Monthly Archives: May 2018

Video Redaction with Amped FIVE

First of all, let me introduce myself. I’m Lucy Carey-Shields, the newest member of the Amped team! Originally from the UK I studied Computer Forensics at degree level and was a volunteer police officer with a UK police force for six years. I later went on to work for another UK police force for almost four years as a digital forensics technician, mostly working with CCTV and video whilst also providing forensic acquisition of mobile devices. Whilst working at Amped I’ll be providing support as well as putting the software through its paces, so I look forward to hearing from you all! Now let’s dive into my first Amped blog post! 

When dealing with video, we often have to hide sensitive information or protect a person’s identity, particularly if the video is to be shared with a wider audience and we need to control the display of certain information. Amped FIVE has a filter for that!

Having used two or more different tools to load, process and then redact sensitive footage in the past, I know how time-saving having all these features in one piece of software can be (and how critical time can be in a law enforcement environment).

The Hide Selection filter allows you to pixelate, blur or blacken anything you want masked in a video quickly. In this instance, we’ll explore both dynamic tracking and manual tracking during the use of Hide Selection. Hide Selection can be found under the Presentation group of filters, typically used at the end of a workflow.

Redaction, whilst usually done towards the end of processing a video, is arguably one of the more critical steps in a workflow as revealing sensitive data or someone’s identity could have serious and potentially dangerous consequences. With this in mind, it’s important we ensure frame by frame accuracy so that the subjects we want to censor are completely disguised. FIVE allows you to apply the filter by selecting the necessary points – maintaining that important frame by frame accuracy. Continue reading →

Supporting (Little) Women in Tech

Ada Lovelace, a gifted mathematician, is considered to have written instructions for the first computer program in the mid-1800s. Ada Lovelace’s contributions to the field of computer science were not discovered until the 1950s. Her notes were reintroduced to the world by B.V. Bowden, who republished them in Faster Than Thought: A Symposium on Digital Computing Machines in 1953. Since then, Ada has received many posthumous honors for her work. In 1980, the U.S. Department of Defense named a newly developed computer language “Ada,” after Lovelace.

Read her full biography here https://www.biography.com/people/ada-lovelace-20825323

In 1946 six brilliant young women programmed the first all-electronic, programmable computer, the ENIAC, a project run by the U.S. Army in Philadelphia as part of a secret World War II project. They learned to program without programming languages or tools (for none existed)—only logical diagrams. By the time they were finished, ENIAC ran a ballistics trajectory—a differential calculus equation—in seconds! Yet when the ENIAC was unveiled to the press and the public in 1946, the women were never introduced; they remained invisible.

For more info read here: http://eniacprogrammers.org/

Yet, according to research, women make up a very small percentage of today’s software developers and leaders in the tech sector.

To help raise awareness of the low number of females in this industry and to encourage more women, starting at a young age, to enter the tech world, Amped Software is supporting a local project entitled “Piccole Donne del Coding” (Little Women of Code) to teach very young women, from age 5-7, to develop skills in computational thinking, using logic to solve problems unplugged – without the use of a computer, but through play and creative activities.

You never know – one or more of these little women may one day be a future Ampedeer!

For more info about the project visit: https://www.thecodingbox.com/piccole-donne-del-coding

Using Snapshots in your Project

The ability to save a frame as a “Snapshot” has been a feature in Amped FIVE for quite some time. A simplified explanation of the use of Snapshots in interacting with third-party programs can be found here.

Today, I want to expand a bit on the use of Snapshots in your processing of video files.

There are often times that users have been asked to produce a BOLO flyer of multiple subjects and problems with the video file complicate the fulfillment of the request.

  • The subjects aren’t looking towards the camera at the same time / within the same frame.
  • There’s only one good frame of video to work with and you need to crop out multiple subjects.

Enter the Snapshot tool.

The Snapshot tool, on the Player Panel, saves the snapshot of the currently displayed image (frame) and its relative project.

When you Right Click on the button, a menu pops up.

The post linked above talks about working with the listed third-party tools. In this case, we’ll save the frame out, selecting a file type and manually enter an appropriate file name.

We can choose from a variety of file types. In most cases, analysts will choose a lossless format like TIFF.

The results, saved to the working folder, are the frame of video as a TIFF and its relative project file (.afp).

Working in this way, analysts can quickly and easily work with frames of interest separate from the video file. The same frame can be added to the project several times, repeated as necessary (in the case of cropping multiple subjects and objects from the same frame).

Amped FIVE is an amazingly flexible tool. The Snapshot tool, found in the Player Panel, provides yet another way to move frames of interest out of your project as files, or out to a third-party tool.

If you’d like more information about our tools and training options, contact us today.

