Free DME & DFIR Resources

With a public beta of Photoshop CS6 arriving tonight, Adobe is moving video editing from a sideshow to center stage, matching the real-world merging of still photography and videography.

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I posted a new page last week under our Professional Community menu called Free DME & FVA Tools. Hope you find it helpful.

The Cheshire Constabulary will be hosting the LEVA Photographic/Video Comparison course in the United Kingdom April 26 - 30, 2010. This is the same highly regarded course that will be held at the LEVA Lab at UIndy again in May.

Photographic/Video Comparisons focuses on the science of comparing known objects, vehicles, clothing and humans with CCTV images of questioned objects, vehicles, clothing and humans. The process of cataloguing class characteristics and unique characteristics found in questioned evidence is examined in detail. Using Adobe Photoshop and other generally accepted scientific tools for imaging comparison work, analysts/examiners develop a scientific workflow involving the hands-on analysis of video evidence, criminal-case report writing and courtroom presentation.

For information on all of LEVA's training courses, including a complete schedule, please visit our LEVA Course Overviews & Schedule page.

The Adobe Creative Suite 6 software is now available, where it will include a range of new and powerful releases such as Photoshop, InDesign, lllustrator, Dreamweaver, Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Flash Professional as well as other products. Not only that, there are four suite versions to choose from – Creative Suite 6 Design & Web Premium; Creative Suite 6 Design Standard; Creative Suite 6 Production Premium; and Creative Suite 6 Master Collection.

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USB 3.0 is undoubtedly the future, but tests conducted by Techworld suggest that laptop users in particular might need to upgrade their hardware to see much benefit over current technologies such as eSATA.

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Hitachi is not the first storage vendor to bring a 3TB drive to market. However, it is the first to introduce an internal 3TB drive reliable enough for hardcore business use.

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Oh yeah, things just got real. Sharp has announced an industry first today, with its 720p-recordin' 3D camera module. Intended for mobile devices like smartphones and point-and-shoot digicams, this miniature wonder will be sampling in July and hitting mass production before the end of the year.

Read the full story & Press Release:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/12/sharp-busts-out-worlds-first-3d-hd-camera-for-mobile-devices/

The Facial Identification Scientific Working Group (FISWG) has released two documents as drafts for comment - "Facial Image Analysis Training" and "One to One Facial Comparison Overview".

Individuals interested in reviewing these documents and providing feedback are encouraged to visit the FISWG website (www.fiswg.org). Once there, they can download the documents and also find instructions for submitting comments. A template for submitting comments is also available on the website for download. The period for submitting comments will close on April 1, 2010.

CNET - Older hard-drive enclosures may be limited in the size of drive they can present to your system.

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The World Series can be quite a spectacle at times, and a single photo often can’t do justice to everything that’s going in the game. So will 360 hi-res photos compiled into a mammoth panorama do? Yes, please.

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Members can now upload videos directly to our server via the Media-Geek.com Video Library! As you may know the video library supports over 30 of the most popular video sharing sites, and now also supports direct upload of FLV, MPG, WMV, AVI, MP3 and SWF files. At present uploaded files will be stored and played back in the format uploaded; however, at some point we intend to implement ffmpeg on our server and automatically convert all uploaded files to the FLV format.

Adding videos to the library via a free online video hosting/sharing site (e.g. Google video, YouTube, etc...) is still the preferred method of including your videos in our library, as there are some limitations with direct upload such as a maximum file size of 8MB. With that said, there are also limitations with all of the video hosting/sharing sites, so I'm sure the ability to upload short videos directly will prove beneficial. 😎

Although disc-based storage is not as widely used as it once was for digital evidence archiving, it remains a viable solution when properly implemented and managed. In fact, many of the world’s largest technology companies are using and/or exploring disc-based storage systems for long-term offline storage of petabytes of customer data (e.g. Facebook uses 10,000 Blu-ray discs to store 'cold' data). They do so, however, in a managed environment with a thorough understanding of the medium’s strengths and limitations.

Many in law enforcement use write-once disc-based media for MASTER evidence storage, as it continues to be recommended via various industry best practice documents. Unfortunately, not everyone involved in the evidence chain understands the limitations and best practices as they relate to the care and handling of disc-based media. Adhesive labels, permanent markers, and ballpoint pens have destroyed more evidence than I care to even think about.

Hey folks, good news...I finally got around to posting a new "Getting Started" tutorial for Media-Geek.com members! Far from my best work, but it should be helpful for new members or those still learning their way around our new layout.

You'll need to be logged in to the site to access the tutorials. Once you are, simply click the "Help" link from the main menu, then "Tutorials" from the sub-menu directly beneath the main menu. Too many clicks for 'ya? Fine, click here.