SOS: Any experts to recreate the image of a kid-abuductor suspect in video

[videohelplgxs]

Hi, All

I am here to seewhether there is any video guru can help out to recreate a suspect image from a blurry video.

The suspect, beingvideoed of luring a four-year old boy Sun Zuo off with toy right in front ofhis father’s store in 2007 by the monitoring camera of a nearby supermarket.

However, the video istoo blurry to identify the suspect (red-circled man in 1.02min in this video http://v.ku6.com/special/show_3918877/T0PYpkQmmBmCfFS_.html).

Too see the original video, please see the attachement.


This event isdevastating to the whole family. Sun Zuo’s father, closed his store and plungedin a endless search across China to look for his boy across China. Thedesperate and frustrated father is still on the road today, looking for his ownboy while helping out other like parents too.

I would be appreciatedif you can help out, or give us any tips.

Millions of thanks inadvance,

Lgxs

[lordsmurf]

The original video is required, not some crapped-up re-encoded online version. I'd have to know a lot more about the original surveillance system, and have access to the tapes or 1:1 digital files. Otherwise this is an exercise in futility.

Law enforcement should have the means to do this work already. Assistance from a hobby community is surely not necessary.

This isn't even a bad video. Ocean Systems dTective or MotionDSP Ikena should be able to process this without much effort. Any competent lab will have licensed seats for one or both of those. (Don't bother trying to find a warez copy of these -- not going to happen.)

Why does this video start out with a video game commercial?

[videohelplgxs]

Hi, lordsmurf-
So appreciated for your information! I am contacting the father to see whether he can send us the original video, and trying to get more info on why the police failed to do this job too.

And sorry to the commercial at the beginning of the video, it should be added by the the host website. Here is the clean video I find from Mr Sun's microblog dedicted to find his son:
http://www.weibo.com/1577597270/ymrJSikHV

This video comes from a TV report and isn't original too.

I will come back with more info soon.

Thanks
Lgxs

[Des]

The new link doesn't go anywhere.
Is it me, or does something about this not feel right?

--dES

[sanlyn]

The new link doesn't go anywhere.
Is it me, or does something about this not feel right?

--dES

Sure it does. It's a login page for a Chinese website. But I agree: something ain't on the level here.

[videohelplgxs]

Sorry about this. Then would you please refer to the first link? The content is the same.

[videohelplgxs]

Hi, All
Here is another link:
http://video.sina.com.cn/v/b/17568018-1234525731.html

It should work without any logging in.

I have contacted Mr Sun regarding whether the law enforcement had tried to help. He says that they did try to help, but the result from various police departments vary significantly and no one is certain which re-created image is more authoritative and they cannot risk publishing them all to the web to avoid misleading the public. However, I don't how how these images are re-created, by experience or by professional tool.

Mr Sun will send me the original video soon. I will share with your guys asap.

Thanks in advance
lgxs

[videohelplgxs]

The new link doesn't go anywhere.
Is it me, or does something about this not feel right?

--dES

Sure it does. It's a login page for a Chinese website. But I agree: something ain't on the level here.

---Lgxs: sorry that I forgot that you need to log in to view this video. The website is the chinese version of twitter. However, I got another link for you. It's distriuted by the police also. There is nothing fishy there... I am a volunteer, trying to see whether there is any hope abroad.

You can also find this case mentioned here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/world/asia/05kidnap.html?pagewanted=all. Sun's case is mentioned in the article and in the video attached (around 58 seconds).

[jman98]

Law enforcement should have the means to do this work already. Assistance from a hobby community is surely not necessary.

If this was Hong Kong or Macau, where things are completely different, I would agree with you. But in China itself, I am not so sure.

I've spent some time in recent years in various parts of China and I spent a good deal of time between 2002 and 2006 in Ukraine. Both countries have rather serious corruption issues that the governments are unable or unwilling to stamp out. Rule of law is iffy. In such countries you can't really expect the police to operate as they do in the west. Police in China are mostly looking for their next bribe and waiting for orders from some local government official on whose skull to bash in next. In Ukraine they're just looking for bribes. Solving real crimes is going to be a low priority unless they get pressure from the government to do so. China's number one police concern is to keep the citizens in check. So yes, I certainly do believe it's quite possible that the local police are both unable (lack the tools) and unwilling (haven't been bribed or ordered by the government to care about the issue) to do anything productive for this problem.

