An image recapture detection algorithm based on learning dictionaries of edge profiles

With today's digital camera technology, high-quality images can be recaptured from an liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor screen with relative ease. An attacker may choose to recapture a forged image in order to conceal imperfections and to increase its authenticity. In this paper, we address the problem of detecting images recaptured from LCD monitors. We provide a comprehensive overview of the traces found in recaptured images, and we argue that aliasing and blurriness are the least scene dependent features. We then show how aliasing can be eliminated by setting the capture parameters to predetermined values. Driven by this finding, we propose a recapture detection algorithm based on learned edge blurriness. Two sets of dictionaries are trained using the K-singular value decomposition approach from the line spread profiles of selected edges from single captured and recaptured images. An support vector machine classifier is then built using dictionary approximation errors and the mean edge spread width from the training images. The algorithm, which requires no user intervention, was tested on a database that included more than 2500 high-quality recaptured images. Our results show that our method achieves a performance rate that exceeds 99% for recaptured images and 94% for single captured images

Image statistical frameworks for digital image forensics

The advances of digital cameras, scanners, printers, image editing tools, smartphones, tablet personal computers as well as high-speed networks have made a digital image a conventional medium for visual information. Creation, duplication, distribution, or tampering of such a medium can be easily done, which calls for the necessity to be able to trace back the authenticity or history of the medium. Digital image forensics is an emerging research area that aims to resolve the imposed problem and has grown in popularity over the past decade. On the other hand, anti-forensics has emerged over the past few years as a relatively new branch of research, aiming at revealing the weakness of the forensic technology. These two sides of research move digital image forensic technologies to the next higher level. Three major contributions are presented in this dissertation as follows. First, an effective multi-resolution image statistical framework for digital image forensics of passive-blind nature is presented in the frequency domain. The image statistical framework is generated by applying Markovian rake transform to image luminance component. Markovian rake transform is the applications of Markov process to difference arrays which are derived from the quantized block discrete cosine transform 2-D arrays with multiple block sizes. The efficacy and universality of the framework is then evaluated in two major applications of digital image forensics: 1) digital image tampering detection; 2) classification of computer graphics and photographic images. Second, a simple yet effective anti-forensic scheme is proposed, capable of obfuscating double JPEG compression artifacts, which may vital information for image forensics, for instance, digital image tampering detection. Shrink-and-zoom (SAZ) attack, the proposed scheme, is simply based on image resizing and bilinear interpolation. The effectiveness of SAZ has been evaluated over two promising double JPEG compression schemes and the outcome reveals that the proposed scheme is effective, especially in the cases that the first quality factor is lower than the second quality factor. Third, an advanced textural image statistical framework in the spatial domain is proposed, utilizing local binary pattern (LBP) schemes to model local image statistics on various kinds of residual images including higher-order ones. The proposed framework can be implemented either in single- or multi-resolution setting depending on the nature of application of interest. The efficacy of the proposed framework is evaluated on two forensic applications: 1) steganalysis with emphasis on HUGO (Highly Undetectable Steganography), an advanced steganographic scheme embedding hidden data in a content-adaptive manner locally into some image regions which are difficult for modeling image statics; 2) image recapture detection (IRD). The outcomes of the evaluations suggest that the proposed framework is effective, not only for detecting local changes which is in line with the nature of HUGO, but also for detecting global difference (the nature of IRD)

Evaluation of Deep Learning and Conventional Approaches for Image Recaptured Detection in Multimedia Forensics

Image recaptured from a high-resolution LED screen or a good quality printer is difficult to distinguish from its original counterpart. The forensic community paid less attention to this type of forgery than to other image alterations such as splicing, copy-move, removal, or image retouching. It is significant to develop secure and automatic techniques to distinguish real and recaptured images without prior knowledge. Image manipulation traces can be hidden using recaptured images. For this reason, being able to detect recapture images becomes a hot research topic for a forensic analyst. The attacker can recapture the manipulated images to fool image forensic system. As far as we know, there is no prior research that has examined the pros and cons of up-to-date image recaptured techniques. The main objective of this survey was to succinctly review the recent outcomes in the field of image recaptured detection and investigated the limitations in existing approaches and datasets. The outcome of this study provides several promising directions for further significant research on image recaptured detection. Finally, some of the challenges in the existing datasets and numerous promising directions on recaptured image detection are proposed to demonstrate how these difficulties might be carried into promising directions for future research. We also discussed the existing image recaptured datasets, their limitations, and dataset collection challenges.publishedVersio

Currency security and forensics: a survey

By its definition, the word currency refers to an agreed medium for exchange, a nation’s currency is the formal medium enforced by the elected governing entity. Throughout history, issuers have faced one common threat: counterfeiting. Despite technological advancements, overcoming counterfeit production remains a distant future. Scientific determination of authenticity requires a deep understanding of the raw materials and manufacturing processes involved. This survey serves as a synthesis of the current literature to understand the technology and the mechanics involved in currency manufacture and security, whilst identifying gaps in the current literature. Ultimately, a robust currency is desire

