AutoMeasure™
(The Cognitech AutoMeasure software is sold as part of the Cognitech Tri-Suite software package, and is not sold separately.)
Advantages of Forensic Stereo-Photogrammetry with Cognitech® AutoMeasure™:
Cognitech® PhD scientists have pioneered the court certified use of forensic mathematical photogrammetric tools in the United States and international courts of law since 1992.
The revolutionary algorithms of the Cognitech® AutoMeasure™ software have been developed by a team of Cognitech® PhD Scientists. This Cognitech® technology received recognition and is in use today by the most respected United States government photogrammetry-oriented organization: the National Geospatial Agency, who is using it for the highly accurate Geo-Measurements.
While using the Cognitech® AutoMeasure™ software, the individuals and the vehicles captured on the evidence video/photo can be photo-metrically identified or ruled out even if the original surveillance cameras were moved or removed (not possible with outdated Reprojection Method).
Accurate measurements from the crime scene can be performed by the technician at any time by using stored scene images and the camera calibration parameters (even if the scene does not physically exist anymore). During the scene investigation, it is impossible to predict all of the required linear and areal measurements.
The Cognitech® AutoMeasure™ software can do photogrammetry without ANY manual measurements, using only a computerized use of stereo-point correspondences between scene images. There is no need for the measuring
tape and the time consuming manual measurements.
The Cognitech® AutoMeasure™ software accurately computes any linear dimensions in the image/frame, human height, shoe size, length/height of the vehicle, the angles between any lines and surfaces (trajectories). The software additionally computes user-selected spot areas, camera location/angle and more.
The Cognitech® AutoMeasure™ software is the only photogrammetric software naturally integrated with Cognitech Video Investigator™ and VideoActive™ video/image enhancement and analysis tools, the most advanced software in the world.
| Calibration Patterns are captured and automatically recognized. Cameras are Automatically calibrated and Optical Distortions are Accurately Corrected |
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Camera Calibration and Distortion parameters are tabulated to be used to remove optical distortions (e.g. barrel and pincushion distortions) in any captured scene images |
| Using the estimated Camera Distortion parameters, the software automatically removes the optical geometrical distortions on all scene images. These distortions, if uncorrected, are harmful to measuring accuracy. Compare how the ‘barrel’ distortion is resolved along the red line ’spherical bend’ |
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| Project Steps Manager: First Intelligent Measurement Project Assistant and Tasks Tracker. The Steps Manager directs the user through and keeps a count of all the necessary steps to perform distortion corrections, cameras calibration, and the measurement steps. |
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The First Intelligent Contextual Help Automatic Measurements Manual Assistant, adapts to the Steps Manager current state. The Contextual Help Assistant gives the user detailed graphical instructions on how to perform each technical task scheduled by the Steps Manager. The revolutionary combination of the Steps Manager and the Contextual Help significantly reduces end-user training time, and drastically eliminates end-user errors. The entire Cognitech® AutoMeasure™ operation can be trained in just one concentrated training. |
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The Point Selection and Measurement Assist Tools: variety of ergonomic user interfaces and visualization tools to help with accurate data inputs |
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The Virtual Magnifying Glass is provided to assist with sub-pixel accurate points and features selection. It results in the measurements accuracy increase |
| Accurate Photogrammetric (Crime) Scene Linear Measurements: Images of the Scene are collected and selectively Feature Stereo-Matched using Measurement Tools. Afterward, the distances between any pairs of points on the ‘calibrated planes’ can be accurately auto-measured. This revolutionary technique allows the end-user to measure the height of a person in the ‘Evidence’ image even if the floor has no visible markings (as is common with the low resolution video recordings). |
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| Accurate Photogrammetric Height measurement with Virtual Ruler: (Crime) Scene Images are collected during the ‘investigation’ stage. The ‘Evidence’ image/video-frame is Stereo-Matched to the Scene Images. The original ‘Evidence’ camera may be missing or moved and is not required at all. The ‘Suspect’ Height and other Linear measurements are accurately performed with the Virtual RulerTM . The higher the resolution of the ‘Evidence’ image is, then the Height measurement will be more accurate. Since there is no need for the original undisturbed evidence camera during investigation stage, this method of Photogrammetric Height measurement is far superior to the much less accurate, much less practical, and often impossible to perform (if cameras moved or removed), the scientifically outdated method of ‘Reprojection/Superimposition.’ |
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The Measurement Table is saved with all of the measured points and their accurate 3-D position coordinates. The distances between ‘interesting’ pairs of points are computed and saved in the table. The Revolutionary Cognitech® Automatic Projective Error Estimation is performed to assist in eliminating data input (points selection) errors. |
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The first accurate Photogrammetric Measurement of Areas Tool: User selected Areas inside user-outlined curves, on the stereo- calibrated planes, are measured. Possible Forensic application: Blood Splatter and Stains quantitative photo analysis. |
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Given the sufficient captured photogrametrically with AutoMeasure™. |
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Putting it all together: any Linear
Distances, Angles between chosen
lines, Plane-to-Point Distances,
Camera-Location in the Evidence
Image, selected ’spots’ Area
measurements are available to be
computed by the Stereo-
Photogrammetric analysis of the
Evidence image/video-frame vs.
Scene Images. The AutoMeasure™
Photogrammetric tools allow for a
virtually unlimited combination of
required geometrical calculations to be performed from the Evidence
images and video frames.
Several Scientific Peer-reviewed references for
Cognitech® AutoMeasure™ methods:
The 1st in scientific literature peer-reviewed revolutionary publication on
the use of photogrammetric methods for forensic image/video
applications:
C. Jensen and L. Rudin, Measure: An interactive Tool for Accurate
Forensic Photo/Videogrammetry
SPIE Vol. 2567, Investigative Image Processing, editors: S. Bramble, et.
al. pp.73-83, San Diego, 1995
L. Rudin, P. Monasse, and P. Yu, Epipolar Photogrammetry: A Novel
Method for Forensic Image Comparison and Measurement, Proc. of
IEEE Int. Conf. on Image Processing, Genoa, Italy, pp. 385-388, 2005.
Lenny Rudin, Pascal Monasse, Ping Yu, Fast and Photogrammetric
Accurate3-D Crime Scene Reconstruction, American Academy of
Forensic Sciences, 59th Annual Meeting Forensic Image and Video
Processing Workshop, 2007
L. Rudin, et. al US Patents Pending, 2006, 2007
Minimal system requirements
CPU: Pentium III or above
Memory: 512 MB RAM (1 GB Recommended)
Hard Drive: 100MB freespace for installation
OS: Windows XP (SP2 Recommended)
Additional Software: Adobe Acrobat Reader 5 or above
Ports: One USB port available (for authorization dongle key)
Drive: One CD ROM or DVD-ROM