[sanlyn]

The new link is to a news video, not the original tape. According to the article, police have a clear image of the perpetrator on video.I understand the O.P.'s frustration, but (a) an expert would need the original video and (b) the police need a name to match the face. There are a great many faces in China. Deplorable situation. In any case, I don't see a link to the original video. Perhaps the O.P. can login to the earlier link and mount a copy of the video that members here could access.

[lordsmurf]

(a) an expert would need the original video and
(b) the police need a name to match the face

(c) Evidentiary chain of custody must be maintained.

possible that the local police are both unable (lack the tools)

Local law enforcement never has this ability, unless it's a large city.
Most of the time, it's a lab in the state capitol, or through an approved service.

[videohelplgxs]

Dear all
I now put the orignal video (in WMV format) as an attachment to my original post.

Thanks

[videohelplgxs]

The new link is to a news video, not the original tape. According to the article, police have a clear image of the perpetrator on video.I understand the O.P.'s frustration, but (a) an expert would need the original video and (b) the police need a name to match the face. There are a great many faces in China. Deplorable situation. In any case, I don't see a link to the original video. Perhaps the O.P. can login to the earlier link and mount a copy of the video that members here could access.

The original file is now attached to original post.
As to your comments "the police need a name to match the face", sorry but do you mean that we need a police contact to cooperate? I am not sure I understand it correctly...

[El Heggunte]

Hi there, I've managed to download the WMV file directly from rayfile.com, I didn't need to enter your username and password.

But I think you could have uploaded the file directly to this forum (as an attachment) --- or not

[videohelplgxs]

If this was Hong Kong or Macau, where things are completely different, I would agree with you. But in China itself, I am not so sure.

.

---Now we have numerous netizens helping each other. That's why I see there is still hope as long as we can provide a clear suspect image.
BTW, we have several cases where the suspect identification stucks due to the blurry video. Hope we can bring some hope to these families.
In China, the one-child policy makes lossing a child just unaforrdable tragedy to all.

[videohelplgxs]

[QUOTE=El Heggunte;2169007]Hi there, I've managed to download the WMV file directly from rayfile.com, I didn't need to enter your username and password.
Oh---I see now I can upload an attchement!! Will do it in a minute

[jmac698]

Sorry, just a techie comment here.

I've played around with one of those enhancement programs. Not impressed. The tools were all standard stuff you could do any number of ways. This was some years ago, but I'd bet they aren't substantially different than what someone could do in matlab, if they were up on the latest research.
http://fiji.sc/wiki/index.php/Fiji
http://research.ics.aalto.fi/ica/software.shtml

Independent Component Analysis is actually fairly simple in concept; it can separate two signals mixed together by assuming they have different statistics. You can separate two voices in a room this way (very well). Once you separate voices, you can use an adaptive filter (built in to matlab) to remove the echos. Another method Principal Component Analysis can separate reflections off glass. remove air turbulence from extreme zoom cameras and remove Poisson or Guassian noise (Poisson is for low light cameras, Guassian is normal video noise). you can remove a background and show only the person walking (it's cool to see their shadows), etc.
Anyhow, there's techniques for deblurring and they are in fiji.

I suppose I can take a crack at it, but it's not one of the techniques I'm good at, I don't expect anything amazing.

[jmac698]

First some basics.
From the news story at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/world/asia/05kidnap.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all you can see at 1:24 a closeup of a printout from the video identifying the suspect. It's the guy in the light blue shirt and blue jeans, he's carrying a dark brief case.
In the surveillence video, we further see the boy is wearing yellow.

The surveillance video. It's wmv in VCD PAL type resolution, 352x288, and 15 frames/s. It appears to be lit by fluorescent artificial light from a store window. There's some light, coloured video noise, typical of CMOS sensors.