An Overview on Image Forensics

The aim of this survey is to provide a comprehensive overview of the state of the art in the area of image forensics. These techniques have been designed to identify the source of a digital image or to determine whether the content is authentic or modified, without the knowledge of any prior information about the image under analysis (and thus are defined as passive). All these tools work by detecting the presence, the absence, or the incongruence of some traces intrinsically tied to the digital image by the acquisition device and by any other operation after its creation. The paper has been organized by classifying the tools according to the position in the history of the digital image in which the relative footprint is left: acquisition-based methods, coding-based methods, and editing-based schemes

Passive Techniques for Detecting and Locating Manipulations in Digital Images

Tesis inédita de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Informática, leída el 19-11-2020El numero de camaras digitales integradas en dispositivos moviles as como su uso en la vida cotidiana esta en continuo crecimiento. Diariamente gran cantidad de imagenes digitales, generadas o no por este tipo de dispositivos, circulan en Internet o son utilizadas como evidencias o pruebas en procesos judiciales. Como consecuencia, el analisis forense de imagenes digitales cobra importancia en multitud de situaciones de la vida real. El analisis forense de imagenes digitales se divide en dos grandes ramas: autenticidad de imagenes digitales e identificacion de la fuente de adquisicion de una imagen. La primera trata de discernir si una imagen ha sufrido algun procesamiento posterior al de su creacion, es decir, que no haya sido manipulada. La segunda pretende identificar el dispositivo que genero la imagen digital. La verificacion de la autenticidad de imagenes digitales se puedellevar a cabo mediante tecnicas activas y tecnicas pasivas de analisis forense. Las tecnicas activas se fundamentan en que las imagenes digitales cuentan con \marcas" presentes desde su creacion, de forma que cualquier tipo de alteracion que se realice con posterioridad a su generacion, modificara las mismas, y, por tanto, permitiran detectar si ha existido un posible post-proceso o manipulacion...The number of digital cameras integrated into mobile devices as well as their use in everyday life is continuously growing. Every day a large number of digital images, whether generated by this type of device or not, circulate on the Internet or are used as evidence in legal proceedings. Consequently, the forensic analysis of digital images becomes important in many real-life situations. Forensic analysis of digital images is divided into two main branches: authenticity of digital images and identi cation of the source of acquisition of an image. The first attempts to discern whether an image has undergone any processing subsequent to its creation, i.e. that it has not been manipulated. The second aims to identify the device that generated the digital image. Verification of the authenticity of digital images can be carried out using both active and passive forensic analysis techniques. The active techniques are based on the fact that the digital images have "marks"present since their creation so that any type of alteration made after their generation will modify them, and therefore will allow detection if there has been any possible post-processing or manipulation. On the other hand, passive techniques perform the analysis of authenticity by extracting characteristics from the image...Fac. de InformáticaTRUEunpu

Digital forensic techniques for the reverse engineering of image acquisition chains

In recent years a number of new methods have been developed to detect image forgery. Most forensic techniques use footprints left on images to predict the history of the images. The images, however, sometimes could have gone through a series of processing and modification through their lifetime. It is therefore difficult to detect image tampering as the footprints could be distorted or removed over a complex chain of operations. In this research we propose digital forensic techniques that allow us to reverse engineer and determine history of images that have gone through chains of image acquisition and reproduction. This thesis presents two different approaches to address the problem. In the first part we propose a novel theoretical framework for the reverse engineering of signal acquisition chains. Based on a simplified chain model, we describe how signals have gone in the chains at different stages using the theory of sampling signals with finite rate of innovation. Under particular conditions, our technique allows to detect whether a given signal has been reacquired through the chain. It also makes possible to predict corresponding important parameters of the chain using acquisition-reconstruction artefacts left on the signal. The second part of the thesis presents our new algorithm for image recapture detection based on edge blurriness. Two overcomplete dictionaries are trained using the K-SVD approach to learn distinctive blurring patterns from sets of single captured and recaptured images. An SVM classifier is then built using dictionary approximation errors and the mean edge spread width from the training images. The algorithm, which requires no user intervention, was tested on a database that included more than 2500 high quality recaptured images. Our results show that our method achieves a performance rate that exceeds 99% for recaptured images and 94% for single captured images.Open Acces

Browse-to-search

This demonstration presents a novel interactive online shopping application based on visual search technologies. When users want to buy something on a shopping site, they usually have the requirement of looking for related information from other web sites. Therefore users need to switch between the web page being browsed and other websites that provide search results. The proposed application enables users to naturally search products of interest when they browse a web page, and make their even causal purchase intent easily satisfied. The interactive shopping experience is characterized by: 1) in session - it allows users to specify the purchase intent in the browsing session, instead of leaving the current page and navigating to other websites; 2) in context - -the browsed web page provides implicit context information which helps infer user purchase preferences; 3) in focus - users easily specify their search interest using gesture on touch devices and do not need to formulate queries in search box; 4) natural-gesture inputs and visual-based search provides users a natural shopping experience. The system is evaluated against a data set consisting of several millions commercial product images. © 2012 Authors