PAID JOB - Reading a number plate out of 1080p CCTV footage

[alberico]

Hello fellas, I'm new to this forum and I'll be bold enough to request for help, and it doesn't have to be free.

I have a CCTV footage of a car hitting me and running. Local police couldn't find the guy but I have found a CCTV footage from a nearby building. It shows the action clear enough but not enough to see the number plate. I've tried some software with no luck. If you are willing to find this guy and help me bring him to justice, I'm ready to pay. Don't expect a big sum of course, but we can negotiate.

Video can be downloaded from this link (please let me know if the link expires):

CCTV FOOTAGE

Thanks in advance.

[themaster1]

I just took a quick look at it, i don't think there is much luck, details aren't clear enough on the plate but somebody prove me wrong

[johnmeyer]

It is close enough to being readable that someone with the right software might be able to make something out of it.

[alberico]

It is close enough to being readable that someone with the right software might be able to make something out of it.

I agree. That's why I still keep my fingers crossed.

I'll provide the number plate format, maybe that would help.

Example:

[Attachment 45732 - Click to enlarge]

First to numbers are most likely 35. What are the following two letters and three digits.

[poisondeathray]

Very unlikely, given the framing of the shot and distance to the plate

But you might have a marginally better chance with the original footage (the one you uploaded had been re-encoded by handbrake)

But it's good to see you weren't hurt too badly and got up right away

[lordsmurf]

I'm always amused by these "I'll pay you to be a CSI" posts.

A- It's probably not possible.
B- Even if it was, you likely couldn't afford it, either as DIY or to pay somebody with the right tools/training. The software used for forensic work is rented at about $20k per seat last I saw. It takes tons of training, and you'll be paying out lawyer-like fees ($$$$). Something like this.
C- Finally, most law enforcement won't act on the work of an amateur/homebrew detective, nor groupthink of internet sites. They'll need to verify on their end, as they should, and that can be a problem. You'll need an accredited lab to process.

Also, I like Avisynth, very useful tool, but their isn't what it excels at.

[johnmeyer]

The plate in that Ikena demo has infinitely more information they your motorcylce murderer. It is almost readable even without their enhancements.

However my reason for posting about it is that their results are actually not impressive at all. A simple convolution kernel can do better, and you can do that in pretty much any NLE, or AVISynth.

I did try to use FocusMagic (they have a free demo). It claims to be able to recover license plate numbers. However, I was unable to get even one number/letter from the plate in that video. I then tried a simple convolution sharpening demo, and was almost able to guess one of the numbers. That's why I said that it might be possible.

However, I don't think you'll be able to retrieve enough of the plate to be useful.

[pandy]

Perhaps silver car following perpetrator was equipped with dashcam ? I mean police should do the job... and IMHO you should have gun... someone tried to kill you (it looks to me like intentional situation - perhaps he/she doesn't like bikers).

[LMotlow]

It would undoubtedly help if we had an unaltered or lossless version of the original. A lossy re-encode is going to look like crap anyway. Why are you guys wasting time with it?

[alberico]

I'm always amused by these "I'll pay you to be a CSI" posts.

A- It's probably not possible.
B- Even if it was, you likely couldn't afford it, either as DIY or to pay somebody with the right tools/training. The software used for forensic work is rented at about $20k per seat last I saw. It takes tons of training, and you'll be paying out lawyer-like fees ($$$$). Something like this.
C- Finally, most law enforcement won't act on the work of an amateur/homebrew detective, nor groupthink of internet sites. They'll need to verify on their end, as they should, and that can be a problem. You'll need an accredited lab to process.

Also, I like Avisynth, very useful tool, but their isn't what it excels at.

And I'm not amused at all by someone telling me it was a pathetic effort trying to do what needs to be done with my own reach and possibilities. I'm now living with 2 titanium screws in my left foot ankle and couldn't walk for the past full month. It's always easy to judge people by their actions from a distance. I'm not a homebrew detective. I'm just a friggin' victim to a senseless piece-of-shit driver.

