Free DME & DFIR Resources

LEVA recently announced that the New York State Police will be hosting their Photographic/Video Comparison course in Albany, NY April 4th through the 8th.

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.

Complete details and application forms are available via the LEVA website.

Here's one that flew in under my radar.  I do recall some discussion about the related working group's creation a few years ago, but somehow completely missed the July, 2010 release of their document.

Learn more about this Homeland Security project by visiting their website:
http://www.safecomprogram.gov/SAFECOM/currentprojects/videoquality/videoquality.htm

Check out version 1.0 of the guide itself here:
http://www.safecomprogram.gov/NR/rdonlyres/5BCA1CBF-1500-4B29-9370-81B823575DE8/0/3aVideoUserRequirementGuidedoc.pdf

P.S. - Thanks to Mike Baker for bringing this one back into my radar.

According to the FBI, digital evidence is present in nearly every crime scene.   Increasingly, this evidence is found on handheld devices such as cell phones, GPS’, iPods—and is leading investigators directly to a suspect’s door—sometimes within hours of a crime taking place.

Register now for the FBI’s Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory (RCFL) Program's free webinar for law enforcement and government officials.  Participants will learn the proper handling of handheld devices at crime scenes, basic data recovery, legal issues and more.

Questions? Send an email to npo@rcfl.gov or visit www.rcfl.gov.

Medical experts, accident reconstruction experts, and other types of experts are frequently asked to interpret data from images that were obtained from video evidence. When these experts have no training or background in processing multimedia evidence, and/or make no effort to consult someone who does, bad things generally happen. Really bad things, like having all of their evidence thrown out of court, for one.

A top Chinese security official praised a multimedia semiconductor and Internet protocol-based surveillance solution provider for helping develop a video image integration and sharing standard that is to be used by security agencies.

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We couldn’t be more pleased to announce that our new family of Creative Cloud desktop apps, and many of the powerful publishing and collaborative features that we announced at Adobe MAX in May, are now available. These include:

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Among the announcements made at today's Google I/O keynote is WebM, a new open-source, royalty-free video format based around the VP8 codec intended for use with HTML5 video. The WebM project's goal is to develop "a high-quality, open video format for the web that is freely available to everyone." The project has the backing of Google, Mozilla, Opera, and numerous other companies. If it catches, on, it could settle the rift that currently exists with HTML5 video support, thus speeding up HTML5 adoption.

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Ex-Stanford student Ren Ng is just about to launch a new kind of camera that will blow you away. Don’t believe me? Try clicking around on this photo of a Scuba diver standing in front of distant mountains.

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Back in August I announced we'd be launching DMEpod, and I later stated that I hoped to have the first episode out in October.  Well, that ain't happening so get over it...'cause we've got LIVE streaming coming your way baby!!!

Media-Geek TV will be streaming forensic multimedia news and training content 24/7, and DMEpod episodes will be cut from the channel and distributed via podcast monthly (or so).  All of the behind the scenes stuff is going to take some time to get worked out, so I'm personally setting January as our official launch date, but we're already loading and broadcasting content, and periodically running LIVE test events.

I've got to tell you, the testing is just plain fun, and I'm really excited to get others on board and contributing.   While the channel will predominantly feature pre-recorded content (and a growing on-demand library), the possibilities related to the LIVE event streaming are endless!  Think association, working group, or committee meetings...round table discussions...LIVE training with multiple instructors...LIVE interviews with industry vendors, engineers, and analysts...and so on. Geek or not, that is just plain cool.

 Maybe I'm a bit naive, but I'm sticking to the all volunteer concept, and hope you'll consider participating.

The first module in the very first course published to my new online training library is in the books! The course is on learning to use DME Resources. It will provide a basic overview of DME Resources through five training modules, the first of which is titled "Introduction and Overview". I should warn you, there's a quiz at the end, but I'm giving you two shots at passing it due to the level of complexity. ;)

Navigating & Using DME Resources Training Course

I swung by a national discount department store the other day, and while walking through their electronics department strolled down an entire aisle of cordless phones on display. Interestingly enough I notice this enormous sign above the aisle that read "900 MHz Good - 2.4 GHz Better - 5.8 GHz Best".

I suppose I really shouldn't be surprised by blatant lies in marketing messages anymore, but this one got to me for some reason. So I thought I'd poke around on the Web to see what the manufacturers themselves were saying, and to my surprise found that they're probably the source of this marketing ploy.

Earlier this evening Jim Hoerricks, author of the book "Forensic Photoshop", announced the availability of a new online training course - "An Introduction to Forensic Photoshop". Jim's new online course is hosted and provided through the American Institute of Forensic Eduction, Inc..

The Scientific Working Group on Digital Evidence (SWGDE) recently published two new documents for public comment; Comments on Forced Minimization Requirements for the Seizure of Digital Evidence and Crime Scene Critical Incident Videography Recommendations and Guidelines. As noted on their site, draft documents will be posted for a minimum of 60 days for public comment.

Additionally, several other documents were recently approved for release by SWGDE, including Best Practices for Photographic Comparision for All Disciplines (v1.0), Digital Image Compression and FIle Formats Guidelines (v1.0), and version 3 of Digital & Multimedia Evidence Glossary, among others. Visit https://www.swgde.org for more information.