Can you zoom in on that license plate?

The recent video enhancement post sparked additional interest in the subject. Upon doing some more research, it became clear that enhancing is only part of the picture. (Geez, I am starting to sound like Mr. Peabody.) 

Even more important is investing in technology which works in the first place. For example, the video surveillance system required in a small store is not what works best for surveying a parking lot.

The following explanation at Jim Hoerricks' blog is really insightful and educational...

Can you zoom in on that license plate? Can you zoom in on his face? Why can't you make this image clearer. These are questions that many forensic video analysts deal with on a daily basis. To illustrate the answer to these questions, let's consider this image:

This Monitoring image comes from an Avigilon system's 16 megapixel camera.

With the above image in mind, let's consider the outstanding advice from the UK's Home Office Scientific Development Branch:

To judge the quality of images that will be necessary, you will need to take into account the purpose for which CCTV is used and the level of quality that will be necessary to achieve the purpose. The Home Office Scientific Development Branch (HOSDB) recommends identifying the needs of a CCTV system by using four categories:

1. Monitoring: to watch the flow of traffic or the movement of people where you do not need to pick out individual figures.
2. Detecting: to detect the presence of a person in the image, without needing to see their face.
3. Recognising: to recognise somebody you know, or determine that somebody is not known to you.
4. Identifying: to record high quality facial images which can be used in court to prove someone’s identity beyond reasonable doubt.

Take a look at the picture above. Can you make out faces or license plates? No. So, if your purpose is to identify these items, that picture view just won't do. 

With Photoshop, we can zoom in. Let's see what happens.

This Detecting view comes from zooming in a 16 megapixel image.

We can now see the people and vehicles more clearly. We can gain a general awareness of types of vehicles. We are closer to identifying them, but we don't have anything yet that will help us to prove identity beyond a reasonable doubt. We can zoom in further to see if we can Recognise anyone.

This Recognising view comes from zooming in a 16 megapixel image.

 At this level of magnification, someone who knows this person or car should be able to say, "that's him" or "that's not the man/car you are looking for." At this point, we can begin to accurately describe the individual in the scene. Let's zoom in some more to see if we can positively identify this man and the car.

This Identifying view comes from zooming in a 16 megapixel image.

With a 16 megapixel image, we can even zoom in closer than this image. But notice what's happened along the way. We've sacrificed field of view for detail. No longer are we looking at the whole parking lot (monitoring). We can't see the other people who are walking around (detecting). In order to identify this individual, we've had to zoom in so far that we've excluded much of this scene from our view. A CCTV Installer might position a camera/lens combination at a choke point specifically to get facial recognition whilst installing other cameras around the area to monitor and detect movement of unauthorised persons.

But what about real life. The good folks at Avigilon have a small piece of a very large market. What if that same monitoring image was only 4CIF or 2CIF. Could we still zoom in and identify the individuals in the scene? You be the judge.

The image from Avigilon contains 15,824,256 pixels and can come in a lossless RAW format.

This image contains only 426,400 pixels and is compressed. 

With an almost 97% reduction in the amount of available pixels and the additional compression, the results speak for themselves.

The result of zooming in on a low pixel count image.

So, the answer to "can you zoom in on that license plate" is ... it depends on the quality of the image and the number of available pixels. ~Jim Hoerricks - author of Forensic Photoshop, a comprehensive imaging workflow for forensic professionals

And you thought a 'Methane Monster From the Planet Argone' was just sci-fi.

I know this is not spy or security related, but it is just plain too cool to ignore! ~Kevin 

via The Wall Street Journal... 
Researchers on Thursday said they had created microbes that "very likely" use arsenic in their DNA in place of phosphorus, in what may be the first exception to the formula long thought to govern the basic chemistry of life.

Force-grown in the lab, the bacteria use the notorious poison to replace molecules of the element phosphorus in critical parts of their working biology, including in the spiral backbone of DNA, which is a crucial component for all known life, the researchers said. By depending on an element so toxic to normal life, the microbes are a living demonstration of the exotic substances that alien biochemistry might, in theory at least, use on other worlds.

"It is building itself out of arsenic," said geo-microbiologist Felisa Wolfe-Simon at NASA's Astrobiology Institute and the U.S. Geological Survey, who led researchers from eight federal and university laboratories conducting the experiment. "All life we know is the same biochemically, and this is a little different. It is suggesting there is another way to be alive."
(more) (another methane monster) (sing-a-long)

Anybody got a match?

China's Culture of Secrecy Brands Research as Spying

via The Wall Street Journal...

China - As a "scout" for IHS Inc., a U.S. petroleum industry research firm, geologist Xue Feng won plaudits from his managers for obtaining a trove of rare data on 30,000 Chinese oil wells.