I'm also a university teacher and my profession is post-production. I posted this here because I was never familiar with "restoring" videos. My thing is shooting good and editing good, delivering/conveying a story good.

So all in all, Mr. Lordsmurf, I hope I could make my point.

I saw cracked versions of forensic level restoring tools such as Amped 5 on internet, and with some luck, I hoped someone here was remotely/amateurly interested in them and for their time and effort I simply offered some money. It was never an "I'll pay you to be a CSI" post.

But still, thank you for any contribution for my case.

[alberico]

Very unlikely, given the framing of the shot and distance to the plate

But you might have a marginally better chance with the original footage (the one you uploaded had been re-encoded by handbrake)

But it's good to see you weren't hurt too badly and got up right away

Thanks mate, I had 3 bones broken in my left foot and it required a surgery, fixing the bones with 2 screws. But yeah, I could have been far worse.

As for the video, the CCTV footage was originally AVI. Now I'll split that AVI losslessly and reupload.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[alberico]

Perhaps silver car following perpetrator was equipped with dashcam ? I mean police should do the job... and IMHO you should have gun... someone tried to kill you (it looks to me like intentional situation - perhaps he/she doesn't like bikers).

That silver car didn't have a dashcam installed and they simply panicked when they saw the whole thing, and couldn't take the number plate. They were my students from the university.

[pandy]

Perhaps silver car following perpetrator was equipped with dashcam ? I mean police should do the job... and IMHO you should have gun... someone tried to kill you (it looks to me like intentional situation - perhaps he/she doesn't like bikers).

That silver car didn't have a dashcam installed and they simply panicked when they saw the whole thing, and couldn't take the number plate. They were my students from the university.

I must say that i'm disappointed with police attitude - not sure where this happen however nowadays we are under very strict supervision of various CCTV systems and it is hard to believe that perpetrator was able to avoid at least being charged and taken in custody... almost 2 months from know there is very low chance that they have recording from CCTV (for example city road monitoring) - all this leading me to conclusion that we can't really rely on police...

[KarMa]

It would undoubtedly help if we had an unaltered or lossless version of the original. A lossy re-encode is going to look like crap anyway. Why are you guys wasting time with it?

It's always best to have the original but considering this copy was made with a CRF of 10, decent x264 settings, on a mostly stagnant video. The original source is not make or break this case.

"A lossy re-encode is going to look like crap anyway."

As with most things in video, it depends. Keep in mind that Hollywood films are often mastered with lossy intermediaries.


@OP
That video was pretty ridiculous. As an occasional biker myself that video is a nightmare. As for figuring out the license plate number, I don't honestly see it happening. My first post on this forum in 2015 was to someone asking about a plate number in their video, which I and others could not figure out. And I have seen dozens of similar posts since then, with only a few being "enhanced" enough to maybe be legible. A general rule is that the video of the plate needs to be partially legible as is, only then can there be a small hope of improving things. Which yours is sadly not. Best you can do is figure out the make and model, and look around the area for one with scratches down the passenger side.

[lordsmurf]

The plate in that Ikena demo has infinitely more information they your motorcylce murderer. It is almost readable even without their enhancements.

Yes, that is a terrible demo. But what I said is still accurate, and that is one of the software used.

And I'm not amused at all by someone telling me it was a pathetic effort trying to do what needs to be done with my own reach and possibilities.

Shows like CSI have given people/society false hope, and a dose of reality is needed. I've always been against myth, and about fact, and always will be. Sometimes that requires being the bearer of bad news.

I'm now living with 2 titanium screws in my left foot ankle and couldn't walk for the past full month. It's always easy to judge people by their actions from a distance. I'm not a homebrew detective. I'm just a friggin' victim to a senseless piece-of-shit driver.

That is terrible.

I'm also a university teacher and my profession is post-production. I posted this here because I was never familiar with "restoring" videos.

