Determining UFO Video Hoaxes

[namid]

I'm new to all this and am wondering about the process to determine how a UFO video is a hoax. I understand there is all kinds of new software to make incredible movies, videos, etc. Isn't there also software that can easily detect that a video has been tampered with or at least had images and effects added to it?

[alienvisitor]

Thats a great question! Some image analyzing SW probably is used by the government. From what I've seen on NATGEO's "Boarder Wars" there are some really interesting SW. From micro-facial analysis to algorithms that predict a persons intentions by there movement. It would be great if it was readily available, however things like that are most likely classified and would be at great risk to ones life to get it.

[isaackoi]

Jun 19, 2011 18:30:30 GMT -5 namid said:

Isn't there also software that can easily detect that a video has been tampered with or at least had images and effects added to it?

I've tracked down the hoaxers behind several hoaxed videos, but haven't found any software which "can easily detect that a video has been tampered with".

Sure, you can use Photoshop and other software to examine the image on a frame-by-frame basis (which may assist in spotting some compositing errors, e.g. where objects overlap if the hoaxer was a bit lazy - as in the infamous Sci-Fi advertisement) or if proper motion tracking was not done (so that a superimposed "UFO" does not move in line with each jerk of the video of the background) - but this isn't exactly easy.

Far more often, I've found that the extrinsic information (e.g. where did the video first surface, who posted it, what can you find out about that user etc etc) usually provides more conclusive evidence of a hoax than software tools used to examine the video.

However, every so often someone does claim to have developed software that would make the job of spotting hoaxed videos much easier.

See, for example, the material at the link below from an interview in February 2008 of Dr. Hany Farid regarding his :

digitaljournalist.org/issue0802/digital-forensics-an-interview-with-dr-hany-farid.html

A. My students and I have developed mathematical and computational programs to detect tampering in digital images (and audio and video). Our general philosophy is that there are many ways to doctor an image and that we need at least as many different tools to detect tampering. Our philosophy is also that there is never going to be a magic button that you can push to determine authenticity. A suite of tools will always be needed, where each tool detects a specific form of tampering. It is also important to remember that, like spam/anti-spam and virus/anti-virus, we are involved in a form of an arms race. Techniques to doctor images will continue to improve, techniques in digital forensics will continue to improve, and on and on we will go. In the end, however, it will always be easier to create a fake image than it will be to detect it, and forensics will never stop photographic fakery – it will only make it increasingly harder and more time-consuming to create a compelling fake.

A. We have recently developed tools to detect tampering in video. Although it is decidedly harder to tamper with video, it is also harder to analyze because of the sheer volume of data from even a short video. In addition, because of the relatively fast frame rate at which video is displayed, it can be hard to visually detect any static inconsistencies. In addition to continually developing new image forensic tools, I see video (and audio and scanned document) forensics as an important frontier in digital forensics.

It may be worth looking into some of Dr. Hany Farid's work.

His papers can be found online at:
www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/Hany_Farid/Papers/Papers.html

All the best,

Isaac

[lawsinium]

Namid...it is so easy to determine if something related to UFO is a hoax or not .... specifically alien spaceships.
First, if you see a spaceship with lights in a video or picture, then it tells you at once it is a man-made aircraft. The only specie who uses lightbulbs is man.
Second, there is no way that small spaceships that we always see in pictures or UFO journals can travel from one galaxy to galaxy. (see my thread on UFO encounters are not real).
And third, I think Isaac provides us a good "forensic" method: investigate first the source.

[bluemr2]

Sept 12, 2011 15:51:29 GMT -5 lawsinium said:

The only specie who uses lightbulbs is man.

Second, there is no way that small spaceships that we always see in pictures or UFO journals can travel from one galaxy to galaxy.

And third, I think Isaac provides us a good "forensic" method: investigate first the source.

On the first item, based on my reading so far there were unlit UFOs, followed by some reported UFO/airplane collisions. After that point UFOs with aircraft style (but different patterns) lighting seems to have become the norm.

It does seem implausible for such small craft to have made the journey (almost certainly a minimum of 11 light years). Hard to say for sure though, as advanced technology *may* make it possible. Or, a larger carrier dropped them off. If I knew, I wouldn't be interested in investigating them anymore. :-)

And yes, the source is the most important thing. Some sources are definitely more reliable than others.

[thanhtam110]

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[iamabeliever]

Well given the advances of technology, I feel it is more difficult to spot hoaxes.

But I am going to check out that link above.

The link is very informative.

[la1]

Whenever I see a picture of a ufo and it is tilted either up or down I think it is a hoax b/c to me it is implying it is aerodynamic which if I could make a great assumption ufo's are not. Whether in a vacuum or air it does not matter to them they operate the same. That is just me though.

[drobnjak]

There are several methods how one can prove that video is hoax.

But anybody who is serious about UFOs should actually keep quiet about that. Toolset for recognizing hoaxes is very limited and any researcher would be shooting himself into a his own foot if he released 'secret' tricks.

My personal approach is to see how perfect and artistic is the video. If UFO has any ornaments, i.e. its too artistic, than I would discount that. If video is perfectly dramatized, with dynamic camera panning and background voices screaming or being very excited, that's most likely hoax.

There was this very popular hoax, where two UFOs flew over some palm trees. It was really easy to spot the hoax, because all the palm trees were the same. It was done in 3D and guy just simply copied the same palm tree over and over again.