting still images out of Flash movies. Here's a procedure:


File>Export>Export Movie

Save as File Type - PNG Sequence

Click on Match Screen to match the output dimensions to the actual file's dimensions. 

Select - Colors: 24 bit with alpha channel

When you click OK, Flash begins to output still images.

Enjoy.