Forensic recovery isn't restoration. Forensics includes both recovering deleted data and reconstructing still images for identifying information. The software and skill set is completely different. Restoration is primary about making something more enjoyable to watch by removing errors. Forensic recovery is about detail, and watchability and artifacts byproducts/errors be damned.

I must say that i'm disappointed with police attitude

In the 2000s, this happened to us twice, in two completely different locations: No video, but clear fingerprints were left behind. Each time, the LEOs touched the fingerprints with bare hands, said something like "nah, we can't do nothing with that", and would add "this isn't CSI". F'ing fingerprints! So you're thinking, fine, I'll lift the myself. They teach that to Boy Scouts, of all things. It's not rocket science. But as I said earlier, if they don't collect it, it didn't happen.

This is just harsh realities of evidence, and lack of LEO skill/assistance. This is just the friendlier side of the same sort of complaints that led to Black Lives Matter. Not doing their job, not giving a shit. This doesn't happen everywhere, of course, nor probably with a majority of LEOs. But it does happen far too often nonethereless.

[aedipuss]

the untouched original might help. but to me it kind of looks like someone intentionally edited the video to obscure the windows and parts of the car, so i don't know what the game is.


[Attachment 45738 - Click to enlarge]

[alberico]

the untouched original might help. but to me it kind of looks like someone intentionally edited the video to obscure the windows and parts of the car, so i don't know what the game is.


[Attachment 45738 - Click to enlarge]

I directly took the footage from a CCTV system myself. No preliminary editing was made. By the way I'm trying to take the 10 seconds out of a 9 minute AVI file. So if anyone knows how to do this losslessly, it's appreciated.

[Budman1]

You might try https://www.videohelp.com/software/LosslessCut downloadable from this site.

[alberico]

Here is the untouched AVI piece.

[DB83]

Has has been said, there has been a multitude of similar posts in the past.

Unfortunately, the answer is the same. As is that 'untouched' clip actually so ?. I thought that CCTV was a bespoke format not AVC in a avi container.

But what puzzles me - it could be just a coincidence - is that silver car one sees passing just before you took that hit. There appears to be an identical vehicle right behind and that also appears to be going for you. But to see two such vehicles so close (unless I got this wrong) is boggling.

[Cornucopia]

Things that could be tried on this:
Optical flow-based "anti-vibration" motion compensation stabilization
Cropping to only the plate area
Followed by B-spline type resize,
Then, frame averaging of the sequence
And finally, some form of edge-sharpening/local contrast enhancement.

Then, you could apply a %-age recognition probability compared to a high-rez ground truth for each of the 676000 permutations (assuming you already know those 1st 2 numbers, and the label format is reliable). Then, if there is a clear standout in terms of high % similarity, you can have some confidence that you have a candidate.

But that is an AWFUL LOT of work to do, considering you have such a low rez source to begin with (looks to be 60x10 pixels or something for the whole plate area), and we seem to be working with at least one but maybe 2 or 3 generations of lossy encoding.

Reality can be almost as cruel as the original injustice.

Scott

[KarMa]

I thought that CCTV was a bespoke format not AVC in a avi container.

Digital CCTV can pretty much be anything between venders. Sometimes they create videos that can be decoded by official H.264/H.263/MJPEG decoders, and other times they create their own bespoke stream that can only be decoded by the venders decoder that's unique to that camera. These bespoke video streams are usually just H.264/H.263 but slightly altered in order to avoid paying patent pools their license fee.

the untouched original might help. but to me it kind of looks like someone intentionally edited the video to obscure the windows and parts of the car, so i don't know what the game is.

Someone edited in a tree?

[alberico]

Has has been said, there has been a multitude of similar posts in the past.

Unfortunately, the answer is the same. As is that 'untouched' clip actually so ?. I thought that CCTV was a bespoke format not AVC in a avi container.

