Estimating Previous Quantization Factors on Multiple JPEG Compressed Images

Abstract The JPEG compression algorithm has proven to be efficient in saving storage and preserving image quality thus becoming extremely popular. On the other hand, the overall process leaves traces into encoded signals which are typically exploited for forensic purposes: for instance, the compress...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sebastiano Battiato, Oliver Giudice, Francesco Guarnera, Giovanni Puglisi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SpringerOpen 2021-06-01
Series:EURASIP Journal on Information Security
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s13635-021-00120-7
Description
Summary:Abstract The JPEG compression algorithm has proven to be efficient in saving storage and preserving image quality thus becoming extremely popular. On the other hand, the overall process leaves traces into encoded signals which are typically exploited for forensic purposes: for instance, the compression parameters of the acquisition device (or editing software) could be inferred. To this aim, in this paper a novel technique to estimate “previous” JPEG quantization factors on images compressed multiple times, in the aligned case by analyzing statistical traces hidden on Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) histograms is exploited. Experimental results on double, triple and quadruple compressed images, demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique while unveiling further interesting insights.
ISSN:2510-523X