Video Enhancement Services | Forensics

Forensic video enhancement involves clarifying video (or images) from a variety of recording sources. These include camcorders, cell phones, websites, body worn cameras and closed circuit television systems (CCTV) found at businesses, and increasingly at homes. Although advances in new technology has improved video quality there are many factors that can affect the initial recording’s usefulness. Forensic video enhancement processes can often turn poor quality videos or images into useful pieces of evidence, which is why all relevant video obtained of an event should be collected, even if the image does not appear to be clear. When providing video enhancement services the process of clarifying, or enhancing video, should be performed by taking a systematic approach. This includes the forensic video analyst acquiring a copy of the best original video recording as well as establishing a chain of custody for forensically valid evidence.

Video Enhancement Techniques
Video enhancement techniques used to address video quality or portions of interest to the client in video include:

• Lighten video/images too dark to help identify persons or objects
• Zoom in on areas of interest in the video to see more detail
• Adjust video qualities (e.g., color and contrast) to better view what’s happening
• Produce high resolution video from a series of video frames
• Stabalize “Shaky” video that can be distracting and hard to view features/objects
• Unblur and image or video
• Redact/Blur (i.e. mask) to obscure irrelevant persons/ objects or to protect a persons privacy
• Annotate, “spotlight” and reduce the speed of video to help identify objects or persons