Learning based forensic techniques for source camera identification

In recent years, multimedia forensics has received rapidly growing attention. One challenging problem of multimedia forensics is source camera identification, the goal of which is to identify the source of a multimedia object, such as digital image and video. Sensor pattern noises, produced by imaging sensors, have been proved to be an effective way for source camera identification. Precisely speaking, the conventional SPN-based source camera identification.has two application models: verification and identification. In the past decade, significant progress has been achieved in the tasks of SPN-based source camera verification and identification. However, there are still many cases requiring solutions beyond the capabilities of the current methods. In this thesis, we considered and addressed two commonly seen but less studied problems. The first problem is the source camera verification with reference SPNs corrupted by scene details. The most significant limitation of using SPN for source camera identification.is that SPN can be seriously contaminated by scene details. Most existing methods consider the contaminations from scene details only occur in query images but not in reference images. To address this issue, we propose a measurement based on the combination of local image entropy and brightness so as to evaluate the quality of SPN contained by different image blocks. Based on this measurement, a context adaptive reference SPN estimator is proposed to address the problem that reference images are contaminated by scene details. The second problem that we considered relates to the high computational complexity of using SPN in source camera identification., which is caused by the high dimensionality of SPN. In order to improve identification.efficiency without degrading accuracy, we propose an effective feature extraction algorithm based on the concept of PCA denoising to extract a small set of components from the original noise residual, which tends to carry most of the information of the true SPN signal. To further improve the performance of this framework, two enhancement methods are introduced. The first enhancement method is proposed to take the advantage of the label information of the reference images so as to better separate different classes and further reduce the dimensionality. Secondly, we propose an extension based on Candid Covariance-free Incremental PCA to incrementally update the feature extractor according to the received images so that there is no need to re-conduct training every time when a new image is added to the database. Moreover, an ensemble method based on the random subspace method and majority voting is proposed in the context of source camera identification.to tackle the performance degradation of PCA-based feature extraction method due to the corruption by unwanted interferences in the training set. The proposed algorithms are evaluated on the challenging Dresden image database and experimental results confirmed their effectiveness

Spatial Interference Detection for Mobile Visible Light Communication

Taking advantage of the rolling shutter effect of CMOS cameras in smartphones is a common practice to increase the transfered data rate with visible light communication (VLC) without employing external equipment such as photodiodes. VLC can then be used as replacement of other marker based techniques for object identification for Augmented Reality and Ubiquitous computing applications. However, the rolling shutter effect only allows to transmit data over a single dimension, which considerably limits the available bandwidth. In this article we propose a new method exploiting spacial interference detection to enable parallel transmission and design a protocol that enables easy identification of interferences between two signals. By introducing a second dimension, we are not only able to significantly increase the available bandwidth, but also identify and isolate light sources in close proximity

File forensics for RAW camera image formats

Recent research in multimedia forensics has developed a variety of methods to detect image tampering and to identify the origin of image files. Many of these techniques are based on characteristics in the JPEG format, as it is the most used file format for digital images. In recent years RAW image formats have gained popularity among amateur and professional photographers. This increase in their use and possible misuse makes these file formats an important subject to file forensic examinations. The aim of this paper is to explore to which extend methods previously developed for images in JPEG format can be applied to RAW image formats

Estimating snow cover from publicly available images

In this paper we study the problem of estimating snow cover in mountainous regions, that is, the spatial extent of the earth surface covered by snow. We argue that publicly available visual content, in the form of user generated photographs and image feeds from outdoor webcams, can both be leveraged as additional measurement sources, complementing existing ground, satellite and airborne sensor data. To this end, we describe two content acquisition and processing pipelines that are tailored to such sources, addressing the specific challenges posed by each of them, e.g., identifying the mountain peaks, filtering out images taken in bad weather conditions, handling varying illumination conditions. The final outcome is summarized in a snow cover index, which indicates for a specific mountain and day of the year, the fraction of visible area covered by snow, possibly at different elevations. We created a manually labelled dataset to assess the accuracy of the image snow covered area estimation, achieving 90.0% precision at 91.1% recall. In addition, we show that seasonal trends related to air temperature are captured by the snow cover index.Comment: submitted to IEEE Transactions on Multimedi

People tracking and re-identification by face recognition for RGB-D camera networks

This paper describes a face recognition-based people tracking and re-identification system for RGB-D camera networks. The system tracks people and learns their faces online to keep track of their identities even if they move out from the camera's field of view once. For robust people re-identification, the system exploits the combination of a deep neural network- based face representation and a Bayesian inference-based face classification method. The system also provides a predefined people identification capability: it associates the online learned faces with predefined people face images and names to know the people's whereabouts, thus, allowing a rich human-system interaction. Through experiments, we validate the re-identification and the predefined people identification capabilities of the system and show an example of the integration of the system with a mobile robot. The overall system is built as a Robot Operating System (ROS) module. As a result, it simplifies the integration with the many existing robotic systems and algorithms which use such middleware. The code of this work has been released as open-source in order to provide a baseline for the future publications in this field

The Wiltshire Wills Feasibility Study

The Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office has nearly ninety thousand wills in its care. These records are neither adequately catalogued nor secured against loss by facsimile microfilm copies. With support from the Heritage Lottery Fund the Record Office has begun to produce suitable finding aids for the material. Beginning with this feasibility study the Record Office is developing a strategy to ensure the that facsimiles to protect the collection against risk of loss or damage and to improve public access are created.<p></p> This feasibility study explores the different methodologies that can be used to assist the preservation and conservation of the collection and improve public access to it. The study aims to produce a strategy that will enable the Record Office to create digital facsimiles of the Wills in its care for access purposes and to also create preservation quality microfilms. The strategy aims to seek the most cost effective and time efficient approach to the problem and identifies ways to optimise the processes by drawing on the experience of other similar projects. This report provides a set of guidelines and recommendations to ensure the best use of the resources available for to provide the most robust preservation strategy and to ensure that future access to the Wills as an information resource can be flexible, both local and remote, and sustainable