But what puzzles me - it could be just a coincidence - is that silver car one sees passing just before you took that hit. There appears to be an identical vehicle right behind and that also appears to be going for you. But to see two such vehicles so close (unless I got this wrong) is boggling.

Hi. By "untouched", I meant that the video is unedited and straight out of the CCTV recording hardware.

And about the cars, first one passing just before I got hit was an Opel Astra Sedan, the one hitting me appears to be a Hyundai Elantra (2004), and the silver car stops by is a Ford Focus Sedan. And no, the Ford wasn't coming for me -in that sense-. When they saw the move and I took hit, they stopped to help. Asked me if there was anything they could do. And coincidentally the guy in the silver car was a student at the university I'm teaching. So they are not related.

By the way, today while I was checking cars for sale online, in my region, I saw a listing that matches the car hitting me. What do you think?


[Attachment 45749 - Click to enlarge]

[KarMa]

Certainly looks like the same model, but if it's the same car is another thing. Be curious if there is damage to the right side.

[pandy]

By the way, today while I was checking cars for sale online, in my region, I saw a listing that matches the car hitting me. What do you think?

I think this is job that should be done by police not by you - for sure there is limited number of repair garages to check, dark cars particular size and type in area, if there are some suspicious micro traces like paint on some sharp parts of your bike they should be protected by police as a prove (paint analysis is not difficult task and automatically lead to car type)- i mean this is not CSI but rather standard procedure and IMHO someone accepted that you can even die in this collision so in my opinion police should behave professionally - this was not unintentional manoeuvre as it is obvious from movie that car hit pavement with wheel rim and there is no sane driver that doing such exaggerated manoeuvre to hit pavement as this will lead to at least partially damaged tyre, wheel rim and perhaps car suspension.
It looks to me like police simply ignored your case and you was not sufficient pain in their asses to force them to behave more professionally.
Perhaps you should consider to search for witnesses - perhaps YT/FB, traditional leaflet with printed photo of collision with car, short description - go for are, place this behind every car wiper etc - perhaps someone saw this and can help. Perhaps some shop has CCTV.
I mean all this should be done by police so shame on police... it is really sad as it looks everywhere same... i had a bit of hope that there are some places where police is professional and helpful... sadly i must now i have no such hope and it is obvious to me that if you going out of home then you need to prepared like for some small war.

[alberico]

Things that could be tried on this:
Optical flow-based "anti-vibration" motion compensation stabilization
Cropping to only the plate area
Followed by B-spline type resize,
Then, frame averaging of the sequence
And finally, some form of edge-sharpening/local contrast enhancement.

Then, you could apply a %-age recognition probability compared to a high-rez ground truth for each of the 676000 permutations (assuming you already know those 1st 2 numbers, and the label format is reliable). Then, if there is a clear standout in terms of high % similarity, you can have some confidence that you have a candidate.

Scott

I'm afraid I might be underqualified to handle such technicality. But I'll try something out. Thanks a bunch bud.

[DB83]

Thanks for correcting me about the cars - I just saw a color and a similar frontage.

But it just strikes me that your pupil was so close to the incident and did not get a clear view of the licence plate.

[alberico]

Thanks for correcting me about the cars - I just saw a color and a similar frontage.

But it just strikes me that your pupil was so close to the incident and did not get a clear view of the licence plate.

I did actually take the license plate number right after I tumbled, but when the police checked what I told them, the number was registered to an entirely different vehicle (a white 2017 Audi). So I guess with the impact, I unintentionally took another license plate around the area, getting furher away from me.

[lingyi]

Does anyone else think that the car deliberately swerved and hit the OP? I can't see anything in the road that the car was trying to avoid.

If the car did intend to hit the OP, I would think the police would take it much more seriously, possibly attempted murder.

[JVRaines]

At the least, assault with a deadly weapon. If this was entirely unprovoked then it is frightening to think that a random murderer is still out there motoring around. On the other hand, some kind of altercation usually precedes such an attack.