Trajectory

[John Dolva]

I first started to look at the assassination of JFK earlier this year. My growing interest in computer graphics and an interst in art in general, and particularly traditional 3D like sculpture, and an interest in social issues, had cirquitously led me to a group of sites depicting images from the assassination of Kennedy.

Last year I had travelled across Australia and photographed some panoramic sequences. I was engaged in trying to balance and align about 15 images of the whale grounds in South Australia where one can view a sweep from east to west at the eastern end of the Great Australian Bight. Trying to balance colors, hues, luminance etc and to align all the photos helped me develop techniques that I have used on this forum re. the various collages and composites.

As a consequence of all this I had particularly become aware of the value in using software to discern differences in luminance where the eye would tend to group gradients into one color. White is not necessarily white. Black is not necessarily black. At the ends of the grayscale spectrum there are about 20 odd grades that are distinctly different, but percieved by the eye as the same.

Thinking about this and also realising that air is a medium just as much as water, or blood or bone, helped me to understand some curious light qualities I came across when viewing some old black and white photographs from the first world war showing the instant of a bomb exploding. I realised that perhaps the air was being compressed at the periphery of the explosion and therefore becoming denser, thus causing the light that passed through this denser air to behave differently to the surrounding media.

Armed with this realisation I turned to images of the head shot. Initially a frame from the Nix film. My intention was to see if it was possible to percieve the trajectory of the bullet by comparing luminance around the head, arguing that the air that the bullet had passed through must have been compressed in a particular way and maybe the light having passed through it on its way to the camera could be percieved as something different from the surrounding air.

Naturally I turned my attention to the side facing the TSBD.

Nope, nothing there.

To my GREAT surprise there was just such a trail, but it for it to make sense it came from behind Nix.

What the...???

OK, fair enuff.. what if? forcing myself to turn around I found...a brick wall. There were virtually no images readily available of that side. Likewise virtually no information about it. However, taking brickwalls as something that a good sledgehammer can deal with, I persisted and lo... there was Ol' Harry, perched in his window of the Post Office, unnoticed then and unnoticed today.

OK, back to the theorised bullet trail.

IF such a thing is to be found then what would it look like?

This is the primary purpose of this particular topic.

So, Thinking aloud here.

The bullet displaces air in front of it. This air compresses and displaces air in front of it. Excess air moves to all sides. Right behind the bullet a vaccuum is created. Air rushes in to fill.

The air displaced to the side continues to move aside. The tunnel of turbulence following the bullet doesn't expand but blends into the surrounding air.

So, a three dimensional cone of air as a lens to diffract light with a thin core of turbulence and an outer layer of highly compressed air.

Over time, the bullet passes through air at a decreasing velocity and into denser air. So the cone will taper over time. At some point behind the bullet the cone trail will have entirely blended into the surrounding air.

It is also subject to gross air movement like wind and current and eddies. (my attempt at looking at the wind conditions in Dealey Plaza was primarily aimed at seeing how these conditions were at that time.) A hot day without cloud causes air to rise near the surface of the ground. In a windless day there is also a growing, albeit probably minimal, fact of coreolis influence hence a consideration in a North-South as opposed to a East-West or West-East or South-North trajectory.

At the moment a major difficulty I'm having is to construct a comprehensive model of this theorised 'air lens' over say a 50 foot distance.

Following behind this initial cone is also a sphere of expanding soundwaves. The densest portion of these is what I probably initially percieved in the wwI photograph.

Then, having constructed said model I have difficulty seeing clearly how light falling on it should behave. The light would come from surfaces like grass as well as from the sun through the atmosphere. How it behaves depending on its relative orientation is important.

Upon the cavitation and subsequent eruption of Kennedys head, a fine mist surrounded him. Light from the green grass passing through a red mist would behave in particular ways.

The mist could also be of different colors. The eruption out of the top of the head could contain less blood and more brain matter than from beside the ear as there is a major vessel at the ear.

Red light passing through a glass lens before striking the film focuses at a different plane to green light. So cameras to some extent will always have an element of blur in them.

Do the medium on the film react at different speeds to different wavelengths of light? I don't know.

So to successfully envision a model and explain how it would behave during this split second moment can go a way to explaining a bullet trail (that I do think I may have identified) that with a proper understanding may be identified.

............................................................

Here is a suggestion based on a sideways photo of a bullet and the trail it leaves.