China's oil industry was undergoing a tumultuous period as Xue Feng, a Shaanxi province-born, naturalized American geologist, began his career as a "scout" for Colorado-based IHS Inc., and ultimately was convicted in Beijing for stealing Chinese national secrets.

IHS databases are populated with such information about every country in the world. The data help oil companies decide where to explore and give traders a sense of energy price trends. Among subscribers to the IHS databases are Chinese oil companies that drill in Africa and buy natural gas from Australia.

But more than two years after Mr. Xue's scoop in 2005, China declared the data on its fields state secrets. Now, the 45-year-old U.S. citizen is in a Beijing jail serving an eight-year sentence following a conviction this summer for spying. U.S. President Barack Obama and Washington's Ambassador to Beijing, Jon Huntsman, have called on China to release him. (more)

Goldman Computer Code Trade Secrets Trial Begins

The criminal case of the alleged Goldman spy is off and running, and it’s shaping up to be a good one. The case seems likely to open a window into the mysterious world of high-frequency trading and to shed some light inside Wall Street’s most notorious powerhouse, Goldman Sachs. But the lawsuit might do something else, too: It could test legal limits related to trade secrets — and cause angst far from the trading world.

The man of the hour is the defendant, Sergey Aleynikov. Aleynikov was a programmer in Goldman’s high-frequency trading group and is accused of taking code in order to help a new employer compete with Goldman. He disputes this and has said he intended to take some code, but not anything secret – just open-source code. The open-source part of that is crucial. (more)

Stayed tuned.

via wsj.com...

David Norris wants to collect the digital equivalent of fingerprints from every computer, cellphone and TV set-top box in the world.

He's off to a good start. So far, Mr. Norris's start-up company, BlueCava Inc., has identified 200 million devices. By the end of next year, BlueCava says it expects to have cataloged one billion of the world's estimated 10 billion devices.

Advertisers no longer want to just buy ads. They want to buy access to specific people. So, Mr. Norris is building a "credit bureau for devices" in which every computer or cellphone will have a "reputation" based on its user's online behavior, shopping habits and demographics. He plans to sell this information to advertisers willing to pay top dollar for granular data about people's interests and activities.

Device fingerprinting is a powerful emerging tool in this trade. It's "the next generation of online advertising," Mr. Norris says. (more)

What the report doesn't highlight are the fraud-fighting capabilities of a technology like this, not to mention government and law enforcement interests.

Advances in Video Enhancement

There is nothing worse* than having to watch a crummy video recording, especially if you are sitting in a jury box.

Too dark, too light, out of focus, unstable are some of the many complaints that pop up whenever the important footage is brought forth as evidence. 

Fortunately, the situation is getting better. High definition cameras and better recording compression schemes are helping, but when it comes to pulling a rabbit out of the junk video hat, it's video processing to the rescue.

Take a look at this...

This is an example of enhancing clarity. Examples of focus, stability and darkness can be seen afterward, or here.

It is even possible to enhance and construct a composite photograph from several frames of video...

While most of this magic is used in legal proceedings and investigations, think of what it could do for your precious home movies!

Special thanks to Doug Carner, CPP/CHS-III of Forensic Protection, Van Nuys, CA for the loan of his video enhancements. Got a problem video? Give Doug a call. Evaluations are FREE.

* except being dragged to another Harry Potter flick. 

Why Your Business Needs a Counterespionage Strategy

If it can happen to a government, it can happen to you.

Murray Associates can help. (more)

Fiber Optics Easier to "Wiretap" than Wire

Optical fibre is a lot easier to tap than most people imagine. There is no need to break or splice the fibre now -- a relatively shallow bend can be enough.

The technique works because the light in the cable propagates by bouncing off the insides of the fibre. Unsheath the cable, and a detector can pick up the tiny amount of light that escapes through the fibre's coating, explained Thomas Meier, the CEO of Swiss company Infoguard.

He demonstrated the technique on a fibre carrying a VOIP phone call over Gigabit Ethernet...

He added that the risk is not imaginary or theoretical -- optical taps have been found on police networks in the Netherlands and Germany, and the FBI investigated one discovered on Verizon's network in the U.S. Networks used by U.K. and French pharmaceutical companies have also been attacked, probably for industrial espionage, he said. (more) (more)

SpyCam Story #588 - Teacher's Pen Leaks

TX - A Springtown man has been accused by police of recording a video of an 18-year-old woman showering at his home while using a “spy pen” without her consent.

A 38-year old, second-grade teacher at a Fort Worth elementary school, turned himself in to authorities and is charged with improper visual recording without consent, according to a Springtown Police affidavit.

The “spy pen,” which functions as a pen with a camera attached, was taken by one of his children to school, where it was discovered by another student and given to a teacher, Sgt. Shawn Owens of the Springtown Police Department said.

