PFI-TT: A system to secure and verify location, time, metadata, and authenticity of digital images and videos

这一创新-技术翻译伙伴关系项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是在涉及具有新闻、法医和证据价值的数据（图像和视频）的商业交易中创造透明度。随着操纵图像和制作假视频的技术变得越来越容易获得，公众对照片和视频作为证据的信任一直在削弱。这个项目通过创建一个过程来证明图像不是伪造或操纵的来解决这个问题。这是通过一个安全的应用程序来实现的，该应用程序可用于捕获图像或视频，并立即在区块链上注册来源证明（位置，时间和元数据）和数据的法医识别。这个过程可以恢复对任何使用照片或视频作为证据的商业交易的信任。 其商业价值是公共实体，如执法和服务企业，需要存储图像以证明交付，检查，完成工作等，最后，这项技术有助于在线新闻机构实现新闻报道的公共验证，恢复公众对当地数字新闻平台的信任。 拟议的项目构建了一个系统，用于在区块链支持的存储系统上存储数据来源的证明，创建一个从数据创建时开始的监管链（例如当智能手机或相机用于录制视频或拍照时）。该流程旨在区分可验证媒体和虚假媒体，后者可能会打击在线平台上的错误信息。其智力价值在于开发了一种新型感知散列算法，该算法可以在原始和压缩或增强副本的混合中检测篡改图像时达到98%的精度;智能合约支持数据的机密性和完整性以及存储系统的可重复性和问责制，同时允许擦除数据以支持被遗忘权。 该技术还开发了一种新的数据库审计过程，以解决公共区块链的开放性和数据生产者的隐私权之间的矛盾。 该研究和开发项目的目标是建立一个端到端平台，支持媒体注册和验证，以支持各种公共和私人实体的业务逻辑。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is in creating transparency in business transactions that involve data (image and videos) that have news, forensic and evidentiary value. As the technology to manipulate images and create fake videos has become more accessible, the public trust of photos and videos as evidence has been eroding. This project combats this problem by creating a process to prove that images are not fake or manipulated. This is achieved by a secure application that can be used to capture images or videos and instantly register a proof of origin (location, time, and metadata) and forensic identification of the data on the blockchain. This process may restore trust in any business transaction which uses photos or videos as evidence. The commercial value is to both public entities such as in law enforcement and in service businesses required to store images for proof of delivery, inspection, completion of work, etc. Finally, this technology helps online news agencies to enable public verification of news stories, restoring public trust on local digital news platforms. The proposed project builds a system to store proof of origin of data on a blockchain-backed storage system, creating a chain of custody that begins at the time of data creation (such as when a smart phone or camera is used to record a video or take a picture). The process seeks to differentiate between verifiable media and fake media, the latter of which may combat misinformation in online platforms. The intellectual merit is in the development of a novel perceptual hashing algorithm that can achieve 98% precision in detecting tampered images from a mix of original and compressed or enhanced copies; a smart contract that supports confidentiality and integrity of the data and the auditability and accountability of the storage system, while allowing erasure of data to support the Right to be Forgotten. The technology also develops a novel database auditing process to solve the paradox between openness of a public blockchain and data producer’s right to privacy. The goal of this research and development project is to build an end-to-end platform that supports media registration and verification to support the business logic for a variety of public and private entities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.