Blame it On Photoshop: Dartmouth Computer Scientist ...

While the technology now exists to identify fake photos on a one-by-one basis, there's no one-click solution to detect the enormous amount of doctored photos, says Dartmouth Computer Science Professor Hany Farid.

Farid has developed sophisticated tools to detect photo forgeries, but it will be five or ten years before it is possible to automatically process the ten thousand photos news organizations like Reuters and AP typically handle in a day, he says.

Blame it on Photoshop

Inexpensive software, notably Photoshop, is making it easier to doctor photos than ever before.

Even the average layperson is using Photoshop to slenderize waists and digitally remove ex-husbands from photos, and sales for Adobe Photoshop Elements rose 20 percent over the last year, The New York Times reported in a story Friday.

Now that anyone can practice "revisionist history," as Alex Williams writes, forgery-detecting software will be an important way to get at the truth.

Videos are still safe from mainstream tampering for the time being, however. "Doctored video is about where doctored photographs were ten years ago," Farid says. He is currently working on solutions to identify fake videos.

Farid works with federal law enforcement agencies detect digital forgeries.

Andy interviewed Farid in his office in Hanover, New Hampshire earlier this month.

--Kelsey Blodget, Associate Producer

Disclaimer: Dartmouth College is a client of Plesser Holland Associates.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• digital
• farid
• forensis
• hany
• photoshop

[TrueNovice]

And what photos has he found that are faked - you know. photos that were created to deliberately deceive and audience. None. He's just trying to make an easy buck. You have to use his sophisticated software and consult him, "the expert" to find out if a photo is faked or not. That's his spiel here.

[WWtuts]

You still knew tose picture's on 3:41?

If i hade those without any cleu, I would not see it!

[Pedmont5236]

Look, you're the idiot. With talented professional photo doctors, you cannot tell without extreme examination and photo experience to tell whether the photo is or isn't fake or not. So please, do me a favor, and think before you make another comment before you post one.

[madbab00n]

what a fucking jeb you can just look at a photo and see if its been doctered ... its a retarded vid..