“One of the children in his home took the pen to school thinking it was just a pen, and that’s where at the school it was discovered as more than just a pen,” Owens said. (more)

Business WebCams Hacked

A computer hacker accessed highly personal data and controlled victims' webcams as part of a sophisticated email scam carried out from his mother's front room.

Matthew Anderson, 33, was a key member of an international gang, abusing his skills as a computer security expert to target businesses and individuals with spam containing hidden viruses, a court heard.

He controlled victims' webcam devices remotely to see inside their homes, at one point boasting to a friend that he made a teenage girl cry by doing so.

Major national and international organisations, including Macmillan Publishers, the Toyota car company and the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, were also targeted in what prosecutor Hugh Davies described as a "fundamental breach of security".  (more)

Turkey Toughens Laws on Illegal Taps

Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım has said the government plans to increase penalties for illegal wiretapping in order to dissuade people from bugging private phone conversations in violation of the law...

“With the passage of this draft legislation the punishment [for illegal wiretapping] will be increased three-fold. The punishments will not be suspended or commuted to monetary fine. People who are found guilty of illegal wiretapping will be sentenced to a jail term of two to five years. There is no other method to put a stop to the illegal wiretapping paranoia,” Yıldırım told Today’s Zaman. The wiretapping of telephone conversations is a highly controversial issue in Turkey. Many believe the police as well as the military and other security agencies frequently bug people’s phone lines to detect security threats. (more)

Thomas Cook Counters Espionage

After secret talks in a room designed to prevent bugging, British tour operator Thomas Cook has bought a majority stake in Intourist, the Russian travel agency founded under Joseph Stalin. (more)

Stalin founded a travel agency?!?!

(Shrugs shoulders, walks away with a head full of jokes that will never see the light of day.) Sortalike when you're in a Siberian... (Slaps hand over mouth.)

Fed Taps Trim Hedge

A broad U.S. crackdown on insider trading accelerated as the government charged an employee at an expert-network firm with conspiring to leak confidential information. Prosecutors also won a legal victory against a founder of the Galleon Group hedge fund that cements their ability to use wiretaps against Wall Street investors. (more)

Micro SD Card Crypts Cell Calls and SMS

Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) and Secusmart have released a new generation of the SecuVOICE solution for wiretap-proof cell phone calls. 

This new and improved version of the encryption solution will allow the German federal authorities to make phone calls - and also send SMS messages - without any risk of interception. 

The core component of this integrated solution is the new Secusmart Security Card, which encrypts calls and SMS messages end-to-end and provides secure authentication. The microSD card used in the cell phone was specially developed for Secusmart by Giesecke & Devrient Secure Flash Solutions (G&D SFS), a joint venture of G&D and Phison Electronics Corporation. The German federal authorities will soon be deploying the first crypto cards to offer this combined functionality. (more)

Patriots suspected of spying?!?! (Shocking.)

(US football story) For the second straight weekend, the three-year-old notion of the Patriots engaging in tactics not recognized by the rule book hovers over one of the team’s biggest out-of-division rivalries. 

In his look-ahead to the coming weekend, Peter King of SI.com points out that Colts quarterback Peyton Manning fears the presence of enemy ears in the visitors’ locker room at Gillette Stadium... None of it means that bugs have been planted in the locker room, but there’s nothing wrong with being cautious. Even if the caution becomes paranoia. (more) (history)

Solution... Electronic surveillance detection inspections.

Thus leaving no time to collect on the sex part.

Charging IAS officer Ravi Inder Singh with corporate espionage for sexual and monetary favours, the Delhi Police Special Cell told a court on Wednesday that Singh spoke with ‘middleman’ Vineet Kumar at least 10,000 times in the last two months and helped clear the file of telecom company Telcordia in the first week of November “abusing his official position”. (more)

Ellison publicly charged Apotheker with overseeing an "industrial espionage scheme" to steal Oracle software...

...and wins "one of the 10 or 20 largest jury verdicts in U.S. legal history."

SAP AG must pay Oracle Corp $1.3 billion for software theft in a jury verdict that could be the largest-ever for copyright infringement. (more)

"The weed of crime bears bitter fruit."

You know it's time to call in the PR folks when...

via the sharp eyes at newlaunches.com...

For those of you unfamiliar with the American Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the Fourth Amendment is in place to guard citizens against unreasonable searches and seizures. Not that it really stops the government from doing so or anything but they try and it is for our own safety… most of the time. But Airport security and those scans can be quite a problem, what with all the radiation and all from the scanners etc. so aside from lead underwear and radiation blocking fig leaves on your delicates, another company has come up with Forth Amendment T-shirts with the prints in metallic dye that will show up on scans. (more)

SpyCam Story #587 - Year's Weirdest Story

A New York University professor has an eye in the back of his head after undergoing a surgical procedure to install a camera in his skull, part of an art exhibition commissioned by a new museum in Qatar.

