10 ms·

A scientist who spots fake videos

138 points by rstoj 9y ago

jw1224 9y ago
This seems like a good time to mention Captain Disillusion. A filmmaker and video editor, Alan Melikdjanian, started a YouTube channel back in 2007. He debunks viral videos and adverts, whilst performing in character as the rather surreal "Captain Disillision". Don't let the bizarre performance scare you off - his production values are simply outstanding, especially considering he does this all pretty-much singlehandedly, and has done so with hardly any recognition for the past 10 years. I think his channel only hit 100k subscribers last year, so it looks like he might finally be getting some well-deserved recognition. Here's a few links to some of his best stuff. You'll probably be thinking "WTF is this?" when you first start watching, but trust me and stick with it: - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_slT5YpBok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_slT5YpBok - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbgvSi35n6o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbgvSi35n6o - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXCtgI2lkFw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXCtgI2lkFw
- idm 9y ago
  Captain Disillusion has been way ahead of his time for so many years. I think his time has finally come.
- gus_massa 9y ago
  I agree. I recommend also another of his videos (that may not be so related to this subject, but is amazing) "BEAKMALLUSION: Free Energy Devices" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT_bTnkwLuE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT_bTnkwLuE If you watched 'Beakman's World' when you were young, this episode includes Beakman himself.
- rossta 9y ago
  Thank you for sharing. This is the best thing I've seen on HN in a long time.
- itsmemattchung 9y ago
  I just went down what I called the "YouTube Blackhole", watching video after video produced by Alan Melikdjanian. Although I spend a considerable amount (for a 30 year old) of time watching YouTube, I find myself absolutely floored with the quality of his content.
- rosstex 9y ago
  Came here to post about this guy. So awesome he's finally getting the attention he deserves.
- tekmate 9y ago
  what i found interesting about the channel when i noticed it 2 years ago was that the oldest videos, despite their lackluster video quality, already follow the same procedures and conventions he's still using to this day.
- amelius 9y ago
  This is very cool. I wish there was a channel like this debunking real magic tricks (not video ones).
  - Recursing 9y ago
    In his (great) video on Will Tsai https://youtu.be/_dSp_f0f9gE https://youtu.be/_dSp_f0f9gE he talks about why he doesn't analyze magic tricks, and mentions "The Masked Magician" whose videos sadly aren't even close to the quality of Alan's
- skinnymuch 9y ago
  > I think his channel only hit 100k subscribers last year, so it looks like he might finally be getting some well-deserved recognition. No kidding. Even if he hit 100K subscriber 2 years ago or at the beginning of 2015, he is at 500K subscribers now. If his growth hasn't slowed too much, he could be looking at [close] to a million subscribers before this decade is done. His videos are pretty cool so far. Happy he is able to do this for a living.
- coryl 9y ago
  He is financially supported by crowd funding (https://www.patreon.com/CaptainDisillusion https://www.patreon.com/CaptainDisillusion) and makes videos full time.
  - skinnymuch 9y ago
    He has 500K subscribers and growing rapidly. I assume he makes a decent chunk of change from YouTube itself too?
epmaybe 9y ago
Note that the article also talks about how to detect standards image manipulation as well. This could be useful for me when reading academic papers and questioning the visual representation of results.
coldcode 9y ago
I wonder how the courts and elections will survive if this type of fake ever exceeds our bandwidth and investment to detect them. Maybe ultimately no one will believe video any more? Maybe people will ignore fake detection and go with whatever their biases tell them is true? Either way electing or convicting anyone might become too easy to manipulate.
- unlmtd1 9y ago
  Digital signatures is the only way left. Basically checking who says the media is real.
- freeflight 9y ago
  > Maybe ultimately no one will believe video any more? People believe whatever they want to believe; forensic hair analysis (not DNA) is also quite a controversial practice, it's still accepted as evidence by many courts in the US. Last Week Tonight had a bit about that issue in a recent episode [0] It's sad and mindblowing that people have been sentenced to prison/death because a so-called "expert witness" confused a dogs hair with being their hair. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScmJvmzDcG0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScmJvmzDcG0