[John Dolva]

At different stages of the bullets flight it behaves differently. Tumble, yaw and attack depends on a number of factors. The various topics on exterior ballistics go into these in a lot of detail. Of interest here I think, is where along the bullets path one looks. Early one tends to find the bullet erratic until it settles. The trajectory is also dependent on the twist of the barrel. A clockwise twist will tend to give the trajectory an arc to the right. Also the orientation of the bullet while yawing will tend to be with a nose lift. As the bullet travels it slows AND drops into denser air. So it slows faster and the drop increases and the cone of air following begins to taper.

the following illustrates some of this.

[John Dolva]

Here is an indication why I think this might be an important issue. I have this year experimented with many different ways of isolating different values from images. One thing I repeatedly come up with is a line that doesn't appear to the eye in the z313 (I'm obviously assuming for the sake of this exercise that it's genuine, however as this topic is about a concept and associated techniques, it is hoped that anything developed from it could be applied to any image.)

Here on both sides of the line mentioned is a triangular area of different scale of luminance to the other areas. The left periphery extended intersects with the building under construction on the corner of commerce and houston, the right periphery extends out towards the triple underpass and the central line extends to the corner of the post office roof. (I have here tinted these lines/areas blue for emphasis)

If one here takes into account the alteration that is known to have been applied to this image by someone 'distortion correcting' it, then this line would drop down slightly. Further assuming a clockwise barrel twist and a descending trajectory, as described in above post, then this line intersects with Harry D. Holmes' office window.

Edited September 19, 2005 by John Dolva

[John Dolva]

here is a good exercise in gaining proficiency in using Image Analyzer. http://www.meesoft.com/ grab the plugins (3d in particular) and leave a thank you note

Open the image in Analyzer.Select the depth map and copy paste. convert to grayscale.

select the face profile and copy paste.

now you have a zmap and a texture.

in plugins open 3d start depth map. select the texture as texture. set scale to 1.2. select black as color.

go. you can turn this around to get different views. you can wrap the xray on to it as texture if you want. in this way you can observe the xray from inside the skull as well.

take snapshots as you wish.

play around with scales. invert the depth map (image : invert).

The image of the head from the left ( in this case approximately how it would have looked from the left corner of the post office roof) is a composite of two halves , one from inverted depth map.

[Chuck Robbins]

Here is an indication why I think this might be an important issue. I have this year experimented with many different ways of isolating different values from images. One thing I repeatedly come up with is a line that doesn't appear to the eye in the z313 (I'm obviously assuming for the sake of this exercise that it's genuine, however as this topic is about a concept and associated techniques, it is hoped that anything developed from it could be applied to any image.)

Here on both sides of the line mentioned is a triangular area of different scale of luminance to the other areas. The left periphery extended intersects with the building under construction on the corner of commerce and houston, the right periphery extends out towards the triple underpass and the central line extends to the corner of the post office roof. (I have here tinted these lines/areas blue for emphasis)

If one here takes into account the alteration that is known to have been applied to this image by someone 'distortion correcting' it, then this line would drop down slightly. Further assuming a clockwise barrel twist and a descending trajectory, as described in above post, then this line intersects with Harry D. Holmes' office window.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

John,

Have you done this work with z-312? If you have, did it include the whole limo passenger area in the frame? If I may ask, did it reveal anything other than what is shown in z-313?

Does this process work on a basis similar to that of the man who found metal in images through his software which also made use of the grey scale?

Your work on this is amazing, in my opinion, and it reminds me that one of the two Priests in the room with Jackie and JFK's body had made an observation of a bullet wound in JFK's left temple area.

I can only assume that a shot from the post office building would have had to enter in that general area? The blown out area in the back of the head would align itself well with a shot entering the skull at the orientation you presented.

Mr. Holmes carried more weight than any Postal Worker I have ever heard of. His access to LHO has always seemed like an unlikely event for a postal inspector. I now have to wonder if he had been looking through binoculars or a monocular (scope)?

I am looking forward to more of your work on this.

Chuck

[John Dolva]

Here is an indication why I think this might be an important issue. I have this year experimented with many different ways of isolating different values from images. One thing I repeatedly come up with is a line that doesn't appear to the eye in the z313 (I'm obviously assuming for the sake of this exercise that it's genuine, however as this topic is about a concept and associated techniques, it is hoped that anything developed from it could be applied to any image.)

Here on both sides of the line mentioned is a triangular area of different scale of luminance to the other areas. The left periphery extended intersects with the building under construction on the corner of commerce and houston, the right periphery extends out towards the triple underpass and the central line extends to the corner of the post office roof. (I have here tinted these lines/areas blue for emphasis)

If one here takes into account the alteration that is known to have been applied to this image by someone 'distortion correcting' it, then this line would drop down slightly. Further assuming a clockwise barrel twist and a descending trajectory, as described in above post, then this line intersects with Harry D. Holmes' office window.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

John,

Have you done this work with z-312? If you have, did it include the whole limo passenger area in the frame? If I may ask, did it reveal anything other than what is shown in z-313?

