I Know What You Photographed With Last Summer

Posted by: Osker on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

Digital cameras, once our friendly portable hand-held memory catching devices, are now arguably… snitches! That’s right, now with enough episodes of CSI and some redbull, anyone can track you down with the photos you take. No, I’m joking of course. But, forensic scientists have found a means of accurately knowing which model camera was used with an astonishing 90% accuracy rate. Before diving into the processes involved in tracking you down, let’s first go into how a digital camera actually works.

To capture an image, digital cameras use a light-sensitive microchip called a charge-coupled device, or CCD, made up of millions of bucket-like wells filled by electrons. The total charge of each well depends on the amount of light that hits it. Each well is topped by a lens and a colour filter - either red, green or blue - so that a mosaic of three of them provides the information needed to generate one pixel. To translate this into a usable colour and brightness signal, every camera has built-in “demosaicing” software as reported by NewScientist.

In essence, whether you are using a Canon or a Nokia or any other camera, chances are it could be tracked. Using this method it can decipher which camera was used because each individual manufacturer has their own unique peculiarities embedded within each pixel themselves. Although still in its infancy as a form of detective work, you shouldn’t expect this to hit primetime TV police drama anytime soon. This is just another way police can get to a person, any person when and where they want to.

Aside from police work I don’t see any other use for this “amazing” find other than to bog down criminals who absentmindedly take the time to print out digital photos to send to police for ransom money, and weirdos who take pictures of their various activities and get caught. So how exactly can this help Federal and local agencies track down wanted people? Well, if they can find the photo, they might be able to identify a kidnapper or other insurgent since cameras have a shelf life of about 18 months, and can narrow down when and where it was sold. As a side note, this week the sales of disposable cameras skyrocketed. ;]

-Osker