Method and apparatus for protecting digital photos from alteration

Abstract

An encoding apparatus partitions a digital image into multiple regions for subsequent encoding. A first encryption code is associated with a first region, a second encryption code is associated with a second region and the first code, and a third code is associated with the first code, the second code and a third region. An authentication apparatus authenticates the digital image in an inverse process.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system configured for encoding a digital image to facilitate subsequent authentication, the system comprising:
 one or more hardware processors configured by machine-readable instructions to:
 perform one or more sanity checks prior to encoding a digital image in order eliminate a limited set of possibilities of adulteration of the digital image; 
 capture a digital image comprising a plurality of pixels; 
 partition the digital image into two or more working areas, the two or more working areas including a first working area having a first set of one or more pixels and a second working area having a second set of one or more pixels; 
 generate a first code from the first set of one or more pixels; 
 overlay the second set of one or more pixels with an image representing the first code; and 
 encode the first code into the second set of one or more pixels, 
   wherein the digital image is overlaid with identifying information and/or embedded with metadata.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein performing the one or more sanity checks includes evaluating coherence of the metadata to determine if the digital image has been altered or spoofed. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein performing the one or more sanity checks includes evaluating properties of the digital image. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 3 , wherein the properties of the digital image include one or more of date information, time information, location information, GPS coordinates, image dimensions, or exchangeable image file format (EXIF) data. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein performing the one or more sanity checks includes detecting suspicious exchangeable image file format (EXIF) data tags. 
     
     
         6 . A system configured for encoding a digital video to facilitate subsequent authentication, the system comprising:
 one or more hardware processors configured by machine-readable instructions to:
 capture a digital video comprising a plurality of digital images displayed in succession at a constant or variable rate, each of the plurality of digital images comprising a plurality of pixels; and 
 for a given digital image of the plurality of digital images:
 partition the given digital image into two or more working areas, the two or more working areas including a first working area having a first set of one or more pixels and a second working area having a second set of one or more pixels; 
 generate a first code from the first set of one or more pixels; 
 overlay the second set of one or more pixels with an image representing the first code; and 
 encode the first code into the second set of one or more pixels, wherein the given digital image is overlaid with identifying information and/or embedded with metadata. 
 
   
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein individual ones of the plurality of digital images include one or more of GPS coordinates signifying where the digital video was captured, GPS accuracy data, a date and time from a time server or a local clock, a device ID, a device operating system and version, a user ID, an organization ID, an assigned group name, a reverse geocoded address, facial recognition data, speech recognition data, automatic transcription data, or other metadata. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein the entire digital video is encoded into a single digital image. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the single digital image is identified randomly within the plurality of digital images in order to hide the encoding. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein every digital image is encoded. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein every Xth digital image is encoded, X being an integer greater than or equal to two. 
     
     
         12 . A system configured for encoding a digital image to facilitate subsequent authentication, the system comprising:
 one or more hardware processors configured by machine-readable instructions to:
 capture a digital image comprising a plurality of pixels; 
 partition the digital image into two or more working areas, the two or more working areas including a first working area having a first set of one or more pixels and a second working area having a second set of one or more pixels; 
 generate a first code from the first set of one or more pixels; 
 overlay the second set of one or more pixels with an image representing the first code; and 
 encode the first code into the second set of one or more pixels, wherein the digital image is overlaid with identifying information and/or embedded with metadata; 
 wherein encoding the first code includes utilizing asymmetric cryptographic keypairs having a public key and a private key. 
   
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein encoding the first code utilizing asymmetric cryptographic keypairs having a public key and a private key includes creating a cryptographic hash of the digital image. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein encoding the first code utilizing asymmetric cryptographic keypairs having a public key and a private key includes performing image processing on the cryptographic hash to produce an image hash. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein encoding the first code utilizing asymmetric cryptographic keypairs having a public key and a private key includes computing a signature of the image hash with the metadata utilizing the private key. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein encoding the first code utilizing asymmetric cryptographic keypairs having a public key and a private key includes embedding the signature into the image. 
     
     
         17 . A system configured for encoding a digital image to facilitate subsequent authentication, the system comprising:
 one or more hardware processors configured by machine-readable instructions to:
 capture a digital image comprising a plurality of pixels; 
 partition the digital image into two or more working areas, the two or more working areas including a first working area having a first set of one or more pixels and a second working area having a second set of one or more pixels; 
 generate a first code from the first set of one or more pixels; 
 overlay the second set of one or more pixels with an image representing the first code; 
 encode the first code into the second set of one or more pixels, wherein the digital image is overlaid with identifying information and/or embedded with metadata; and 
 storing the first code on a blockchain to create a permanent timestamped digital record of the first code, the first code being stored on the blockchain such that the first code can be later associated with the digital image. 
   
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17 , wherein the encoding includes:
 uploading a cryptographic hash of the image with obfuscated metadata to the blockchain processing network;   searching the blockchain processing network for the cryptographic hash;   responsive to the cryptographic hash not being found, reporting the image as not being authentic; and   responsive to the cryptographic hash being found, flagging the metadata as un-obfuscated.   
     
     
         19 . A system configured for encoding a digital image to facilitate subsequent authentication, the system comprising:
 one or more hardware processors configured by machine-readable instructions to:
 capture a digital image comprising a plurality of pixels; 
 partition the digital image into two or more working areas, the two or more working areas including a first working area having a first set of one or more pixels and a second working area having a second set of one or more pixels; 
 generate a first code from the first set of one or more pixels; 
 overlay the second set of one or more pixels with an image representing the first code; and 
 encode the first code into a standard metadata location. 
   
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 19 , wherein the metadata is encoded in a row of pixels.