Author Archives: Jim Hoerricks

Reading time: 2 minHere in the US, we’re hyper-focused on standards and compliance. In the aftermath of the 2009 paper, Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward, many national and state initiatives were put forward to address the issues raised in the document. We love checklists. Yes, sometimes there’s a need to stray a bit from […]

Reading time: 7 minIf you’ve attended one of my classes or lectures, you’ve likely heard me say the following phrase many times, “There’s what you know, and there’s what you can prove.” The essence of this statement forms the basis of the Criminal Justice system as well as science. What I “know” is subject to bias. What I […]

Reading time: 2 minThe 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 in a dedicated blog post.

Reading time: 4 minOn 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 […]

Reading time: 3 minIt was a slow week on one of the most active mailing lists in our field. Then, Friday came along and a list member asked the following question: “If I exported two copies of the same frame from some digital video as stills. Then slightly changed one. Something as small as changing one pixel by […]

Reading time: 5 minAmped Authenticate Update 10641 introduced the new Social Media Identification filter. It can be found in the File Analysis filter group. The filters in the File Analysis group are generally looking at the file’s container to return relevant information about the file. The Social Media Identification filter examines the file for traces of information that may indicate […]

Reading time: 2 minIn our most recent update of Amped DVRConv, we added the ability to separate the audio and video streams in your DME files – to save the audio as a separate file. For some, this functionality went unnoticed. For others, it was a huge deal.

Reading time: 3 minWith over 100 filters and tools in Amped FIVE, it’s easy to lose track of which filter does what. A lot of folks pass right by the Sparse Selector, not knowing what it does or how to use it. The simple explanation of the Sparse Selector’s function is that it is a list of frames that […]

Reading time: 4 minI have a dear old friend who is a brilliant photographer and artist. Years ago, when he was teaching at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, he would occasionally ask me to substitute for him in class as he travelled the world to take photos. He would introduce me to the class […]

Reading time: 3 minOne of the more frustrating aspects of the forensic multimedia analyst’s world is dealing with legacy technology. You arrive at a crime scene to find a 15-year-old DVR that only accepts Iomega Zip disks, or CD+RW disks, or a certain size / speed of CF card. What do you do? You curse and swear and […]

Reading time: 4 minIn my years of working crime scenes in Los Angeles, I would often come across Geovision DVRs and the GAVC codec. They were usually met with a groan. Geovision’s codecs are problematic to deal with and don’t play nicely within analysts’ PCs. With Amped FIVE, processing files from Geovision’s systems is easy. Plus, Amped FIVE […]

Reading time: 3 minI’ve been on the road a lot lately. By the end of this month, I’ll have spent two weeks with District Attorney’s Offices in New Jersey (US) training users in the many uses of Amped’s flagship product, Amped FIVE. Every user has a slightly different use case and needs. Prosecutors’ Offices are no different.