{"id":9352,"date":"2021-06-30T13:04:07","date_gmt":"2021-06-30T16:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/?p=9352"},"modified":"2021-07-01T22:46:44","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T01:46:44","slug":"taking-the-visual-assessment-during-forensic-work-to-the-next-level-with-eye-level-aerial-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/30\/taking-the-visual-assessment-during-forensic-work-to-the-next-level-with-eye-level-aerial-video\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking visual assessment during forensic work to the next level, with eye-level, &#8220;aerial&#8221; video"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The penny dropped recently when I realized I can get eye-level &#8220;aerial&#8221; video during one of the most important tasks in a forensic investigation.  I can then examine the data at my leisure and easily share it with others.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m talking about<span class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\"> taking video<\/span> during the visual examination at the site of a failure or accident.  This examination is one of the first tasks we do during a forensic investigation, and it often points to the cause of a failure or accident: (Refs 1 to 4) <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Get briefed by the client on the failure or accident<\/li><li>Read the existing documents<\/li><li><span class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\">Walk and visually examine the site<\/span><\/li><li>Next &#8230;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>We take video in the same way that a snow boarder catches &#8216;huge&#8217; air off a jump and captures it with a camera mounted on his helmet &#8211; like my 13 year old grandson, Jonah, in Maine.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I did this a few days ago during a test with a GoPro camera mounted on my helmet and got the following data to analyse later and share with my &#8216;client&#8217;:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>A video of exactly what I was looking at on the building site and the terrain beyond, and the ability to take off stills or frames split seconds apart<\/li><li>Dictated comment on what was important in the scene as recorded by the GoPro camera &#8211; for example, the cracks in a brick wall, erosion of a bridge abutment, the height of flood waters, flora discoloration at a contaminated site,  stair construction at a slip and fall, etc.<\/li><li>Dictated surface measurements of important features in the scene &#8211; for example, the size and configuration of cracks in a wall, the width of a stair tread and height of the riser, etc.<\/li><li>The compass direction of where I was looking<\/li><li>My location along the walk<\/li><li>My height relative to where I started<\/li><li>My elevation above sea level<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>All this data from simply walking across the site and recording on video exactly what I was looking at &#8211; rather than in memory or notes in a field book; the old way.  The data is displayed on the video screen courtesy of the GoPro app that is free with the camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During my GoPro test I could have visually examined the inside of the building and got a wealth of data there as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a similar way, in a recent forensic investigation I mounted a GoPro camera on the dash of my car and drove along a road during a safety assessment.  I simulated what a car driver would experience and captured it on video for study, analysis and sharing later.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also on that occasion, I took aerial video from a GoPro camera mounted on a drone in addition to the eye-level &#8216;aerial&#8217; video from the camera on the dash.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>***<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was the success of the road safety assessment and simulation that got me thinking,  <span class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\">&#8220;Why not eye-level, ground zero video of all failure and accident sites during the initial visual examination?&#8221;<\/span>.  That&#8217;s what I will do now.  Then give a DVD of the video to all interested parties to see &#8211; rather than tell them what I remember based on notes in my field book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li><em>A Bundle of Blogs: On using visual site assessment in forensic investigation.<\/em>  Posted January 25, 2021<\/li><li><em>Can you &#8220;calibrate&#8221; a forensic expert?<\/em>  Posted  June 23, 2020<\/li><li><em>What can you get from <span class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\">a virtual visual site assessment<\/span> about the cause of a leaning retaining wall?<\/em>  Posted November 13, 2020<\/li><li><em>&#8220;Technical&#8221; visual site assessments: Valuable, low cost, forensic engineering method. <\/em> Posted September 4, 2012<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Appendix<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The test described in this blog was organized by Robert Guertin, Millenium Film and Video Productions Ltd, Dartmouth, N.S., Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>(Posted by Eric E. Jorden, M.Sc., P.Eng. Consulting Professional Engineer, Forensic Engineer, Geotechnology Ltd., Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada June 30, 2021 <strong><span class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\">ejorden@eastlink.ca<\/span><\/strong>)&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The penny dropped recently when I realized I can get eye-level &#8220;aerial&#8221; video during one of the most important tasks in a forensic investigation. I can then examine the data at my leisure and easily share it with others. I&#8217;m &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/30\/taking-the-visual-assessment-during-forensic-work-to-the-next-level-with-eye-level-aerial-video\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9352"}],"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=9352"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9398,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9352\/revisions\/9398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}