“I am going about my daily life as I did before the procedure, but I ask for a period of rest before I am going to give any interviews,” Professor Wafaa Bilal said in a statement issued Tuesday through a spokeswoman, Mahdis Keshavarz.

The surgery was performed in the U.S., according to Keshavarz. She declined to specify the hospital or doctor, saying Bilal preferred not to disclose that information until after he has healed. She also declined to specify the precise date of Bilal’s surgery, though as recently as Friday evening she said the procedure had not yet been performed.

The thumbnail-size camera implanted in his head will automatically snap one photograph per minute for an entire year, as The Wall Street Journal reported last week. Bilal, an assistant professor in the photography and imaging department of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, intends to activate the camera on Dec. 15.

The project, titled “The 3rd I,” was commissioned by Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art. Bilal plans to broadcast a live stream of images from the camera to monitors at the exhibit in Qatar, scheduled to open Dec. 30.

Last week Bilal launched a website connected to the project. Whether a live feed of pictures from his head-camera will also appear on his website remains unclear. (more)

...and most every other country in the developed world.

A number of suspicious women in the Gulf state of Qatar are spying on their husbands by using readily available hi-tech devices.

The women are trapping their husbands by handing spy devices, like miniature cameras fitted in pens and cigarette lighters, as gifts, The Peninsula newspaper reported.

Some wives who are not able to make their husbands accept such gifts slyly place the devices in their cars, the report said.

The paper said that it interviewed "a number of women who said their friends or colleagues admitted to spying or having spied on their husbands as they suspected they were cheating on them." (more) (eBay Spy Central) (sing-a-long)

"But, of course, Fearless Leader."

The conversations of Bulgarian army generals and top officers have been secretly wiretapped.  

The scandal broke out after a spy cam hidden in a watch was found in one of the rooms of Sofia Shipka hotel, owned by the Ministry of Defense. The military prosecution has already been alerted about the attempted espionage and its experts are now working to find out if secret records had been made and who might have used them. 

The computer surveillance system installed in room 222 of the Shipka hotel has been receiving information from 69 spy cameras installed in different recreation centers of the Bulgarian army across the country, while most of the military clubs in Bulgaria have been wiretapped under the pretext of higher security.

"I admit ordering the watch with the spy cam in it, but the gadget has never been used,” said Nikolay Markov, former security officer at the Recreation Centers Department with the Ministry of Defense. (more)

Colombia CIA Illegal Eavesdropping Suspect Flees

A former director of Colombia’s central intelligence agency, under investigation in an eavesdropping and illegal surveillance scandal has been granted political asylum in Panama.

Maria del Pilar Hurtado a lawyer headed the Department of Administrative Security (DAS) in Colombia, from August 2007 2008. She is one of four former directors of the agency in charge of the Colombian intelligence services, being investigated for their roles in a scheme of eavesdropping and illegal surveillance of judges, opposition politicians, journalists and human rights workers. (more)

Students: Enter for your chance to win an Interview with a Spy!

Ever wonder what a real spy does? Do they really drive a car like James Bond, have really cool gadgets, and make narrow escapes around every corner? Now’s your chance to find out!

The International Spy Museum announces a new student podcast in which student’s questions from across the nation will be accepted and possibly selected for this exclusive podcast interview with a real spy. (more)

When Suits Spy II

Australia - Senior managers of the companies building Australia's largest desalination plant in Victoria have denied authorising covert surveillance at the site.

Construction workers have walked off the site near Wonthaggi, south-east of Melbourne, following allegations the project's joint venture company, Thiess Degremont, hired operatives to spy on them. The allegations were revealed this morning by The Australian newspaper, which says it has sources and documents about what was called Operation Pluto. 

The newspaper says it was a secret deal between senior managers of Thiess and the Australian Security Intelligence group (ASI), a company run by experienced strike breaker Bruce Townsend. (more)

The China Whooshing Sound (It's the Same Old Song)

CA - A San Ramon, California, man is facing charges he stole valuable technology (The sugar pie.) from his former employer in hopes of building competitive location-aware products.

Zhiqiang "Michael" Zhang was arrested Tuesday, on charges that he stole trade secrets from Sirf Technology, a San Jose, California, maker of Global Positioning System chipsets, used by wireless location-aware programs in devices such as mobile phones and automobile navigation systems. A noted expert on location aware technology, Zhang had been a director of software development before resigning from Sirf in May 2009. He had been with the company for seven years.

According to prosecutors, Zhang then set up a company called Anywhere Logic "in order to develop and sell location-based services utilizing trade secrets stolen from Sirf."

Zhang allegedly hired two Sirf engineers (The honey bunch.), Xiaodong Liang and Yanmin Li away from Sirf to work at Anywhere Logic. They have also been charged in the case, but are now living in China. (The same old song.) (more) (sing-a-long)