Free DME & DFIR Resources

I recently completed an upgrade of our DCCTV Wiki and wanted to announce some significant changes that I've implemented. First and foremost, the Wiki is no longer a private members-only resource. Effective immediately, I have also migrated DME Resources and the Wiki to a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Previously the Wiki was only available to our over 1,800 verified Professional Community members. Interested parties that do not meet our Professional Community membership requirements are now welcome to participate in the DCCTV Wiki.

A new report from Sonic Foundry and the Center for Digital Education shows instructor and student benefits from a video-driven flipped classroom approach to learning.

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I've posted a new tutorial on Submitting & Managing Articles and Newsflashes, which registered members will find on the Tutorials page under the Help menu after they sign-in.  Additional tutorials are always being developed, so be sure to check back soon for more.  As always, if you have any suggestions or comments please feel free to post them to the member forums, shoot me a PM, or send them to me via our Contact Form.  Have a great weekend everybody!

The Law Enforcement and Emergency Services Video Association (LEVA) is offering a $200 discount to government employees who sign-up to take two of their most highly sought after courses - Forensic Imaging Techniques and Photographic/Video Comparison.  The courses will be held back-to-back June 9 - 15 at the LEVA DME Lab, which is located at the University of Indianapolis.

Visit the LEVA Web site for complete details!

Just a quick note to say thank you to everyone who attended LEVA’s Annual Training Conference in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho last week. It’s always great to see everyone face-to-face, and as usual the information sharing and peer networking the conference facilitates was priceless. I only wish I could’ve enjoyed more of the evening social events, but unfortunately a few factors prevented me from doing so.

* Updated with Corrected Images & Explanations. 

After the break you'll find several images of a bogus Person of Interest (PoI) that were recorded by a DCCTV system. Two different analog CCTV cameras with built-in IR illuminators were connected to the black-box, h.264 DVR. These JPG images were exported from the DVR’s proprietary player. All of these images exported at 704 pixels by 480 pixels. When the recorded video is played back via the proprietary player it is displayed at 630 x 455; however, analysis of the proprietary file and exported AVI files reveals both of those contain a 704 x 480 video stream.

Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to:

• Describe the PoI’s clothing items from these images as you would for producing a BOLO. Note any issues that may affect your description.
• Identify the single most important correction that should be made to these images prior to printing. (BONUS - Why does this correction need to be made, and what tipped you off to it?)

If you’ve taken one of my recovery classes or attended one of my presentations on the topic at a LEVA conference or other event, you may have seen these examples.

Wearable Camera Not Quite Ready For Its Close-Up

Warhol was only half-right. Sure everyone is famous these days, but only for 15 seconds and in 15 fps.

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A few weeks ago, I signed up for Amp'd Mobile service, and shortly thereafter received my new Kyocera Jet multimedia phone via FedEx. I was immediately very impressed with the look, size and form factor. I've always been a flip man, but I'm very keen on this slider from Kyocera.

The new OS is very cool, user friendly, and customizable. The Amp'd multimedia service is pretty sweet, effectively replacing my previous phone, mp3 player, and even the game system for short trips, etc. The microSD capability adds even more value, as you can simply transfer your existing content from the PC using the provided SD adapter. It should be noted that you cannot transfer purchased music from iTunes to the device or card as it is protected; however, you can rip CD tracks all day long or transfer other unprotected content (music, vids, images) - supports mp3, aac, mp4, 3gp, 3g2, m4a, and m4b file types.

"The world is changing so quickly, that it's really hard for a standard to keep up. So when we introduce new protocol delivery or new codecs or new content protection inside the Flash player, we can effectively bring that new technology to at least 50 percent of the market within three months," said Kevin Towes, product manager for Flash at Adobe, speaking at a red-carpet interview at Streaming Media East. "There's not many technologies that can make that claim."

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Haven't had much time to post lately, but wanted to quickly say that the new Google Chrome  browser totally rocks!  I'm waiting on some files to transcode and thought I'd type up a quick post using this cool new browser...and the new blogging tool I'm implementing for Media-Geek members.  Anywho...

Three days old (publically released Tuesday) and this browser has me wondering when Microsoft will get out of the browser game.  I know the answer is never, but come on...have you tried IE8?  Please tell me I'm not the only idiot who thought IE8 BETA 2 would be an improvement over BETA 1.   

I've been using Safari for most of my general browsing for several months now, and of course have Firefox 2 and 3 tucked in to my quick launch bar as well.  Unfortunately, as a Web developer, I have to keep a few versions of IE around; but you can bet you won't find it in my quick launch bar anymore.

Sheriff John Whetsel, Oklahoma County, OK, recently sent a letter to his fellow Police Chiefs and Sheriffs asking for their support of LEVA's mobile video technology survey and the 2011 National Summit for Mobile Video Technology.

To view a PDF version of Sheriff Whetsel's letter click here.

Hewlett-Packard has recalled about 162,000 lithium-ion batteries used in its HP and Compaq laptop computers. The announcement, made late last week by HP and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), adds additional battery packs to a recall program announced just a week earlier.

Full story:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/229105/hp_recalls_laptop_batteries.html

Here's a list of 25 articles, how-tos, production guides, websites, white papers, webinars, presentations, and conferences that can help you cut through the confusion about the H.264 video codec, learn what it is, and start using it for online video.

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