Events in the video.
-2007-10-09 19:31:25
He is seen walking away from the camera and the boy visible, bag in left hand. Tan shoes.
-19:32:34
He is seen approaching the camera with the boy visible; however his face is offscreen to the right. The boy's face is visible. At this point, he should be off the bottom of the screen. Bag in right hand now.
-19:35:57
He is sitting in the top right, partially visible. He seems to be playing with a toy along the wall, he keeps grabbing something that got away.
-19:36:15
boy plays on wall, leaves top screen
-19:37:21 to 20:06:13
There is an edit here
-20:06:18
boy walks to bottom of screen
-20:09:06
Finally we see face of suspect (clearly), as he follows the boy to bottom of screen.
He was last seen off the bottom of the screen; therefore he may have been seen walking upwards in the missing portion, unless there is another way around on the street. Bag in left hand.
He looks to be middle aged. There is a belt. He's well-lit, but there is some noise and the video is low rez.
-20:09:13 to 20:11:17
An edit here
-20:11:22
boy comes down, some yellow stick in his left hand (mango?)
-20:12:03
Man clearly visible again, he's also walking down again, we missed seeing him going up. Bag in left hand. He looks to his left.

Good frames
-20:09:07 his face is fully visible
-20:12:02 face visible, but a bit further away
20:09:07 seems to be the best still, and it's the same spot as the police printout

Restoration approaches
-denoise
-superresolution and/or non-linear resizing
-3d extraction and remap pixels from closest approach to a level view, and merge with other stills. This would give good detail on left side of face and create a head-on view. This is a rigid model so all frames can be merged.
-there's some diffuse shadows you could make some measurements from
-should be able to get shoe size etc.
-there seems to be no reflections you can use



Questions for videohelplgxs,
-Have you tried looking at the suspects picture, then have someone stand in the same spot, and raise or lower their height, until it looks the same height? Then you can tell the height
-Some passers-by noticed the child and maybe even the man. If they work in the area, you will probably see them again (though it's long time now). Did you ask any of those people for a description?
-theoretically, would it be possible to put a calibration printout on the ground and take picture with the same camera?

The best frame


Note: this is an original video frame, and no more than has been posted publicly by police.

[jmac698]

Ok, I'm having some troubles with compression artefacts. Is this the original video? If it's been edited, it was probably re-compressed. We can help you with lossless editing. There's only a few seconds I need, the two best views.

You could have taken his shoe imprint with a thermal imager within half an hour maybe. Oh well. Also it seems like he walked far up and down that street, did you think to check some other stores farther away? Too late of course - but - we can make a guide of ideas for future abductions, basically how the citizens can do their own investigations.

[videohelplgxs]

Hi, jmac698-
So grateful for your great help!
Please see my answers below:

1)Have you tried looking at the suspects picture, then have someone stand in the same spot, and raise or lower their height, until it looks the same height? Then you can tell the height
Lgxs: I don't think so. i am relaying this info to Mr Sun to see whether he can have this done. The supermaket will sure ask for police presentation, and this may be difficult.

-Some passers-by noticed the child and maybe even the man. If they work in the area, you will probably see them again (though it's long time now). Did you ask any of those people for a description?
Lgxs: No, due to the redtape, Mr Sun didn't get the video till a whole week later. No one could recall what happened a week earlier.

-theoretically, would it be possible to put a calibration printout on the ground and take picture with the same camera?
Lgxs: No, the same reason as above. However, I will definitly pass this info on to all I know.

Besides, you mentioned calibration printout. Shamefully I don't know what's this. Would you please give me more info on how to do this?

As to your last question on whether the video is original, I will doublecheck with Mr Sun and come back later.

Best regards

[lordsmurf]

I'm not readily aware of any surveillance system that records as a pitiful WMV.
In fact, the chroma errors are a dead giveaway that this was an abused tape -- likely S-VHS.

The date stamp looks to have been added later, on a copy.