Does this process work on a basis similar to that of the man who found metal in images through his software which also made use of the grey scale?

Your work on this is amazing, in my opinion, and it reminds me that one of the two Priests in the room with Jackie and JFK's body had made an observation of a bullet wound in JFK's left temple area.

I can only assume that a shot from the post office building would have had to enter in that general area? The blown out area in the back of the head would align itself well with a shot entering the skull at the orientation you presented.

Mr. Holmes carried more weight than any Postal Worker I have ever heard of. His access to LHO has always seemed like an unlikely event for a postal inspector. I now have to wonder if he had been looking through binoculars or a monocular (scope)?

I am looking forward to more of your work on this.

Chuck

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Confirm, refine or debunk, please.

Hi Chuck. Are you possibly referring to the grading of grayscale in analysing xrays where I believe 256 or whitest indicating lead as the most opaque to xrays and other material including bone, tissues etc graded below that down to vacuum or air graded at the blackest or 0? It is an important point insofar as it indicates the necessity for such scaling as the eye by itself is incapable of discerning the fine nuances at the extremes of the spectrum.

Here on this image is the entire grayscale spectrum shown at top in two pixel wide segments. Below this is the spectrum split into 33 segments. As you can see the extremes are difficult to differentiate by eye. Below this is a 3d sideon view of both scale versions (right half only). As you can see the differences are easily visually appreciated. What is most interesting here is that I discovered that the production of the 33 step scale contains an error in the value of the 12th step. This software can pinpoint to a remarkable degree of accuracy the actual value as opposed to the percieved value.

In producing other versions of the trail I am suggesting for z313 I have compared it to views of 3 or 4 frames either side and find no similar trails there. As this particular series of frames I'm using have been distortion corrected one finds a vertical line in the center of the frame where the values have not been shifted. This is discernible but doesn't coincide with the trails I'm pointing out. Also there are a number of rays radiating out from the headwound area that are short and are obviously matter ejected. The longest one of these is the piece spinning off just to the left of the central trail shown.

I am hoping that others will not take my word for the existence of this trail but rather endeavour to see for themselves. It's a subtle one but with the proper approach should be reproducible.

I haven't previously heard of this Priests testimony. Sounds interesting.

As one can see in this image, where the xray is 'wrapped' on to the 3d head, there is a possibility that the shot would have entered tangentially at the 'exit wound'. At this point it would be striking a wall of bone almost side on and soft brain tissue on the right side. the tendency here would be for the path of bullet/fragments to deflect down.

Thus the ear wound and right rear hole lines up nicely. Also it makes sense of the brain pulping. I have theorised elsewhere, and have read Pats seminar that also does so, that the front throat wound may be a fragment that came from this bullet.

Yup, the ocular Holmes was using.. I wonder too..

Edited October 18, 2005 by John Dolva

[John Dolva]

Some more tools for the Image Analyzer are here:

The amount of time a bullet spends in a true ahead position is relatively small at the best of conditions. The planing effect will raise the nose and the spin will turn it. As it yaws it assumes a range of attacks. Depending on which it has at the time of impact determines the hole. This is also complicated by the characteristics of wound ballistics. Even a severely tumbling bullet may quickly (within even three inches travel) assume a dead ahead pose and continue to a small exit hole. Further, it must be remembered that a bullet seldom strikes a surface dead on. In Connally's case for a rear entry certainly not so. Even a bullet that strikes a surface with a dead on attack , if that surface is oblique (as in Connally's case, it will tend to angle into the body causing the beginning of an aspect shift leaving a 'not round' entry hole.

There are other considerations as well. The bullet behaves differently at different stages along its travel. Also it slows and drops into denser air which causes it to slow and drop more. Wind depending on strength and direction, coreolis force, firing down, up or level, the actual composition of the bullet, its center of gravity etc. etc. On the whole one can only make educated guesses

If you want to look at the bullet in various attack positions in image analyzer, use this lathe profile and the grooved (4) texture of a fired carcano bullet :

http://files.photojerk.com/yanndee/bulletlatheprofile.jpg

http://files.photojerk.com/yanndee/bullettexture.jpg

I find that setting gouraud texture, default ambient light and shiny surface reflection works best. Wireframe is also good.

Edited October 18, 2005 by John Dolva