TAIS → CONDOR® → EVOFINDER®

The history of EVOFINDER®/CONDOR® system development includes many years and goes back to 1994, when a group of engineers started the project of developing a ballistic identification system.

The idea was simple – to create a system recording the surfaces image of objects under examination for further computer analysis. But the realization of the idea was time-consuming.

The first prototype samples were based on a complicated lighting system of incandescent lamps and a linear CCD camera to get the image of an object’s surface. But it soon became clear that the linear camera and the lighting system do not allow for the required quality of image and recording speed, especially in case of deformed objects.

The first commercial brand for the BIS developed by the team was TAIS. It was created in 1995 and meant abbreviation of the words: Trace (not a good idea), Automated, Identification and System.

By 1998 there was developed the CONDOR® system prototype, with conceptual technical solutions of recording method and scanning device.

The method was based on the mode of frame-fragment image recording, with further “sewing together” of frames. The matrix CCD camera supplied with the pixel synchronization system for the image digitalization was taken as the scanning device receiver, and diffusive wide-angle light-emitting arrays were selected for the lighting. All the system’s processes (light on/off, sensors data analysis, etc.) were controlled by a PC, while drives with hybrid stepper motors were applied for executive mechanisms (focusing, object scanning and rotating). These technical solutions allowed to receive high-quality (with high contrast and resolution ration) digital images of objects under expertise and to realize the idea of creating a “virtual ballistic objects” database.

The brand name CONDOR® was invented in 2000. It was combined from the first letters of the team members’ names, who started the project from the very beginning and continued development at that moment.

In mid-2006 the group of CONDOR® system creators decided to start a separate company, as a measure to increase the efficiency of their work on ballistic identification systems technologies development.

In the short time that has passed there has been developed the conception of a new system based on the CONDOR® system principles and retaining common basic features responsible for the systems compatibility – resolution, lighting conditions, etc. The system was called “EVOFINDER”. The term “evofinder” is a combination of two English words – evidence and finder – serving to express the system’s main destination – search for evidence in the course of a ballistic expertise.