Learn about the Science of Processing the Digital Crime Scene at IACP Tech Conference

Law enforcement professionals face the rising tide of technological innovation every day. Law enforcement executives must consider the benefits new devices, software, or protocols may have for their agency; IT managers must evaluate their network’s ability to withstand cyber-attacks in the wake of threats; Crime analysts and investigators depend on their agency’s capacity to recover and process expanding mounds of digital evidence.

The 2018 IACP Technology Conference held on May 21-23 in Providence, Rhode Island will address this broad array of issues in one location, providing law enforcement executives, IT managers, crime analysts, investigators, patrol officers, and local CIOs and CTOs with training, professional development, and a forum to share best practices and lessons learned on current and emerging technologies.

This year’s theme Technology, Transparency, and Transformation, focuses on how the law enforcement profession is utilizing technology to enhance services and communication and to transform agencies and communities.

Jim Hoerricks, PhD, Amped’s Director of Support and Training for North America, will present a workshop entitled: Proprietary Video Files – The Science of Processing the Digital Crime Scene, where he explores the digital crime scene, and its problems and proposed solutions with an emphasis on a scientific workflow and the eventual testimonial experience.

When: May 22, 11:00 – 12:00, Where: Tech Talk Theatre, Exhibit Hall C & D

Don’t miss it!

For more info about the event and to register click here: http://www.theiacp.org/Tech-conference

Have a drink with Amped at the Pint of Science event in Trieste, Italy!

Pint of Science is a global science festival that brings scientists to local bars to discuss their latest research and discoveries over a drink or two. The festival aims to deliver interesting and relevant talks on the latest scientific research in an accessible format to the public – mainly across bars and pubs. This is the perfect opportunity for the public to meet scientists and ask questions.

Where and when?

The main festival takes place annually over three days in the month of May and simultaneously in hundreds of venues across the world. Each country holds their main events on the same days, bringing the scientific community together.

There are thousands of events in 300 cities around the world including Amped Software’s beautiful home city, Trieste! This year’s events will take place from 14-16 May.

Amped has been invited to have a talk over a beer (or a glass of wine, or the local spritz) on May 16 at the TNT PUB in via della Ginnastica 46, Trieste, Italy.

Martino Jerian, Amped’s CEO and Founder, is scheduled to talk at 20:00 on how Amped Software’s scientific research provides customers with innovative and science-based software solutions for forensic image and video analysis.

Why not come and have a drink with us?

For more info:
https://pintofscience.it/event/elementare-watson-e-grafene
https://pintofscience.it/events/trieste 
https://www.facebook.com/pintofscienceitaly/

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Working Scientifically?

On Tuesday, May 22, I will be in Providence (RI, USA) at the Annual IACP Technology Conference to present a lecture. The topic, “Proprietary Video Files— The Science of Processing the Digital Crime Scene” is rather timely. Many years ago,  the US Federal Government responded to the NAS Report with the creation of the Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science (OSAC). I happen to be a founding member of that group and currently serve as the Video Task Group chairperson within the Video / Imaging Technology and Analysis Subcommittee (VITAL). If one was to attempt to distill the reason for the creation of the OSAC and its on-going mission, it would be this: we were horrible at science, let’s fix that.

Since the founding of the OSAC, each Subcommittee has been busy collecting guidelines and best practices documents, refining them, and moving them to a “standards publishing body.” For Forensic Multimedia Analysis, that standards publishing body is the ASTM. The difference between a guideline / best practice and a standard is that the former tend towards generic helpful hints whilst the latter are specific and enforceable must do’s. In an accredited laboratory, if there is a standard practice for your discipline you must follow it. In your testimonial experience, you may be asked about the existence of standards and if your work conforms to them. As an example, in section 4 of ASTM 2825-12, it notes the requirement that your reporting of your work should act as a sort of recipe such that another analyst can reproduce your work. Whether used as bench notes, or included within your formal report, the reporting in Amped FIVE fully complies with this guidance. There is a standard out there, and we follow it.

Continue reading →

Join us at the International Police Expo in New Delhi, India

From May 10 – 11, 2018 Amped will at the at the International Police Expo in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India. You can find us at Booth B17/B18, together with our India partner, Forensics Guru.

International Police Expo is an interactive platform where police representatives from different nations meet to gather and exchange knowledge and worldviews as well as learn about new technologies and solutions. The Expo showcases the latest equipment and technologies for Defense, Homeland and Internal Security, Policing, Surveillance, Communication, Forensics, and more. The conference theme for this year is: “The Challenges in Combating Transnational Crimes and Terrorism”.

On Thursday, May 10, from 12-12:30 pm, in Hall 7ABC, Amped’s CEO and Founder, Martino Jerian, will present a keynote presentation on best practices for analyzing, enhancing and authenticating digital image and video evidence using software solutions that have become the standard worldwide.

Stop by our booth to say hello and learn more about our technology!

For information, visit http://internationalpoliceexpo.com/