Help needed - figure out the number on a motorbike in a very grainy video

[natali1211]

My friend was attacked the other night and by coincidence there was a securty camera on the scene, and I need help to figure out the number on the motorbike of the guys who attacked him but the image is very grainy ... does any one know a Computer software that can help me to clear out the image or something?

Thanks in advance.
Natali

[TreeTops]

Don't your local police have that capability? We see it every day on TV. Blurry photo sharpened to razor sharp image. Just kidding but you know the drill. If there isn't enough data present it can't be fixed. Suggest you upload photo somewhere so the experts here can have a go at it. But then your evidence may be compromised. Or if wrong person is arrested because of your sharpened photo you may have a lawsuit to contend with.

[hech54]

Or if wrong person is arrested because of your sharpened photo you may have a lawsuit to contend with.

What a HUGE load of CRAP that is.

[nic2k4]

Try SmartDeblur, you'll have to capture a frame from the video first.

[LDinOR]

SmartDeblur may work or you could download paint.net for free and layer the screen cap, that may make it easier to read.

[Bjs]

"the image"

If your talking anything other than original video footage being made available for enhancement then your pushing the legal boundaries.

[DB83]

I have read several similar topics on here and the answer is always the same.

If there is a crime then it should be dealt by the proper authorities. Just make the police aware of the footage. It is not for you to provide a licence-plate unless you actually witnessed the incident and not by some third-party source.

[hech54]

Once again....more RIDICULOUS information.
Photography and Videography in a public place is NOT ILLEGAL. Magazines, newspapers, TV news Photobucket, Facebook etc etc etc(all over the world) are chocked FULL of vehicle license plates and people's faces. There is no expectation of privacy in a public place.....and that even goes for on-duty police.....they can be filmed and photographed as well.
Of course the OP is not going to make an arrest because he/she is not a cop. Obtaining a video or photo and handing it over to the police to investigate IS NOT A CRIME in any way, shape or form.

[AlanHK]

Obtaining a video or photo and handing it over to the police to investigate IS NOT A CRIME in any way, shape or form.

But if they've taken the video and enhanced it themselves, it's useless as evidence. The cops could only use it as a lead.

Cops should be able to do all this better than some random people on a web forum, and then be able to introduce it as evidence if it came to that.

[mikk]

Cops should be able to do all this better than some random people on a web forum, and then be able to introduce it as evidence if it came to that.

Unfortunately they aren't. Believe it or not, cops are not the best video experts in the world.


Try SmartDeblur as someone said above.

If you can find some software to that uses temporal information, not just freeze frames, you will get an even better result.

[AlanHK]

Cops should be able to do all this better than some random people on a web forum, and then be able to introduce it as evidence if it came to that.

Unfortunately they aren't. Believe it or not, cops are not the best video experts in the world.
Try SmartDeblur as someone said above.
If you can find some software to that uses temporal information, not just freeze frames, you will get an even better result.

It's not about how good your video skillz are. It's about the chain of evidence.

Playing CSI on your PC does nothing to catch or convict anyone.
If the cops aren't interested in the raw video, they will be even less interested in your SmartDeblur images.

[Cornucopia]

If you are good at forensic restoration (one of my specialties), the COPS get the evidence themselves and come to you. You then have clear chain-of-evidence.
They come in sealed containers that you have to open and process, IN THEIR PRESENCE. Then you document your steps & reasoning for those steps and supply that and your finished work, along with the original, to be placed in a new container to be sealed.
Then, if your work is clearly damning, they convict. If it isn't clear and obvious enough, you may be asked to appear as an expert witness in court (I have been twice, with successful results).

If this security cam video has already been supplied by the sec. company/site to the authorities, that's about all YOU can do. Maybe you could suggest good providers of forensic services, if they don't already have a list of available nearby possibilities. Doing stuff over the web won't work, because of that chain-of-evidence thing, so it's going to have to be local to you (in Isreal?). Maybe you could also get a sample to show "what could be done", if the authorities aren't leaning toward trying very hard. Then, you would have to have "legal standing/basis" in order to actually be allowed to have a copy. Do you? If your friend (the victim) wanted to pursue this, they could ask for a copy (they obviously have basis). Any results would really be "see, maybe it's worth it to seek the services of a forensic media restoration specialist". And then leave the ball in their court again...

AFA the clip, if it is a video but the cycle in still/parked, you could try frame averaging to both remove noise/grain and boost exposure. Then unsharp masking & constrast adjustments, edge/outline detection/enhancement. This all very much depends on what the source is like. If its good, it can be made "very good". If fair, you might be able to make it "good". If poor, you'd be lucky to make it "fair". If it's crap, no matter what you can try, it could only barely be able to be "poor". There is no such thing as going from 0 to 10, just small increments.

Scott