Washington, DC -- August 27, 2007-- LTU Technologies, the global leader in image search and recognition solutions, announced today it has released LTU Image-Seeker for EnCase® (ISE) 2.0. ISE is a trusted plug-in enhancing image analysis capabilities within Guidance Software's EnCase®, the industry-standard computer forensics tool among law enforcement, government and enterprise investigators. In addition to extending the tool to large enterprises by providing support for EnCase® Enterprise, ISE 2.0 enhances image classification processes through automation that automatically flags folders containing pornography or other targeted image content types.
ISE 2.0 combines LTU's powerful image recognition technology with Guidance Software's industry-standard computer and enterprise investigation capability. Since the first version of ISE was released in 2006, hundreds of users in dozens of government and law enforcement agencies worldwide have adopted the tool as a means by which to quickly analyze and index images while in the field and away from the lab. Now, through its integration with EnCase® Enterprise, ISE 2.0 also answers the demand from large enterprises for powerful image analysis tools as they seek ways to reduce the risks of liability and intellectual property loss arising from the storage of inappropriate images and video by enterprise end-users.
"Large enterprises are realizing that they have user communities of hundreds of employees storing all sorts of images on their networks -- some of which are highly suspicious," noted Alex Winter, CTO for LTU Technologies. "Whether its pornography ending up on the company server or blueprints of the company's new product ending up on a rogue laptop, enterprises are increasingly aware of the real risks that images can pose and how difficult it is to eliminate these issues without tools like ISE."
In addition to integration with EnCase Enterprise, ISE 2.0 also includes enhancements to its image classification functionality. ISE has always allowed users to detect duplicate and modified versions of reference images. This is key for investigators who need to quickly compare seized images to those in law enforcement databases to uncover previously unknown photographs that may be associated with a recent crime or current case in progress. Now, new enhancements also enable users to identify images without a specific reference image set. Based on their fit with a general category, such as pornography, ISE 2.0 automatically flags images as suspicious and alerts the user as to which folders on their networks contain the image files.
ISE 2.0 is based on a core LTU technology that indexes the pixels of an image to create a digital signature or "image DNA" that describes the key visual features of each image. This approach has proven to be more effective than the use of keyword tags and binary file identifiers alone.
Used as a standard within enforcement circles, LTU "image DNA" enables investigators from local, national and international agencies to compare current case data with profiles of images stored among the various agencies centralized databases - all without sharing actual images.
EnCase Forensic software, produced by Guidance Software Inc. (Pasadena, California) is widely acknowledged as one of the most effective tools used by investigators throughout enterprises and law enforcement and intelligence agencies for analyzing digital evidence.
About LTU Technologies
Founded in 1999 by veteran scientists of MIT, Oxford and INRIA, LTU Technologies provides mission-critical software for search, retrieval and classification of images and videos. LTU's technology is patented worldwide. LTU's clients include government organizations such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the French Patent Office as well as commercial organizations such as Bizrate.com and Meredith Corporation. The technology has also successfully been integrated in third party solutions for brand protection, enterprise search, digital asset management, and email monitoring. LTU Technologies has offices in Paris, France and Washington DC. For more information, visit http://www.ltutech.com