namanyayg 9y ago
FotoForensics [1] is a great tool for checking if images are airbrushed/manipulated, seems like they work by checking JPG compression and the RGB-average concept. -- [1] http://fotoforensics.com/ http://fotoforensics.com/
- sillysaurus3 9y ago
  Unfortunately it doesn't really work except in constrained cases. It's easy to convert an image to PNG and back.
  - striking 9y ago
    What? The compression from the JPG and the ways the edits do not affect said compression is not undone by a simple conversion.
chriskanan 9y ago
As he mentions in the article, DARPA currently has a large media forensics project going on. They have split it up into teams making manipulated videos and images, and other teams trying to detect those manipulations. They had a workshop at CVPR-2017. I'm on one of the teams that is making manipulated data. https://www.darpa.mil/program/media-forensics https://www.darpa.mil/program/media-forensics
- kaffeemitsahne 9y ago
  It's nice that they call it "media forensics", but it would seem that the making of manipulated videos is much more useful from a military standpoint.
olegkikin 9y ago
We're already at the stage where one can't trust the video evidence, unless it's backed by the camera's signature/encryption. Creating a very realistic fake is now trivial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohmajJTcpNk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohmajJTcpNk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsuAQcvafCs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsuAQcvafCs Google is very close to synthesizing realistic voice. It's game over, as far as I can see. It's a matter of time someone creates a fake video of someone famous saying something very outrageous, like nazi propaganda, and it will result in the destruction of that person's career and life. We really need something like Secure Enclave in every camera. EDIT: Another related video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPksv1gJet4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPksv1gJet4
- Retr0spectrum 9y ago
  I'm not sure in-camera signatures are the way to go. In the very simplest case, someone could just point a camera at a very high quality screen and record that, generating a signed video. A more complex attack would be to effectively emulate the image sensor and pipe image data straight into the camera. If you want to prove that a video was filmed on or before a certain time, one way would be to hash it and put that hash on a blockchain, but that doesn't really solve the problem of authenticity.
  - olegkikin 9y ago
    Try it. Record something off the screen (including the audio), and see what happens. I'm yet to see one example of that that looks like reality. Emulating a sensor sounds like it immediately reduces the number of perpetrators by orders of magnitude. I agree though, what I'm suggesting is not 100% bulletproof, but it's using a proven technology, and it's relatively simple, assuming hardware manufacturers are willing to add one small chip to their cameras.
    - asciimo 9y ago
      I've seen a number of YouTube and liveleak videos that were obviously made by recording a security monitor with a phone. Seems to be an acceptable practice for certain genres, and is usually credible.
ekidd 9y ago
I had a lot of great college professors, but Hany Farid (the subject of this article) was always one of my absolute favorites. He always placed a strong emphasis on strong mathematical fundamentals, once joking in class that we only think AI is hard because we're "bad at math." And to prove it, he showed us endless examples of how the right math makes problems far easier. For example, I remember one time when he showed us how correctly understanding something like the sinc function would improve directional derivatives of sampled data, and then turned this into a better video motion tracker. He loved working with colleagues in other departments, solving all kinds of fun problems and publishing joint papers. At one point, I think the campus magazine was writing articles on him several times a year, because he always had something cool going on.
beached_whale 9y ago
It is intriguing to think about this in reverse. Normalisation of the error rates across an image, and the techniques to achieve that or detect that. Also, rebuild images according to specific camera profiles such that the per pixel statistics match.
tunaoftheland 9y ago
Recently listened to an episode of Radiolab includes an interview with Hany Farid: http://www.radiolab.org/story/breaking-news/ http://www.radiolab.org/story/breaking-news/ Pretty interesting thinking about the gap between what is possible now and where the human population is with understanding that.
dunk010 9y ago
Captain D is basically the best thing on the internet.

