Image composite authentication using a single shadow observation

Abstract

The paper presents a novel method for image composite authentication based on a single shadow in an outdoor image. Existing methods based on the shadow geometry consistency involve more than two shadow observations. We relax the requirement of two shadow observations in the same scene. As a trade-off, we use the information in EXIF (Exchangeable Image File) based on which the ground truth sun elevation is calculated. We also estimate the sun elevation based on geometric constraints the scene provides, whose consistency serves as the cue to authenticate image forgery. It is the first attempt, to our best knowledge, to make use of sun elevation with shadow of one object to authenticate outdoor images. Also, the novel use of GPS (Global Positioning System), and Date and Time data of captured image makes image forensics possible even in one image containing a single shadow. Experimental results on both the synthetic data and visually plausible images demonstrate the performance of the proposed method.