June 2006

Too much work is coming in, so I have to select parts which I can do and which I can not do. Also a high profile case takes much of my time, and my complete planning has been destroyed. It is good to look forward to the summertime, where in general not many cases come in and the backlogs can be worked away.

In June I have to prepare the steering committee meeting of the Forensic IT group of ENFSI, and give presentations at several workshops. This is in fact the relaxed part. At my work I have to spread my attention to many things, and here I can focus more on the topics. Unfortunately at the same time that week there is also a review meeting of FIDIS planned, and I can not combine the things. Luckily a colleague of me would like to go there, so this is partly solved.

Also we have organized a digital video workshop at our institute, which also takes some planning, however it should work now. The next time I do not plan all these things after each other, since there is not enough time for preparation.

Another problem that appears that I have heel pain in both of my feet, which makes it harder to walk. With all kinds of medical tests and treatments, as the regular blood tests, night spalks, cortizone injections, X-RAYs and even nuclear imaging, the spots where visible but the pain was not solved. For that reason I am now looking into shockwave therapie (ESWT), which might cure this. I read several journal articles with blind tests, and thought this is worth a try, since it is not destructive. What is very strange, is that the insurance does not pay this treatment, so I have to find some other ways of funding. The surgeon told me that he thought that the method did not work.

When reviewing all methods in literature, I thought it would be good to file a complaint at my insurance not paying for this method. They fund alternative treatment, and even this method has more publications with blind tests see http://heelspurs.com/eswt/index.html behind it, where it appeared to work in a larger population, whereas there are also publications that suggest that it does not work. Of course not that I think that it works. The cortizone injections are even more questionable than this method, and they are funded by the standard health care plan. However I think it is a question of time before they will refund this treatment.

Oh, and BTW the eye surgery with LASIK, I do not have to use any additional fluids anymore, and do not see any side effects. I see sharper then ever before with glasses or contact lenses. T

May (3) 2006

At my work we see signs of the market, as competitors come in and there is lots of media attention. It is good to have a market in forensic science, as long as the reports do not become biased because of the market. I am always very alert on these things, especially if people want to have nice visualisations or 3D-reconstructions for one opinion, and not for other scenario's that are also possible.


  

May (2) 2006

When returning to the work after vacation, it was a holiday week, so I was the only court appointed expert witness in the field of image processing and biometrics that week in. My colleagues had decided that we had to stop the cases, since we had an overflow of cases, and could not accept any cases until July.

It is not easy to refuse cases that come in, and are from the court or from other important requesters. So, this week I had several cases coming in that could not be refused, and that made feasible questions. Much on face comparison, image processing and length measurements / photogrammetry.

We also looked further in several new publications for our research and development projects. One of these was on camera identification on noise. We had several questions around this (how unique is this, compared to pixel defects). For that reason I was requesting for a student project at the University of Delft, or of course any other student that is interested.

Several projects I was working on, had some kind of development. I was very satisfied with the results of our students Informatics when I came back on the biometrics.

One other project is working together with the Amsterdam Police. I had started some project, and everyone is cooperative in words, however in final it did not work out as expected yet. Sometimes you need more patience, and just go ahead with the work. Today, I just listened to the concerns of several departement heads, and mirrored their opinions. I did not disagree or agree with any opinion, and it worked out. As always listening and asking questions concerning their thoughts makes it easier to understand how to proceed. I think in final it will be a great project.

As always I am optimistic, and will just proceeds with the projects. There are many nice things to do, and some of them work, and other do not.