138 points by rstoj 9y ago

This seems like a good time to mention Captain Disillusion. A filmmaker and video editor, Alan Melikdjanian, started a YouTube channel back in 2007. He debunks viral videos and adverts, whilst performing in character as the rather surreal "Captain Disillision". Don't let the bizarre performance scare you off - his production values are simply outstanding, especially considering he does this all pretty-much singlehandedly, and has done so with hardly any recognition for the past 10 years. I think his channel only hit 100k subscribers last year, so it looks like he might finally be getting some well-deserved recognition. Here's a few links to some of his best stuff. You'll probably be thinking "WTF is this?" when you first start watching, but trust me and stick with it: - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_slT5YpBok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_slT5YpBok - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbgvSi35n6o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbgvSi35n6o - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXCtgI2lkFw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXCtgI2lkFw

idm 9y ago
Captain Disillusion has been way ahead of his time for so many years. I think his time has finally come.
gus_massa 9y ago
I agree. I recommend also another of his videos (that may not be so related to this subject, but is amazing) "BEAKMALLUSION: Free Energy Devices" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT_bTnkwLuE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT_bTnkwLuE If you watched 'Beakman's World' when you were young, this episode includes Beakman himself.
rossta 9y ago
Thank you for sharing. This is the best thing I've seen on HN in a long time.
itsmemattchung 9y ago
I just went down what I called the "YouTube Blackhole", watching video after video produced by Alan Melikdjanian. Although I spend a considerable amount (for a 30 year old) of time watching YouTube, I find myself absolutely floored with the quality of his content.
rosstex 9y ago
Came here to post about this guy. So awesome he's finally getting the attention he deserves.
tekmate 9y ago
what i found interesting about the channel when i noticed it 2 years ago was that the oldest videos, despite their lackluster video quality, already follow the same procedures and conventions he's still using to this day.
amelius 9y ago
This is very cool. I wish there was a channel like this debunking real magic tricks (not video ones).
- Recursing 9y ago
  In his (great) video on Will Tsai https://youtu.be/_dSp_f0f9gE https://youtu.be/_dSp_f0f9gE he talks about why he doesn't analyze magic tricks, and mentions "The Masked Magician" whose videos sadly aren't even close to the quality of Alan's
skinnymuch 9y ago
> I think his channel only hit 100k subscribers last year, so it looks like he might finally be getting some well-deserved recognition. No kidding. Even if he hit 100K subscriber 2 years ago or at the beginning of 2015, he is at 500K subscribers now. If his growth hasn't slowed too much, he could be looking at [close] to a million subscribers before this decade is done. His videos are pretty cool so far. Happy he is able to do this for a living.
coryl 9y ago
He is financially supported by crowd funding (https://www.patreon.com/CaptainDisillusion https://www.patreon.com/CaptainDisillusion) and makes videos full time.
- skinnymuch 9y ago
  He has 500K subscribers and growing rapidly. I assume he makes a decent chunk of change from YouTube itself too?

epmaybe 9y ago

Note that the article also talks about how to detect standards image manipulation as well. This could be useful for me when reading academic papers and questioning the visual representation of results.

coldcode 9y ago

I wonder how the courts and elections will survive if this type of fake ever exceeds our bandwidth and investment to detect them. Maybe ultimately no one will believe video any more? Maybe people will ignore fake detection and go with whatever their biases tell them is true? Either way electing or convicting anyone might become too easy to manipulate.

