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DARPA Program Targets Image Doctoring (networkworld.com)

coondoggie writes: It isn't hard for just about anyone to change or alter an image these days — and that can be a problem. It's an issue researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency want to put to rest with a new program called Media Forensics, or MediFor, which looks to build an algorithmic-based platform that can detect image manipulation. "The forensic tools used today lack robustness and scalability and address only some aspects of media authentication; an end-to-end platform to perform a complete and automated forensic analysis does not exist. Although there are a few applications for image manipulation detection in the commercial sector, they are typically limited to a yes/no decision about the source being an "original" asset, obtained directly from an imaging device. As a result, media authentication is typically performed manually using a variety of ad hoc methods that are often more art than science, and forensics analysts rely heavily on their own background and experience," DARPA states.

5 of 41 comments (clear)

  1. Frosty by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just check if some of the pixels are wrong. It helps if you've seen a few shops.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re:Frosty by invid · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you can create an algorithm that can detect pixels that have been modified in a picture, you can create an algorithm that can modify the pixels to hide the fact that they've been modified.

      --
      The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
  2. Re:Bernie Sanders 2016 by tepples · · Score: 2

    Everyone with two brain cells is already rooting for Trump.

    Fortunately, I have a lot more than two brain cells, so I can see how Trump will repeat history in a bad way.

  3. Novel Explores this Idea by invid · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Warning: Shameless Self-Promotion

    I've written a science fiction novel, The NPC that deals with the ramifications of this sort of thing. The solution in the novel is extreme: all recording devices are required to stream their data to a trusted 3rd party (in this case, a corporation called VuDyne) in real time with an encrypted certificate. Otherwise the digital data is not trusted to represent reality. As you can imagine, this gives VuDyne a great deal of power.

    --
    The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
  4. What if... by feufeu · · Score: 2

    ...the doubts on the reality of any kind of imagery cannot be overcome and we need to abandon the idea that images (moving or not) can be trusted as evidence ? Would the world stop spinning ? I highly doubt this.

    Perhaps there can be an exception in cases where the entire chain of taking and handling an image can be verified in one way or another ?

    Unalterable checksum produced by the camera perhaps ? I know that we can already do this with GPS flight logs (track/altitude) coming from certified flight recorders. (See http://www.fai.org/gnss-record... ) It would certainly require certification of the camera used for taking such an image.