foto forensics, photo forensics, error level analysis
FotoForensics is a free web site intended to provide budding researchers a sample of what can be done with digital photo forensics.
In August 2007, Dr. Neal Krawetz gave a presentation at the Black Hat Briefings computer security conference. The presentation, titled "A Picture's Worth", covered a handful of novel photo analysis algorithms. (A video of the presentation is available from iTunes, search for "Krawetz". The associated white paper and slides are available online.) Using these algorithms, researchers can determine if a picture is real or computer graphics, if it was modified, and even how it was modified. Dr. Krawetz gave variations of this presentation at different conferences between 2007 and 2010.
Following the disclosure of these algorithms, many people began recreating them. Error Level Analysis (ELA) is one of the simpler algorithms, and many people implemented their own variants. In 2010, Pete Ringwood created the "errorlevelanalysis.com" web site as a free service where people could submit photos and web pictures for analysis. The result was an instant hit.
In 2012, Mr. Ringwood decided to retire the site, which had introduced millions of people to the field of photo forensics. Hacker Factor has recreated the service as "fotoforensics.com", maintaining the basic principles that Pete Ringwood established: a free service that provides an introduction to photo forensics.
