Settings
Applications settings
Background color
Axon Investigates user interface can be operated in light or dark themes. The option to change color themes is especially helpful when needing additional contrast with video images. The system default is set to dark.
Auto Save Interval
By default, Axon Investigate projects are automatically backed up every five minutes. Users can adjust the auto save interval to any desired number of minutes.
Project Back Ups are saved to Documents\Axon Investigate\Project Backups in folders corresponding to the project name. The date and time are appended to each project file so that users can easily select the desired date and time of the file to reload.
Auto Name Markers
When the Auto Name Markers setting is selected, Axon Investigate automatically generates titles for marked images using the file name and timestamp.
This allows users to use the M key to quickly create markers without having to fill out any details in the Mark Frame dialog window.
Auto-named markers are added to the Project Files List under the Marked Images group heading. New titles, narrative report text, and additional metadata tags can be added at any time by right-clicking on the file name in the Project Files List and opening Info & Settings, or by selecting More Actions (•••) and selecting Info & Settings from the menu and navigating to the Tags tab. A marked image can also be edited by selecting the pencil icon next to the image name displayed on the timeline.
Resume Playback
When the Resume Playback option is selected, playback can resume at the same date/time on subsequently played files. Unchecked, files begin playing at the first frame of the video. This feature allows the user to pick up playback at the same date/time on various camera views, making it easier to relate observations from different camera perspectives.
Default Marker/Subclip Color
Default color values can be assigned to markers and subclips from the application settings or from the marker and subclip dialog when selecting the icon or hotkey. Assigning color values can help categorize the evidence in a way that makes sense for the investigation.
- Example: Assign one color to all markers/subclips of a person of interest, assign another color to markers/subclips of the victim, and assign another color to the markers/subclips of an involved vehicle.
Starting Frame
Most non-linear editors and other forensic software platforms start their timeline at frame zero, referred to as an array syntax. The concept of an array syntax can be confusing since there really is no such thing as a frame zero. This confusion about frame numbering can lead to detrimental misstatements during testimony. However, to keep parity with other non-linear editors and forensic processing applications, the Axon Investigate video player timeline defaults playback at frame zero. The timeline can be changed to start at frame one by going to the application settings and selecting the desired starting frame number from the dropdown.
Output Settings
To meet national, state, and local requirements for the protection of secure data, Axon Investigate includes a user-defined scratch disk.
The scratch disk is a folder generated by Axon Investigate where temporary files created during certain processes are written to this folder. This isolates all temporary processes within Axon Investigate to a specified location to protect sensitive material. All temporary files in the scratch disk folder are automatically purged when Axon Investigate is closed.
The location of the scratch disk can be uniquely defined for each user. It is recommended to set the location of the scratch disk to a path that has at least 20GB of available storage.
A user may set the scratch disk to an external drive to further isolate sensitive material and ensure that no temporary files are written to unprotected areas of the user’s computer.
Setting the scratch disk to an external drive may result in reduction to performance. For best performance, the scratch disk should be addressed to your fastest drive.
Button behavior
The Axon Outpost button supports multiple press durations, each mapped to a specific user-facing function. These functions ensure clear intentional actions and prevent accidental activation. The camera is on if it is receiving power.
| Press duration | Action | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| <500 ms | No action | Accidental activation while handling device |
| 500 ms | LED ring | Display device status via LED ring for 10 seconds |
| 3 seconds | Enable pairing mode | Hold to trigger pairing mode |
| 6 seconds | Power off | Power device off |
| 12 seconds | Hard reset | Force device reboot |
Report Settings/Signature Block
A report signature can be created with options to edit text, font, size, color, orientation and add images or logos. The option to include the report signature is provided for every generated report. If the box is selected in the save report dialog, any signature that exists in the Application Settings Report tab is appended to the report.
Ignored Files Exclusion List
When adding .zip files, or folders containing files with extensions other than what is identified as multimedia, Axon Investigate prompts you to exclude extensions that are listed in the default extensions list or allows you to include them. There is also a preset file size of 20 KB which excludes files below this size from the file list. Choosing to override these exclusions allows you to interrogate the metadata of the files only. The file extensions and size limitation settings are available in the settings of the application and can be edited by the user. Extensions can be added or removed from this menu. Likewise, the size limit of files can be changed, or the box can be selected to ignore empty files.
