GPSForensics.org

Is there a forensic software package for a GPS unit that will do more than one type of unit? I have a TomTom that I'm in need of a forensic software for, but the budget wants a software package that will do the TomTom and possibly a Garmin or a Magellin or any other GPS. Is that possible or are we looking at having to purchase many types of expensive software for these devices?

Jo

So far, the only software that does multiple platforms is Berla Corp's Blackthorn (Garmin & Magellan). The best one for TomTom is Forensic Navigation's TomTology. This area is so new that there are not alot of solutions out there yet.

Although not forensic software anyone doing GPS forensics regularly, needs GPS Utility.

The hard part is that there are a lot of GPS units out there that use proprietary data formats that aren't just a text file with a different extension. On units besides consumer navigation GPS units from the likes of Garmin and TomTom there may not be any way to interface directly with a computer. Take for instance a Furuno GPS and chart plotter. You have to power the unit and using the unit, save the data to an SD card. But the data is useless without GPS Utility. (On those units you have to save the data to SD and then immediately create an image of the folder containing the saved data using FTK, Encase, Etc.) GPS Utility then will decipher the data and then let you save it in practically any format (including Google Earth, Garmin Mapsource, Maptech, Magellan, text, csv, etc. 68 formats in all). You can also export to MS Excel format. That feature lets you sort the data by date, time, lat, lon, etc. Very useful.

The only downside is that most commercial fishermen that use a computer software to navigate use Nobeltec. Nobeltec stores its data in a text document called NavObj.txt. It is not encrypted nor is it hard to understand. GPS Utility will not import that file and I cannot understand why. It stores its data without a degree sign and that seems to give GPSU a fit.

GPS Utility is definitely worth the $60
It's biggest benefit is that it lets me convert GPS data into a format that is useful for me and my prosecuting attorney. Who doesn't have Google Earth and MS Excel?