Enhancing video survelience?

DataMeister wrote on 4/16/2004, 5:33 PM
I've been asked by a local investigative firm if I can enhance some video shot at night by surveilence cameras to bring out facial detail and license plate detail.

Does anyone know of the best way to do this? The system only gives about 1 frame per second.

I remeber reading in the past about NASA's VISAR system used in the olympics, but from what I know of that, it requires plenty of frames to be able to average out the noise.

Does anyone make deblurring plugins for Photoshop or would the VISAR system be worth the expense? Does NASA let a user Demo their system before purchase? I'm not even sure I know where to go about purchasing the VISAR system if it would work.

Are there any other brands of high end image enhancement software out there?

JBJones

Comments

farss wrote on 4/16/2004, 5:42 PM
Don't know the answers to any of this BUT at 1 fps you'd be better off exporting to Photoshop and working on it there I suspect.
Maybe if you have the same piece of 'information; in more than 1 frame if you lined up that information and were then able to 'add' the data you might get some enhancement. Unsharpen masks might be of some use as well.
newhope wrote on 4/16/2004, 6:18 PM
Nasa have licensed their VISAR software to Integraph who have released a version for forensic video application and called it Video Analyst.

It runs as a plugin for Adobe Premiere but my last enquiries indicated that they would anly sell it as a 'turnkey' solution, meaning the sell the hardware and software NOT just the plugin.
Starting prices last year were in the region of $12000.00 US ... NOT CHEAP but the results were amazing.

You can check them out at http://www.videoanalyst.com/

johnmeyer wrote on 4/16/2004, 6:23 PM
Check this out:

Focus Magic

I found about it in this thread:

Out of Focus - Can it be 'Fixed'

If you explore their site, you will find an example of exactly what you are trying to do. Ah ... here's the link:

License Plate

I downloaded the demo and played around with it. The standalone is somewhat limited compared to what the Adobe plugin can do. Unless the Vegas 5 version supports Adobe plugins, you will have to get an Adobe product to get the full features they offer.

I was not able to get the standalone to perform all the "magic" in their demos, but it wasn't a complete bust either.
rs170a wrote on 4/16/2004, 6:27 PM
I used to work for a local police department doing this and can tell you that it's a real art, especially for what you're being asked to do.
The "dtective" system (1st one below) is probably the most widely used one across the country these days.
LEVA ( http://www.leva.org ) is an international organization dedicated, in part, to this particular field. There are a number of links on their home page that you should find helpful.

http://www.oceansystems.com/dtective/
http://cognitech.com/
http://www.trec.com/
http://solutions.intergraph.com/industries/vas.asp

Mike
newhope wrote on 4/16/2004, 6:28 PM
The link I post about Video Analyst was dead, my apologies for not checking it.
This is the correct link http://solutions.intergraph.com/hardware/vas/default.asp
DataMeister wrote on 4/16/2004, 8:42 PM
Thanks for the help and suggestions everyone. I might just be able to get something out of this footage. :-)

JBJones
JJKizak wrote on 4/17/2004, 5:32 AM
What happened to the system that SOFO was working on for the military?