Researchers have developed a technology that can link
digital photos with the digital camera they were taken
with.
The "fingerprint" technology could be used by law enforcement
agencies to help track down distributors of child pornography and
other producers of illegal digital imagery.
The solution, developed by researchers at New York’s Binghamton
University, analyses the slight variations created by the image
sensor in each camera to identify pictures.
“The defence in a child porn case could often be that the images
in question were not taken by a defendant’s camera,” said Jessica
Fridrich, the Binghamton University engineering professor who
oversaw the research.
Fridrich’s team has found that every digital picture is overlaid
by a weak noise-like pattern of pixel-to-pixel non-uniformity.
That digital noise pattern is consistent with all images taken
from the same camera.
Fridrich said analysis of 2,700 pictures taken with nine digital
cameras showed 100% accuracy.
The technology works with cameras in mobile phones, as well as
more powerful freestanding ones. It means police dealing with the
phenomenon of “happy slapping” – usually young people filming
attacks on members of the public – could soon have a new tool to
pin down the culprits.