unlmtd1 9y ago
Digital signatures is the only way left. Basically checking who says the media is real.
freeflight 9y ago
> Maybe ultimately no one will believe video any more? People believe whatever they want to believe; forensic hair analysis (not DNA) is also quite a controversial practice, it's still accepted as evidence by many courts in the US. Last Week Tonight had a bit about that issue in a recent episode [0] It's sad and mindblowing that people have been sentenced to prison/death because a so-called "expert witness" confused a dogs hair with being their hair. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScmJvmzDcG0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScmJvmzDcG0

namanyayg 9y ago

FotoForensics [1] is a great tool for checking if images are airbrushed/manipulated, seems like they work by checking JPG compression and the RGB-average concept. -- [1] http://fotoforensics.com/ http://fotoforensics.com/

sillysaurus3 9y ago
Unfortunately it doesn't really work except in constrained cases. It's easy to convert an image to PNG and back.
- striking 9y ago
  What? The compression from the JPG and the ways the edits do not affect said compression is not undone by a simple conversion.

chriskanan 9y ago

As he mentions in the article, DARPA currently has a large media forensics project going on. They have split it up into teams making manipulated videos and images, and other teams trying to detect those manipulations. They had a workshop at CVPR-2017. I'm on one of the teams that is making manipulated data. https://www.darpa.mil/program/media-forensics https://www.darpa.mil/program/media-forensics

kaffeemitsahne 9y ago
It's nice that they call it "media forensics", but it would seem that the making of manipulated videos is much more useful from a military standpoint.

olegkikin 9y ago

We're already at the stage where one can't trust the video evidence, unless it's backed by the camera's signature/encryption. Creating a very realistic fake is now trivial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohmajJTcpNk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohmajJTcpNk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsuAQcvafCs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsuAQcvafCs Google is very close to synthesizing realistic voice. It's game over, as far as I can see. It's a matter of time someone creates a fake video of someone famous saying something very outrageous, like nazi propaganda, and it will result in the destruction of that person's career and life. We really need something like Secure Enclave in every camera. EDIT: Another related video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPksv1gJet4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPksv1gJet4

Retr0spectrum 9y ago
I'm not sure in-camera signatures are the way to go. In the very simplest case, someone could just point a camera at a very high quality screen and record that, generating a signed video. A more complex attack would be to effectively emulate the image sensor and pipe image data straight into the camera. If you want to prove that a video was filmed on or before a certain time, one way would be to hash it and put that hash on a blockchain, but that doesn't really solve the problem of authenticity.
- olegkikin 9y ago
  Try it. Record something off the screen (including the audio), and see what happens. I'm yet to see one example of that that looks like reality. Emulating a sensor sounds like it immediately reduces the number of perpetrators by orders of magnitude. I agree though, what I'm suggesting is not 100% bulletproof, but it's using a proven technology, and it's relatively simple, assuming hardware manufacturers are willing to add one small chip to their cameras.
  - asciimo 9y ago
    I've seen a number of YouTube and liveleak videos that were obviously made by recording a security monitor with a phone. Seems to be an acceptable practice for certain genres, and is usually credible.

ekidd 9y ago

I had a lot of great college professors, but Hany Farid (the subject of this article) was always one of my absolute favorites. He always placed a strong emphasis on strong mathematical fundamentals, once joking in class that we only think AI is hard because we're "bad at math." And to prove it, he showed us endless examples of how the right math makes problems far easier. For example, I remember one time when he showed us how correctly understanding something like the sinc function would improve directional derivatives of sampled data, and then turned this into a better video motion tracker. He loved working with colleagues in other departments, solving all kinds of fun problems and publishing joint papers. At one point, I think the campus magazine was writing articles on him several times a year, because he always had something cool going on.

beached_whale 9y ago

It is intriguing to think about this in reverse. Normalisation of the error rates across an image, and the techniques to achieve that or detect that. Also, rebuild images according to specific camera profiles such that the per pixel statistics match.

tunaoftheland 9y ago

Recently listened to an episode of Radiolab includes an interview with Hany Farid: http://www.radiolab.org/story/breaking-news/ http://www.radiolab.org/story/breaking-news/ Pretty interesting thinking about the gap between what is possible now and where the human population is with understanding that.

dunk010 9y ago

Captain D is basically the best thing on the internet.