[jmac698]

I agree that the chroma splotches are pretty big. The date stamp is quite clear and I don't see compression atefacts from it, so it's a separate layer for sure. The yellow stripe at the right smells of analog as well. The video is extremely steady however.

Anyhow, I'm happy to say I made a small but definite improvement. The color rez is better, the color noise is reduced a lot, and the face is more detailed.

[link removed]


You can definitely see a rectangular dark patch on the right side of his face now. That's distinctive. Can anyone think of a medical reason for this?

As for the calibration, you won't have heard of this, because it's an idea I made up. You take a picture of a checkerboard pattern to see how the camera distorts the view. This is a typical approach in research to fix lens distortion. See the curved lines in the example I've attached.
The only reason this would be important is for a vague idea I have for 3d reconstruction. Making 3d is quite simple, just find the same points in different views and do triangulation. Finding the points precisely is a bit of a problem, and also lens distortion throws off the calculation.


[Attachment 12842 - Click to enlarge]

[videohelplgxs]

Per Mr Sun, the video is the extraction from the orignal video, but only cutting and combination of these sections relevant. No further editing was made.
And both due to his lack-of-experience and redtape, when he was finally allowed to obtain possible relevant videos on other stores/roads, he found all were already deleted for exceeding their normal storage period. And the supermarket closed its door and was replaced by another store years ago. All he has is the video. A woeful situation...

[videohelplgxs]

BTW, the police estimates this man is around 168cm tall, ages around 45. Maybe a little bit limped.

Here is one of the re-created images from the police, FYI only

[jmac698]

Hello,
thanks for the update. I have gone ahead and made a 3d reconstruction. This is only a very quick conversion.
http://www.screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/131705

Hopefully I can make a better version, but it doesn't look like there's going to be any more detail. I could make a better picture but, it would be some kind of generic asian head with some shadows on it. At least you see his scar.

I have some more ideas though.

ps I see the reconstruction - nice, but they didn't get the scar right, IMHO. There is also grey in the hair.
Here's another blowup:

[attachment removed]

[videohelplgxs]

Hi, All
I decided to put another video series, recording a woman suspected of abuducting away a four-year-old Cai Jialin away from a supermarket (in the same city as Sun Zuo, Shenzhen) on June 27, 2008.
According to the police, some informer said this woman is the wife of the man abuducting Sun Zuo . Both were suspected of several other child-abducting cases also. Around 20 parants feel they looks familiar and suspect them of having abudcted their kids. Both are on the wanted list of the police issued in June 6, 2012.

However, perhaps also due to the blurry image, no progress has made so far. This is the picture of them published by the police:



I got the orignal video from Cai's father. If we can make the suspect image more clear,may be getting one can led to the other.
In the attached video, what I can see are:
1) In 08-06-27-15-10-00-01.dvr, 09:24-10:15, the woman appeared,
with the girl following;
2) In 08-06-27-15-10-00-11.dvr, 08:41-08:47, 10:55-10:59, the girl following the woman (entering and leaving)
3) In 08-06-27-15-15-00-01.dvr, 04:27-o5:13, the girl followed the woman
4) In 08-06-27-15-15-00-15.dvr, I see nothing suspicious though
5) In 08-06-27-15-19-00-01.dvr, 00:24-00:59, the girl followed the woman.

To view the .DVR files, please use the attachem payer.exe.
There are also two DAV files, I have no idea what they are though.

Thank you all

[jmac698]

The files are probably dvr365 files. They are encrypted mpg4. Only the player can play them, or some forensic software.
http://www.dvr365.com/
There is a way to convert them, but it means essentially taking screenshots as it plays.
I don't see any attachments.

Note: chinese video is PAL-D. This DVR takes analog feeds.

[videohelplgxs]

I don't see any attachments.

No, I failed to upload them last night. now it's there.

[videohelplgxs]

There is also grey in the hair.
Here's another blowup:


[Attachment 12848 - Click to enlarge]

---Sorry that the attachement of the blowup seems doesn't work. Would you please re-attach it?

[lordsmurf]

Since the police already have an image of the perp, what's the point of all this?

Nothing done here has any relevance anyway.