Image Handling, Processing, and Enhancement

Once potential image evidence has been identified and acquired through the SIE Discovery™ Image Search and Acquisition process, the Satellite Image Evidence (SIE) Group offers a complete capability to handle and prepare the raw image data as effective evidence for court.

Image Handling Protocols

The uniqueness in the handling and processing of imagery for the legal market arises from admissibility considerations at trial. To ensure the admissibility of image evidence in court, the SIE Group has established strict handling and documentation protocols to serve our legal clients. These protocols are designed to document chain of custody, ensure standardization in handling, and allow for repeatable results by opposing counsel's or independent experts. Such standardization and validation leads to the ability of the court to authenticate the image evidence, and thus ensure its credibility and acceptance under the Federal Rules of Evidence and state tests for admissibility.

Image Processing and Enhancement Services

SIE Group Analysts are experts in the processing and enhancement techniques necessary to prepare satellite and aerial image evidence for successful analysis and presentation in court. It is sometimes necessary to "mosaic" two or more raw images together to cover a site or area of interest. If an image is going to be used in court as the basis for measurements of distances or areas, or going to combined with other geographic information, it needs to be geometrically corrected to be spatially accurate and without distortion (like a map). In the preparation of "before" and "after" photo exhibits, it is necessary to correct one image to the other image geometrically so they register or "match up." It is also recommended that the images be color corrected - using techniques like atmospheric correction algorithms or histogram matching - to match one another so as to show the actual changes of interest more readily.

In addition to basic image processing, using widely accepted science-based image enhancement techniques can often serve to better highlight certain image features to increase the imagery's impact in court, without compromising its admissibility. Such image enhancement techniques include contrast stretching, color correction, image sharpening and magnification, and various feature enhancements including those developed for urban sites, water areas, and vegetation. The difference between a "raw" image and one effectively processed and/or enhanced by a skilled analyst can mean everything in its ability to communicate information visually and have the desired impact on a jury, judge, or arbitrator.

SIE Group image processing and enhancement services include:

• Image mosaicing and subsetting

• Geometric correction and registration

• Color correction and balancing

• Contrast stretching and color enhancement

• Image sharpening and magnification

• Urban feature/textural enhancements

• Water feature enhancements

• Vegetation enhancements

• Bare soil or rock/mineral enhancements

All image processing and enhancement steps are routinely documented in a system log. A system log file can be presented in discovery and in court to document these steps, making the end result repeatable by the opposing counsel's or independent experts. Such documentation ensures the image evidence's admissibility by making results verifiable and able to be authenticated.