ZERO: a Local JPEG Grid Origin Detector Based on the Number of DCT Zeros and its Applications in Image Forensics

This work describes a method for detecting JPEG compression as well as its grid origin. The JPEG algorithm performs a quantization of the DCT coefficients of non-overlapping 8×8 blocks of images, setting many of those coefficients to zero. The method described here exploits these facts and identifies the presence of a JPEG grid when a significant number of DCT zeros is observed for a given grid origin. This method can be applied globally to identify a JPEG compression, and also locally to identify image forgeries when misaligned or missing JPEG grids are found. The algorithm includes a statistical validation step according to Desolneux, Moisan and Morel’s a contrario theory, which associates a number of false alarms (NFA) with each tampering detection. Detections are obtained by a threshold of the NFA, which renders the method fully automatic and endows it with a false alarm control mechanism.