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June 2011

Leading Digital Media Forensics Analyst Complements Personal Expertise with Powerful Video Forensics Technology

Thomas J. Owen, an internationally renowned forensics expert and witness, is one of only a handful of experts in the emerging field of digital media forensics. To supplement his own expertise, Owen often uses a VideoFOCUS Pro video forensics system, from Salient Stills, in his lab, when examining video.

Owen's forensics career started in 1981, when the New York City Police Department solicited him to review a surveillance audiotape involving the Weathermen extremist group. While he can't publicly disclose details of that case, it soon lead to others and the founding of his company Owl Investigations Inc., and later Owen Forensic Services, which provides forensic consulting, examination and expert testimony, supported by one of the most sophisticated digital audio and video processing laboratories presently available.

Among his high profile video forensic assignments, Owen cites work with mobsters, terrorists, celebrities and criminals, authenticating video from Osama bin Laden, and testifying at the Woody Allen/Mia Farrow trial. "It's been a diverse group of subjects and suspects," he said. "Unfortunately, some of the most exciting ones I can't talk about."

However, video surveillance has become more widespread since Owen started his business, to the point that today, dozens of times each day, crimes and accidents are recorded on videotape, closed circuit TV, digital video cameras, cell phones and DVRs. This has led to the "CSI affect," or an exaggerated portrayal of forensic science, on crime shows like CSI, Bones, Cold Case, Criminal Minds, NCIS, and Without a Trace.

"These television shows show amazing video forensics," said Owen. "But, if it doesn't exist, it's not there and can't come into focus. Juries' expectations are often above what technology can provide."

The goal of video forensics is to use technology like VideoFOCUS Pro to reveal clues that help investigators solve crimes, authenticate speakers and verify accidents. "Most recordings are not used unless something happens," said Owen. "It's not just crimes, but accidents as well."

Many recording systems no longer use videotape but record to digital memory. When working with both analog and digital video, Owen firsts checks the electronic signatures that are unique to each camera, that are no more than 3/60th of a second, caused by turning on and off the recording device. This is discoverable information. Owen also applies critical viewing, carefully watching each video, and noting anomalies, and anything else significant that he personally sees. Finally, because digital video is in the megahertz range and uses a high frequency, he applies VideoFOCUS Pro's color separation function to analyze video and show background artifacts.

"Digital video makes video analysis a little more challenging," said Owen. "However, as with videotapes, there are certain electronic signatures and trails that digital video leaves behind, from turning the system on and off. We use VideoFOCUS Pro to export these electronic signatures into a waveform, sometimes in the space of 1/60th of a second. This level of authenticity separates the novices from the experts."

"When law enforcement has me review video, they are hoping we can enhance it," said Owen. "We work to find out if the suspect had a weapon, or if there are identifiable marks on the person in the video, like tattoos, or specific logos on their clothing."

Owen also uses VideoFOCUS Pro for still image searches and production, converting video into stills and reviewing each image. When he finds something interesting in one of the stills, he can review and enhance that individual frame. Furthermore, VideoFOCUS Pro has the ability to capture video and audio from DVRs that store video in proprietary formats that are otherwise impossible to convert.

"VideoFOCUS has the best still camera splitter (demultiplex), I use this feature quite often," he said. "When there are 10 seconds of video recording a shooting or robbery, we can pull multiple frames from each second (one second of video can contain 60 different samples of video), see what happened first, and determine a timeline of events, and otherwise find clues to help law enforcement advance investigations."

Owen finds the enhancement tools in VideoFOCUS Pro easy to use, particularly for de-interlacing, de-multiplexing, quad separation, motion tracking and alignment, pinpointing fields of interest, and transcoding and editing video into usable images, while preserving the integrity of the original video.

While many of his cases come from law enforcement, Owed shared other examples of having video or audio evidence that he was able to analyze and help his clients understand what took place.

"These customers want to know if their businesses are liable for accidents," he said. "So, I apply forensics to their video, then make an HD uncompressed AVI flash drive so they can see exactly, frame by frame, what took place. There's hundreds of millions of dollars in insurance fraud and this helps to determine if someone was lying about what caused an accident."

Owen cited a case of the Staten Island Ferry (NY) ferry coming into port and hitting the dock. A passenger had fallen over the banister and filed a lawsuit. Stable cameras on land and inside the boat had recorded the event, and Owen was able to review and analyze the videotape. He highlighted the ferry's exact movements coming into port, which showed the ferry did cause the passenger to fall, prompting the ferry business to settle the case, knowing it was at fault.

Another case involved a shipping company with an employee who hit his head exiting the back of a truck at the loading dock, while boxes were being loaded. A nearby surveillance camera recorded the incident. The question was whether the injury could have been prevented. Upon analyzing the video, Owen found the employee did not duck as he had on previous occasions, absolving the shipping company of liability.

In addition to VideoFOCUS Pro' video and audio forensic functionality, Owen likes the system's subscription licensing option, including service and support. "The subscription option and pricing is very appealing," he said. "It enables a small business like ours, and cash-strapped municipalities and law enforcement agencies, to have access to a powerful forensic video enhancement tool, at an affordable price."

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