forensic
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MIT thaumaturges work to turn any windowed room into a camera obscura
Those interested in criminology, forensics or the basics of voyeurism probably have a decent grasp on what a camera obscura is. For everyone else in the audience, allow us to explain. Used since way before your birth, these chambers are designed with an optical device that projects an image of its surroundings on a screen; you just need a room with a hole in one side, which allows a fine amount of light to pass through. If you've ever watched [insert crime drama here], you've probably seen those magical investigators take a blurred shot of a room wall, zoom it in and somehow draw conclusions about the origins of life. Now, MIT's own Antonio Torralba and William Freeman have developed a method that can "transform the entire setting into a pinhole camera." In other words, any room with a window can be repurposed for forensics. On that note, you should probably consider moving your... operations center to a windowless bunker, STAT.
The iPhone tracking fiasco and what you can do about it
By now you've no doubt heard about a certain iOS database file called consolidated.db. It made quite a splash yesterday when a pair of researchers, Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden, from O'Reilly Media announced the "iPhone tracking software" the duo had "discovered hidden on the phones." Here's the problem: they didn't discover it, at least not originally. The file, known to hold large amounts of geolocation data collected from WiFi access points and cell-towers, has been probed by forensic experts ever since the retail launch of the iPhone 4 back in June of 2010. Hell, Sean Morrissey and Alex Levinson published a physical book on the topic back in December 2010, entire excerpts of which can easily be found on Google. So either the team from O'Reilly is being disingenuous with its claims or it's being lazy. Regardless, the story laid dormant for months until the O'Reilly team was able to visualize the data in a very personal way. Running the team's open-source iPhoneTracker software to see the detailed locations of our worldly travels is absolutely fascinating. Imagining the same data file in the hands of a stalker, misguided detective, or a jealous lover is downright creepy. But how is it possible that an issue like this has avoided the tech community at large for more than a year? And more importantly, what can you do about it? Read on to find out. Update: A timely discovery from Vishal -- here's a note from Apple General Counsel Bruce Sewell [PDF] to Congressmen Edward Markey and Joe Barton, providing a detailed look at its privacy policy, presumably regarding this issue.
SanDisk's 1GB WORM SD card stores evidence longer than your prison sentence (video)
You can think of SanDisk's latest WORM SD card like a mini time capsule... for criminals. As the name implies, these write-once-read-many cards are tamperproof slivers of flash storage that can only be written to once by an SD WORM-compatible device like, say, those security cameras, witness voice recorders, and photo cameras used by the police. SanDisk claims that the data will still be readable after 100 years, long after you and your crimes have been forgotten. Why the fuss after not hearing about SanDisk's SD WORM ambitions since 2008? Well, Sandisk just announced that Japan's police force will use the SanDisk SD WORM card "as the storage media of choice for tamper-proof forensic image archiving." We suspect that the Yakuza will be getting right on that "tamper-proof" claim just as soon as they finish viewing the video embedded after the break.
Your Second Life as a CSI
Reuters has reported that there will be a collaboration between the popular CBS show CSI and the game Second Life. There will be two episodes of the series (airing October 24th and November 6th) that prompt viewers to continue the investigation themselves by jumping into a virtual world designed around CSI:NY. This isn't the first time that Second Life has been linked with a TV crime series, but this occasion casts a more positive light on the game.The news came from the creator of CSI , Anthony Zuiker, at the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo. TechCrunch has since updated the facts, adding that a link from the CBS website will give three options for CSI fans to participate in. The first option for viewers is a series of forensic puzzles to solve. The second involves players visiting a crime scene in Second Life and then attempting to solve a murder. This second option is called "Murder by Zuiker", and Zuiker himself will judge participants solutions to the mystery and award in-game prizes to the top entrants. The last option will be to follow up on the TV episode's murder case as a crime scene investigator, with all their famous gadgetry at your disposal. Also noted in the TechCrunch article is that the airing of the episode coincides with the launching of an independant client for Second Life, OnRez, by the Electric Sheep Company. This is the first independant viewer that has been given the official nod by Second Life creator Linden Labs. Secondlifeinsider.com also has a ton of posts on CSI in Second Life, and the new client, so visit them for some detailed information and on-going coverage.
Fujifilm's IS Pro DSLR lends a hand in forensics
Fujifilm has been lending a helping hand in the realm of investigative photography for quite some time, and the firm's latest picks up where the S3 Pro UVIR and IS-1 left off. Featuring Fujifilm's Super CCD Pro and Real Photo Processor Pro technology to see light from the ultraviolet, visible, and infrared portions of the spectrum, this 12.3-megapixel gem also sports face detection, password protected lockouts, optional "rubber body armor," CF / Microdrive slots, RAW support, and a live image preview LCD to boot. Moreover, it's fully compatible with Nikon F mount lenses and iTTL flash systems, which should ease the burden of switching costs if you've already sunk way too much into Nikon accessories. No word just yet on how much coinage this will demand, but look for it to land in precincts (okay, store shelves too) next month.
Researchers catch a whiff of "aroma fingerprints"
While we've already seen just how savvy dogs are at scouting out cellphones, researchers around the globe have teamed up to find out how pups distinguish the aromas that each individual emits, and the result is a highly influential electronic nose. Now if the boys in blue can't track you down via fingerprint, EEG signatures, or just looking at those guilt-filled eyes, it looks like your "aroma fingerprint" just might find you out anyway. The team has uncovered that each human has at least 44 chemical compounds in their odors that can be distinguished, and aside from assisting in identification, can be used in forensic studies to determine true causes behind crimes, deaths, or other misdemeanors. It's even stated that this new technique can assist officials in learning about one's "gender, lifestyle, whether or not they smoke, recent meals, and stress levels." Of course, criminals could be shaking in their boots, but until the scientists find a way to sniff through "deodorant and perfume," we can't exactly count on this being reliable.[Via Spluch]
