A scientist from Dartmouth College, Hany Farid, has been
developing digital forensics software that can tell if a digital
photograph has been manipulated with Adobe Photoshop- the
world’s most popular image editing software. The forensics
software can identify if an image has been tampered with by
checking its properties against a database of every digital
camera ever made. The software then detects if there are any
variations in the signature or traces left behind by Adobe
Photoshop which are tell-tale signs that the photograph has been
tampered with. The scientist plans to sell the software to law
enforcement agencies that need unaltered photographs for court
evidence, though it’s uncertain when we’ll actually see it in
use. There are limitations to Farid’s software though. The
software can only tell if an image has been doctored, but not
which part of it, but at least progress is being made. It’s not
going to totally eliminate fake photography, but you can bet
forgers will be working a lot harder now. LEGO