Image Forgery Detector

Just because you can grab any picture from the Internet from the context menu option provided by your web browser doesn’t mean that you must, or you can freely use them. You’re only free to do whatever you like with images under the Creative Commons license. In an attempt to help you detect fake images, applications like Image Forgery Detector prove to be among the right choices.

A neat advantage that adds a lot to flexibility is that you don’t have to go through a setup process in order to benefit from all it has to offer. This clever development also enables you to carry it around on an USB Flash drive to use on other PCs as well. The only thing you need to check is whether the target computer is equipped with Java Runtime Environment.

The application’s core function of detecting forged pictures is intriguing, but it comes with a catch. In order for the process to successfully reach an end, the target picture also needs to go through this application first. In other words, a code is implemented in the original and you need to check it. If it’s missing, then the picture is fake.

Two components help you in this regard. To load a picture, you need to use the Lock tab. The image you load must be under the JPG format, and can’t be dragged over the main window. A custom area then needs to be selected, and initiating the process implements a code inside that area, saving another picture under the PNG format.

The other component is similar in terms of management. Switching to the Check tab lets you load a picture, but this time it needs to be a PNG. An area needs to be specified using the same methods, while the verdict is delivered at the press of a button. However, if the area is offset even by a pixel, you’re told the image is fake.

There’s yet another catch to the application. Apart from the different, yet limited number of file formats you can load, the area is a bit difficult to specify. You need to manually write down X and Y coordinates, as well as width and height. This needs to be done with the exact values on both operations. What’s more, the image you load needs to be in 8 bits, as well as grayscale for the process to function.

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that Image Forgery Detector comes with really good intentions in an attempt to find out whether or not someone messed around with your creations. However, the design is implemented with a disturbingly amount of limitations, which renders practicality almost obsolete.