Forensic Video Search for Incident Investigation
For security teams investigating incidents across 100+ cameras. Search hours of footage in seconds. Find suspects, vehicles, and objects instantly.
Corporate security teams, law enforcement, and loss prevention departments who need to rapidly search video archives during incident investigations
Investigators spend hours or days scrubbing through footage to find relevant clips. Critical evidence is missed due to human fatigue and time pressure
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Why Mixpeek
Search weeks of footage in seconds, find specific individuals across multiple cameras, and generate evidence packages with timestamped clips
Overview
When incidents occur, every minute matters. This use case shows how Mixpeek transforms forensic video review from a hours-long ordeal into a seconds-long search.
Challenges This Solves
Time Pressure
Investigations have hours, not days, to review footage
Impact: Evidence missed, suspects escape, cases go cold
Footage Volume
100+ cameras generating thousands of hours of video
Impact: Humanly impossible to review all potentially relevant footage
Cross-Camera Tracking
Following individuals across different camera views
Impact: Gaps in timeline, incomplete incident reconstruction
Evidence Standards
Chain of custody and authentication requirements
Impact: Evidence may be inadmissible without proper documentation
Implementation Steps
Mixpeek indexes video footage by detected faces, objects, vehicles, and activities, enabling instant search by description, reference image, or behavioral patterns
Index Video Archive
Process historical and real-time footage
import { Mixpeek } from 'mixpeek';const client = new Mixpeek({ apiKey: process.env.MIXPEEK_API_KEY });// Index video archive with forensic extractorsawait client.buckets.connect({collection_id: 'video-archive',bucket_uri: 's3://security/footage/',extractors: ['face-detection', // Detect and encode faces'person-reidentification', // Track across cameras'vehicle-detection', // License plates, makes, colors'object-detection', // Items, weapons, packages'activity-recognition' // Running, fighting, loitering],settings: {retention_days: 90,index_interval_seconds: 1,hash_frames: true, // For authenticationpreserve_metadata: true}});
Search by Description
Find footage matching verbal descriptions
// Search by witness descriptionasync function searchByDescription(description: string, timeRange: {start: Date;end: Date;cameras?: string[];}) {// e.g., "person in red jacket carrying backpack"const results = await client.retrieve({collection_id: 'video-archive',query: {type: 'text',text: description},filters: {timestamp: {$gte: timeRange.start.toISOString(),$lte: timeRange.end.toISOString()},camera_id: timeRange.cameras ? { $in: timeRange.cameras } : undefined},return_fields: ['timestamp', 'camera_id', 'thumbnail_url','detected_persons', 'detected_objects', 'clip_url'],limit: 100});return results;}
Search by Reference Image
Find all appearances of a specific person/vehicle
// Find person across all cameras using reference imageasync function findPersonInFootage(referenceImageUrl: string, timeRange: {start: Date;end: Date;}) {// First, get face embedding from referenceconst reference = await client.extract({url: referenceImageUrl,extractors: ['face-detection']});// Search for matches across all footageconst appearances = await client.retrieve({collection_id: 'video-archive',query: {type: 'face',embedding: reference.faces[0].embedding,threshold: 0.85 // High confidence matching},filters: {timestamp: {$gte: timeRange.start.toISOString(),$lte: timeRange.end.toISOString()}},return_fields: ['timestamp', 'camera_id', 'thumbnail_url','face_confidence', 'clip_url', 'bounding_box'],sort: { timestamp: 'asc' },limit: 500});// Reconstruct timelinereturn {appearances: appearances,timeline: buildTimeline(appearances),cameras_visited: [...new Set(appearances.map(a => a.camera_id))]};}
Generate Evidence Package
Export clips with chain of custody documentation
// Generate forensic evidence packageasync function generateEvidencePackage(caseId: string, clips: ClipSelection[]) {const package = await client.forensics.createPackage({case_id: caseId,clips: clips.map(c => ({source_id: c.clip_id,start_time: c.start,end_time: c.end,annotations: c.notes})),include: {original_footage: true,frame_hashes: true, // Tamper detectionmetadata_log: true, // Camera settings, timestampschain_of_custody: true, // Access logsearch_methodology: true // How clips were found},export_format: 'forensic_standard',encryption: 'aes256'});return {package_id: package.id,download_url: package.secure_url,hash: package.package_hash,custody_document: package.chain_of_custody_pdf};}
Feature Extractors Used
Retriever Stages Used
Expected Outcomes
Search weeks of footage in under 30 seconds
Search Speed
90% reduction in time to find relevant footage
Investigation Time
5x more relevant clips found vs manual review
Evidence Coverage
95% accuracy tracking individuals across cameras
Cross-Camera Tracking
40% improvement in incident case resolution rate
Case Resolution
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Resources
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