Domestic Surveillance: stills from video

[Dynamite Bob]

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-000080591oct09.story?coll=la%2Dnews%2Da%5Fsection

Still images can be derived from many video frames
with better resolution than you think.





BOSTON -- Like so many Americans, 
Steve Hill was appalled when he saw 
newspaper reprints of two World Trade 
Center terrorists as they passed through 
airport security the morning of Sept. 11.

                                The sight of Mohamed Atta and Waleed 
                                M. Alshehri as captured on a video 
                                camera in Portland, Maine, was shocking 
                                enough. But Hill had another, deeply 
                                visceral reaction.

                                "Professional pride," he explained. "I 
                                saw these rotten-looking images in the 
                                newspaper, and thought, 'We can do 
                                better.' " So he called the Boston FBI
and 
                                offered to install--for free--his
company's 
                                software that clarifies visual images. 
                                Salient Stills is a small start-up, and 
                                when shareholders and directors winced 
                                at about $20,000 worth of corporate 
                                altruism, Hill reminded them that, since 
                                the Sept. 11 attacks, Americans have 
                                opened their hearts and their 
                                pocketbooks. Hill figured Salient could
at 
                                least pony up their pixels.

                                "So many people in the country right now 
                                are feeling, 'I could go beat up those 
                                terrorists,' " Hill said. "It was sort
of the 
                                same idea."

                                The weapon the 10-person enterprise 
                                supplied the local FBI is a technique
for 
                                clarifying moving images from videotape. 
                                Reproduced as still photographs, video 
                                images tend to be grainy. Subtleties 
                                vanish. Facial features and details such
as 
                                license plate imprints are hard to 
                                distinguish.

                                "Many years ago"--in 1990, Laura 
                                Teodosio said--the challenge of 
                                transforming a moving medium into a
still 
                                image with precise resolution became the 
                                subject of her master's thesis at MIT. 
                                Working at the university's famed Media 
                                Lab--where advanced technology finds 
                                practical applications--Teodosio 
                                developed a software system she called 
                                videoFOCUS. Its purpose was "temporal 
                                condensation," essentially squeezing a 
                                series of moving images into a legible 
                                print.

                                Her signature effort was a glorious 
                                portrait of cellist Yo-Yo Ma, sawing 
                                away at a concert, yet absolutely still
in 
                                Teodosio's finished image. She also 
                                produced a clear likeness of pitcher 
                                Roger Clemens with his legendary 
                                fastball streaming sequentially
overhead. 
                                Neither endeavor seemed destined for 
                                widespread appreciation.

                                "But as it turned out, there was a side 
                                effect," said Teodosio, 37. "We wound up 
                                getting video frames that were higher 
                                quality than the original."

                                The 3-year-old company's name was 
                                taken from Teodosio's thesis, which 
                                posited that "you take the salient
features 
                                from each frame" to create a more 
                                cohesive image.

                                Newspapers were Salient's first target 
                                audience. Teodosio's product was born 
                                under the aegis of a group called "news 
                                and the future," MIT techies seeking
novel 
                                avenues to interact with news 
                                information.

                                Though USA Today and the New York 
                                Times snapped up a Salient system that 
                                enhanced the translation of video images 
                                to still photos, others were
uncomfortable 
                                because the process involves combining 
                                pixels--tiny dots that make up any image 
                                on film or videotape--from several 
                                sequential frames. The word "composite" 
                                strikes fear in the souls of media
purists.

                                But Salient CEO Hill, a 52-year-old 
                                former book publisher, persevered,
noting 
                                that "every camera is moving, even if it
is 
                                affixed to a tripod." His firm's 
                                technology--in use on a trial basis at
the 
                                Los Angeles Times--captures common 
                                information from consecutive frames and 
                                "basically cleans up the dust," he said.

                                From news environments Salient made an 
                                unexpected transition into the world of 
                                security, Hill said. Every day, he said, 
                                most Americans unknowingly are 
                                videotaped a dozen times or more. Video 
                                cameras whir at banks, rental car 
                                agencies, convenience stores and, of 
                                course, airports.

                                But many mothers would not recognize 
                                their own children from the soupy images 
                                that result. The video cameras function 
                                mainly as deterrents, Hill said.

                                Late in June, however, the video system 
                                in a Boston pharmacy recorded a 
                                prescription drug theft. The incident,
one 
                                in a series of synthetic opiate
robberies 
                                that have plagued the area in recent 
                                months, received wide attention. Hill 
                                contacted the Boston police and offered 
                                to help refine the blurry images of the
man 
                                seen stealing OxyContin, a powerful 
                                painkiller.

                                A spokesman for Police Commissioner 
                                Paul Evans confirmed that the department 
                                is using the Salient technology. Hill
said 
                                his company also has sold the process to 
                                the Singapore defense force, and to the 
                                Carabinieri, Italy's paramilitary
national 
                                police force.

                                Boston FBI spokeswoman Gail 
                                Marcinkiewicz would not comment about 
                                whether the Salient technology is in use
at 
                                headquarters here.

                                But at Salient--a "little private
company" 
                                valued at $12 million to $15
million--Hill 
                                said the decision to help what he 
                                playfully called "an unnamed federal 
                                agency" stemmed from President Bush's 
                                entreaty to all Americans to aid in the 
                                investigation of the attacks. That plea, 
                                Hill said, may have had special 
                                resonance in Boston, where terrorists 
                                boarded the two planes that crashed into 
                                the twin towers.

                                "I definitely think we're feeling real
guilt 
                                here," he said. "We let them through.
They 
                                were hanging around here. They figured
it 
                                was easy pickings here, and they were 
                                right."

                                The Portland airport security video is 
                                almost incidental to the investigation
at 
                                this point, Hill said. Both terrorists
are 
                                dead.

                                "But they have a lot of different images
of 
                                a lot of different things. There's a lot 
                                going on. I can say this: The federal 
                                agency is devoting an enormous amount of 
                                resources to this process."