SARASOTA POLICE/FBI/ FORENSIC TEAM AT HOUSE NEAR CARLIE BRUCIA'S HOME NOW

WFLA CHANNEL 8 TV | 2-4-04 | BOOTSTICK

[MVV]

Wow, that is a very scary story. I bet that attempted abduction still haunts your son, how old is he now? As a mom of four, handsome sons, I am quite aware and so are they that this kind of sick stuff doesn't just happen with daughters/girls. Thanks again and I am so glad your son had a good outcome.

FReegards, MVV

[bonfire]

He's 23 now and in college. He's so dumb he leaves his house unlocked.

We used to laugh when he was little that if an abductor took him, they would turn around and bring him right back! He jabbered nonstop in the most annoying high pitched voice!

[Theo]

I've lived long enough to see too many cases where "the public" have rushed to judgment and have found "guilty" the wrong person. The first news you hear about a suspect is all against him. Always.

Case in point: the Olympic bombings -- remember that?

It's also a bit personal. My uncle was accused of abusing his daughter, but it turned out that he was entirely innocent. I won't go into the details, but after the mere "accusation," his life and career were almost destroyed. Of course, whenever a child is the one abused, we're so eager to find someone guilty, that we'll settle for anyone....

Again, that said, if this suspect is the guilty one, I'm all in favor of his being severly punished, to the point of death.

[Theo]

So you can think and/or believe he's 'innocent' all you want ...

I haven't formed an opinion about the suspect, so I don't believe he's either guilty or innocent. I just don't know enough information about what evidence they have against him....

[Little Ray]

Innocent until proven guilty is for the courts; the state has to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. It has nothing to do with reality. We're entitled to make judgments on individuals with evidence available to us. OJ's acquittal does not less my certainty of his guilt.

That said, it remains to be seen what evidence connects Joseph Smith with the girl.

If he is the guy, well, lets just say I am really beginning to regret the "cruel and unusual punishment" clause in the Constitution and the idiotic interpretation of this clause some judges use.

[MVV]

Your son sounds an awful like my third son, Robert, he too used to talk constantly....your thread brings tears to my eyes, because there is nothing in this sick world I wouldn't do to protect all my sons. Thanks again, MVV

[Indie]

Fight and fight and die where you stand

ALWAYS FIGHT!! Always. Teach it to your kids until they have it memorized. This is coming from an ex-Dallas PD veteran - me.

It doesn't matter if they have a weapon. If you go with them, chances of death and torture/rape=100%. If you fight, they odds of death go down to about 10 %.

Even the police academy teaches us to NEVER give up our weapon, even if we have a gun to our head.

PLEASE! Always fight!!

[William Tell]

texasflower said: "I think that they were able to go in close enough and clearly enough to read the name patch on the shirt. "

Within the last year or so I remember reading a description of some new software products and algorithms involving video streams. That would include video tape or even filmed movies.

I didn't see a lot of details, for the reason that the providers of the software were protecting their intellectual property.

I think the principle is based on the fact that successive frames of video contain the same "information" but are impacted by "noise" sources in different ways and to different extents.

Let's imagine that we have a vido of someone moving in front of a store and that there are signs in the windows of the store. Imagine that a particular sign consists of black letters on a white background. A single frame may show a blurred unreadable area where the printed information is. Frames later on will show a similar blur, but the blur will not be identical.

There are many reasons why the blurred sign is unreadable on a single frame. The graininess of the recording. Slight vibration of the camera. Imperfections in the camera lens. Electical noise in the circuitry of a recording device. Even noise in the playback system can contribute to inability to read the sign.

The ability to "enhance" the image of the sign depends upon the fact that the noise part of the video signal is unrelated to the information on the sign.

At a spot in the image which is supposed to be black, the noise might make the spot white ( or just less black ). Contrarily, at another spot in the image which is supposed to be white, the noise might make it black or less white.

If we have available a series of video frames which contain a blurred image of the same black letters on a white background, the noise effects can be averaged out.

For each frame, a determination will be made of where the center of the blur is both vertically and horizontally. This process of locating the center will be less affected by noise because there is a greater area of the image involved in the determination.

Once the center of the blur has been located in each frame of the video, the position of each blur is adjusted so as to put them all at the same position for further enhancing.

Now each point in every blur should represent the same point in the original image of the writing on the sign. Each point should be either white or black in all the images, but each image will have some noise effect. In order to make a determination of whether some point in the image should be white or black in the enhanced image, various kinds of "averaging" can be used. One type of "averaging" is just that, an average of the intensity at the same point in every frame. Other types of averaging can be applied. Which types to apply may depend on what assumptions can be made about the original information.

If we know that we are looking at a vertical edge of a letter, then we can make assumptions which help to determine just where that edge really is.

I recall from the original description of this capability that it could create still photograph quality images of faces from a stream of standard video tape images.

[noodler]

Totally appreciated your explanation.There are a lot of experienced guys out there used to "tuning" things and relating each adj to the previous. The idea of cleaning up video to solve crime cases by delivering into it anti-disruption gradually at levels determined by the seriousness of committment strikes me particularly and a lot of good-ole techs come out of retirement to assist.

[js1138]

Mace is worthless against a determined perp. Pepper gas and plenty of it is better.

[Hotdog]

"INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY. "

Your right...and thats the way it should be....but proven guilty by who? The way the Judges are taking over I really see some of us taking the law into our own hands...Can anyone add to this?

[texasflower]

Thank you so much for that explanation. It was really interesting.

[texasflower]

I just took a look at your homepage. I really like it.

[geopyg]

Back when I was in the third or forth grade I was walking to school and a car stopped and the guy wanted to talk to me. We had just been told by the teacher (or in an assembly?) about such a thing going on. I gave him the finger and yelled F-you at him and ran off between some buildings away from the road and told my teacher when I got to school. Still don't know if it was the problem guy - I seem to recall thinking it was a high-school kid just messing with me.

My son is now in third grade and I think he could walk to school himself (about three blocks). However, my wife wouldn't dream of it. And when I hear stories like this - I'm glad I married my wife! However, I do feel bad that my kids can't be on their own as much as I was when I was a kid. I wonder if we're too cautious as parents, or if things really are more dangerous out there?

[bonfire]

Go with your wife's instincts. I figure: why take the chance?

[nicmarlo]

ty, texasflower....I've gotta "revamp" it again pretty soon...the problem is, my monitor's got to be replaced and I can't "see" color, at all....so, until I do that, I better not change anything, lol!

[ClintonBeGone]

be as rude as you want

Let them read some of your posts - they'll get the idea :)