{"id":2442,"date":"2014-01-15T22:44:17","date_gmt":"2014-01-15T22:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/?p=2442"},"modified":"2014-05-09T21:32:37","modified_gmt":"2014-05-09T21:32:37","slug":"a-pictures-worth-a-1000-words-possibly-many-1000s-in-forensic-engineering-with-a-new-aerial-photographic-technique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/15\/a-pictures-worth-a-1000-words-possibly-many-1000s-in-forensic-engineering-with-a-new-aerial-photographic-technique\/","title":{"rendered":"A picture’s worth a 1000 words, possibly many 1000s in forensic engineering with a new aerial photographic technique"},"content":{"rendered":"

New way of taking forensic photographs\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n

We know in forensic engineering that a good picture is worth a lot.\u00a0 For that reason we take\u00a0many photographs and videos\u00a0during our investigations.\u00a0 And we’re alert to new ways of taking pictures of a failure or accident site.<\/p>\n

(See interesting pictures below, if you wish to jump ahead in this short item, but come back and read the posting).<\/p>\n

We also\u00a0study\u00a0existing aerial photographs\u00a0when the\u00a0ground in the vicinity of a failure or accident might figure in the cause.\u00a0 It’s called ‘terrain analysis’ in engineering and it’s very useful.\u00a0 We look at the topographic maps made from these photographs as well.<\/p>\n

But aerial and satellite photographs are taken\u00a0from 1000s of feet in the air and detail is lacking for the smaller, more compact sites typical of most failures\u00a0and accidents.\u00a0 This is also pretty well the case when you hire a small plane or helicopter\u00a0and take photographs from\u00a0the air.\u00a0 You can get pictures from a lower altitude this way\u00a0but there are restrictions on how low a plane can fly over a built-up area.<\/p>\n

I’ve attempted to overcome this by taking photographs from the bucket of a boom\u00a0truck hired for the purpose.\u00a0 For example, I did this during my investigation of the John Morris Rankin fatal car\u00a0accident.\u00a0 I’ve also taken photographs of sites from the upper floors\u00a0and roofs of nearby buildings and from the buckets of backhoes and excavators raised – with me in it, for the purpose.\u00a0 But these photographs are oblique rather than at times preferably vertical, and also quite low level.\u00a0 Pictures from a little greater altitude would be nice.<\/p>\n

Imagine my\u00a0interest\u00a0when I chanced to\u00a0meet a\u00a0chap last fall in a park who was flying and taking aerial photographs with a small helicopter about one and a half\u00a0to two feet in size.\u00a0 It was a model, multi-rotor helicopter,\u00a0a ‘quadcopter’ operated and flown remotely from the ground.\u00a0 A quadcopter has four rotors.\u00a0 These aircraft\u00a0also come with six or\u00a0eight rotors.\u00a0 The more rotors the greater the stability of the ‘copter.<\/p>\n

The quadcopter\u00a0was fitted with\u00a0two cameras for taking oblique and vertical photographs, 100, 200, and, I\u00a0understand, up to a 1000 feet above a site.\u00a0 Robert Guertin,\u00a0the operator, is a professional photographer perfecting this technique.\u00a0 He’s in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.<\/p>\n

One type of camera is the GoPro that is readily available in camera shops in Atlantic Canada.\u00a0 There are other cameras\u00a0that give\u00a0even higher quality photographs.<\/p>\n

A few days later, the grandson of\u00a0a friend – a retired forensic engineer,\u00a0got in touch to tell me about his hobby of taking pictures – from the air, from a hexcopter, a six rotor helicopter.\u00a0 Zack Keating works in film and television in Toronto.\u00a0 He’s also a photographer and presently in Dartmouth.<\/p>\n

Twice in a few days I’m introduced to a new technique for taking photographs during forensic investigations.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Chronicle Herald\u00a0also reported recently that the RCMP have bought five of the multi-rotor aircraft, “drones” as described in the press, for their surveillance work.\u00a0 These ‘copters cost in excess of $30,000 a piece and, I understand, require two people to operate remotely.\u00a0\u00a0Robert and\u00a0Zack\u00a0are flying\u00a0aircraft costing closer to\u00a0$2,000 to $3,000.<\/p>\n

I’ve examined several photographs taken by these chaps and I’m quite impressed by the detail and resolution.\u00a0 I\u00a0presently believe\u00a0the pictures from these less expensive\u00a0aircraft will be quite useful for forensic engineering investigations.\u00a0 I’m\u00a0carrying out field trials\u00a0with these multi-rotor helicopters\u00a0now and\u00a0will report later on what I learn.<\/p>\n

Figs 1 to 5 in the Appendix contain\u00a0aerial photographs by Robert.\u00a0 Figs 1\u00a0to 3 and Figs 4 and 5 are sequences of pictures progressing from distant shots to close-up views.\u00a0\u00a0I envisage\u00a0these types\u00a0of pictures being quite useful in forensic engineering investigations.\u00a0 Fig. 6 is a photograph by Zack of a\u00a0hexcopter in flight.<\/p>\n

Appendix<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"Oblique<\/a>

Fig. 1: Oblique aerial view of a duck pond\u00a0in a park in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Vertical<\/a>

Fig. 2: Vertical aerial view of an island in the duck pond.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Vertical<\/a>

Fig. 3: Vertical aerial close-up of a short portion of\u00a0 the shore line of the island in Fig. 2.\u00a0 This part of the shore line is about 2\/3 up from the\u00a0‘bottom’ end\u00a0of the island on the left shore.\u00a0 The boulders both\u00a0on-shore\u00a0and submerged are quite clear.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Oblique<\/a>

Fig. 4: Oblique aerial view of residential area in Eastern Canada.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Vertical<\/a>

Fig. 5: Near vertical aerial view of residential property in the residential area in Fig. 4.\u00a0 Note the operator on the deck controlling the hexcopter.\u00a0 Also the 2′ x 2′ square\u00a0landing pad on the deck.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\"Hexcopter<\/a><\/dt>\n
Fig 6: Hexcopter in low level flight<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New way of taking forensic photographs\u00a0 We know in forensic engineering that a good picture is worth a lot.\u00a0 For that reason we take\u00a0many photographs and videos\u00a0during our investigations.\u00a0 And we’re alert to new ways of taking pictures of a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2442"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2494,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442\/revisions\/2494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}