Tech Showcase - Getting In Focus

Homeland Defense
March 2007
by KARA GRAY

New software is now available that can enhance crime scene video and produce print-friendly images for law enforcement and forensic applications.

It is a common scenario in small towns and big cities across the country – a local convenience store has been robbed at gunpoint and the only evidence police have available is the grainy surveillance video shot from the cameras overtop the cash register. The images are barely distinguishable, despite the fact that one of the suspects practically looks directly into the camera. The evening news airs the footage, along with the police captain’s plea for the public’s help in identifying the robbers, but the images are so poor that the suspects’ own mothers might not recognize them. If the police had better surveillance images to work with, the suspects might be easier to identify.

Surveillance cameras are everywhere – in banks, drug stores, shopping malls and convenience stores – and, despite the myriad of technological advances in recent years, the images captured from these systems remains poor in most cases. “Video is inherently low quality,” said Laura Teodosio, founder and president of Salient Stills, a Boston-based software development firm that has pioneered the art of video enhancement for forensic purposes.

Full Article: http://www.salientstills.com/news/pdf/homeland.defense.pdf