A Study on the Photo Response Non-uniformity Noise Pattern Based Image Forensics in Real-world Applications

In this paper, we study Photo Response Non-Uniformity (PRNU) based image tampering detection methods and their applicability in real-world image tampering detection applications. Experiments using current PRNU based image forensic methods were conducted to evaluate the performance of existing methods in the realistic applications. The PRNU based forensic approach was tested on the images taken by cameras including current and popular DSLR/sub-DSLR models which have rarely been tested and reported. In our experiments, over 800 PRNU noise patterns are generated from 80 authentic photos and the biometric-like experiments have been conducted to study the similarities between intra-class and inter-class PRNU noise patterns. The analysis for the performance of current methods and the suggestions for the further research and development towards PRNU based image forensic approach are presented.