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.
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