Inclusion of image forensics into the analysis project

A picture is worth a thousand words, they say. The visualization of a fact is always more impressive and convincing than just using words to describe it.

However, an image can also reflect the untruth. The relative ease of use of modern image editing programs allows the change nearly each photo and to misinform people. The debunking of such image manipulations is not an undoubtedly clearly matter anymore. Most common approach is to find logic errors and craft mishaps that indicate the use of an image editing software. In some cases, this approach can be very successful, but not all image templates provide enough information to clearly confirm this approach points.

Much rarer discussed is the analysis of the imaging data. Right here are traces, which most image counterfeiters do not expect because these are traces that one can not see. It offers an enormous number of advantages in our work, if it is possible to verify whether an image or video has been tampered or not. These details are not directly related to our analysis regarding the structure anomalies on Mars, but they offer further puzzle pieces that may belong to the big picture.

Because of these possibilities "image forensics" has been inserted as a new research area in this project site.