Free DME & DFIR Resources

One of the features still in BETA for the new member's area is a video sharing service, which will allow users to upload videos or add their videos currently hosted elsewhere to the Media-Geek video library.  In addition to a searchable, categorized library, each member's profile will list their videos.

  Although this feature wasn't initially slated to be rolled out with our launch on the 11th, it now looks like it will be!  Get your training videos together, get registered, and come back next week to upload!

Hard to believe that next week's 2011 LEVA Training Conference is already upon us. I'll be out in Coeur d'Alene all next week, and I'll be giving a presentation on the AVI file format and VirtualDub at the conference late Thursday afternoon. There are tons of great training sessions going all week long. Hope to see you there!

I gave up my dream of one day owning a single remote control that could replace my basket of "universal" remotes several years ago. As you can imagine I lived in extreme sadness for quite some time, constantly criticizing myself for being so naive to believe such a device existed. As time passed however, I forgave myself for setting such an unrealistic goal and eventually moved on. Then yesterday the delivery man arrived, unknowingly carrying the answer to this long-forgotten dream.

Okay, to be honest, I haven't actually gone out and bought any universal remotes until just the other day. With that said, each time I've replaced a component in my entertainment system I end up with another "universal" remote that just doesn't cut it. Either it won't even work with one or more components or, as is more often the case, you lose a ton of functionality and have to keep the original remote close by anyway. While advanced universal remotes are nothing new, in my opinion finding one within a reasonable price range (below $100) is. If you're willing to invest $80-$100 in a universal remote that will actually replace all of your other remotes, so far I am very pleased with my Logitech Harmony Advanced Universal Remote for Xbox 360.

Facing low-cost rivals, Photoshop CS6 adds new features and the ability to rent.

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by Thomas C. Christenberry, "Digital Multimedia Evidence Processing Laboratory - Training," The Police Chief 77 (March 2010): 62–63, http://policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&article_id=2041&issue_id=32010

"For many television viewers and forensic science enthusiasts, shows like CSI and the spin-off television shows CSI: Miami and CSI: New York are fun to watch and, with their various characters and story lines, continue to fascinate viewers of all demographics. Viewers anxiously marvel at the forensic technology, the latest scientific methodology, and the amazing deductive skills of the forensic specialist. Best of all, the whole case is completed in just one hour."

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The LEVA Shield Awards have been a long standing tradition of recognizing excellence in video production within the public safety community.

The 2008 LEVA Shield Video Awards competition is now open for submissions. Enter your best work from the past year in any of the nine categories. Participation in the Shield Awards provides many rewards including recognition by your peers and professional development through LEVA's judging panel feedback.

The deadline for the 2008 LEVA Shield Video Awards has been extended! Please have all entries in no later than Monday, June 30, 2008.

Visit the LEVA site today!

Ocean Systems will be providing a free 3-hour seminar entitled "From Acquisition to Prosecution: Understanding the Value & Challenges of Digital Video Evidence" on December 8th in Miami, FL. This free seminar provides helpful information for all of those involved in the digital video evidence chain, too include prosecutors, law enforcement command staff, first responders, support staff, as well as technicians and analysts.

A brand new LEVA course has been designed by and will be taught by two highly respected members of the FVA community: George Reis and Jimmy Schroering.  "AUTOMATION FOR FORENSIC VIDEO ANALYSTS: From Photoshop to Scripting" will be conducted in the LEVA Lab this December 17 - 20 and again May 20 - 23. 2013.

For additional information please visit the LEVA website at www.leva.org 

There's been a lot of yammering lately about facial recognition in criminal justice. So much noise that developers like IBM have walked away from facial recognition and agencies across the world are getting in hot water over its adoption & use.

Face Recognition Policy Development Template

The DOJ's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) published a policy template for LE agencies back in 2017 that you may find helpful.  Of particular note is the recommendation that the technology only be used for investigative leads, and that facial recognition results on their own do NOT establish probable cause and should NOT be considered positive identification. 

Common sense, many might say, myself included.

Access the PDF - Click here.

Make it a great day, my friends!

January 26-29, 2010 the Corona Police Department will host the Ocean Systems training course "Forensic Video Analysis - FVA 101, Introduction to Forensic Video Analysis".

The learning environment consists of lectures and hands-on exercises designed to allow the analyst to become familiar with the dTective system while working on real cases. Class is limited to 10 students so click here to find out more and get registered today!

By Casey Johnston

A group of researchers have developed a way to identify pirated movies by reducing the original to a signature genetic code. The system can match even videos that have been altered or had their colors changed to the source, an area where many video piracy mechanisms fall short.

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"VirtualDub is a video capture/processing utility for 32-bit Windows platforms (95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP), licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It lacks the editing power of a general-purpose editor such as Adobe Premiere but is streamlined for fast linear operations over video. It has batch-processing capabilities for processing large numbers of files and can be extended with third-party video filters. VirtualDub is mainly geared toward processing AVI files, although it can read (not write) MPEG-1 and also handle sets of BMP images."

When Windows 8 launches later this year you'll be able to upgrade to the pro version of Microsoft's newest desktop OS for just $40 for a limited time. The deal will apply to a broad base of current Windows users including those running Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. Microsoft had a similar offer during the launch of Windows 7 but this one is cheaper than its predecessor. (Windows 7 upgrades ranged from $50-$100 at launch.)

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