Median Filtering Detection of Digital Images Using Pixel Gradients

For median filtering (MF) detection in altered digital images, this paper presents a new feature vector that is formed from autoregressive (AR) coefficients via an AR model of the gradients between the neighboring row and column lines in an image. Subsequently, the defined 10-D feature vector is trained in a support vector machine (SVM) for MF detection among forged images. The MF classification is compared to the median filter residual (MFR) scheme that had the same 10-D feature vector. In the experiment, three kinds of test items are area under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC), classification ratio, and minimal average decision error. The performance is excellent for unaltered (ORI) or once-altered images, such as $3{\times}3$ average filtering (AVE3), QF=90 JPEG (JPG90), 90% down, and 110% up to scale (DN0.9 and Up1.1) images, versus $3{\times}3$ and $5{\times}5$ median filtering (MF3 and MF5, respectively) and MF3 and MF5 composite images (MF35). When the forged image was post-altered with AVE3, DN0.9, UP1.1 and JPG70 after MF3, MF5 and MF35, the performance of the proposed scheme is lower than the MFR scheme. In particular, the feature vector in this paper has a superior classification ratio compared to AVE3. However, in the measured performances with unaltered, once-altered and post-altered images versus MF3, MF5 and MF35, the resultant AUC by 'sensitivity' (TP: true positive rate) and '1-specificity' (FN: false negative rate) is achieved closer to 1. Thus, it is confirmed that the grade evaluation of the proposed scheme can be rated as 'Excellent (A)'.