digital imaging Archives - SmartFrame

AI image generators: Everything you need to know

Peter Townshend — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 11:31:44 +0000

AI image generators have exploded in popularity. But how exactly do they work? And why are some people raising concerns about their usage?

Generating images with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) is something that has been widely discussed in recent years. Stories range from positive reviews of how impressively capable this new technology is to fears that it marks the beginning of the end for the photography and creative industries.

But how do they work? And what can they be used for? In this article, we take a closer look at the technology to answer these questions and explore how it has already managed to gain a bad reputation in the photography industry. But first – what exactly is an AI image generator?

What is an AI image generator?

An AI image generator, otherwise known as a text-to-image generator, is a piece of software that uses AI to create digital images from scratch using text prompts input by a human user.

AI image generators have many uses, from functional jobs such as redesigning the interior of your apartment, creative projects like producing fine art, or bespoke images for advertising to potentially more sinister uses such as creating deepfakes.

How do AI image generators work?

At the most basic level, a user inputs a number of keywords into a piece of software and a digital image based on those keywords is created.

This may sound simple, but an awful lot of technology would have been used to create and train the software.

Just like a human, a computer cannot create an image of something it has never seen. Therefore, every AI image generator has been trained on millions, if not billions, of digital images to understand what things look like. It then uses this knowledge to make an educated choice about what to draw when prompted by text keywords.

Without such training, AI image generators would not be fit for purpose. For example, if you had never seen what a cat looks like – or heard a description of one – trying to draw an accurate representation from the name alone would prove difficult. AI image generators can encounter the same problem.

For further reading, we recently wrote an article that f ocused on Google’s SR-3 AI-powered image upscaling technology, which uses very similar techniques.

Can anyone use AI image generators?

Yes and no. In most cases, you do not need to be a software engineer to use AI image generators. Indeed, there are already reports of AI image generator prompts for sale on marketplaces, which makes it even easier for users to create high-quality results.

The more sought-after technology, however, is often subject to waiting lists and paywalls. Anyone can register for access, though, so once the model has been properly tested, you should expect to see AI image generators readily available to the general public.

Examples of AI image generators

Three of the main AI image generator models are DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney. They each have different ways of working and, indeed, different results. Take a closer look below:

DALL-E

Author: OpenAI

Website: https://openai.com/blog/dall-e/

Stable Diffusion

Author: StabilityAI

Website: https://stability.ai/blog/stable-diffusion-public-release

Midjourney

Author: Midjourney

Website: https://midjourney.gitbook.io/docs/

What’s the problem with AI image generators?

Arguably the main problem with AI image generators concerns the general lack of regulation around the technology.

Perhaps the most widely discussed issue is the harm that can be caused by deepfakes, although the problems with the technology are broader than this, and could bring serious issues for the photography industry on many levels.

Deepfakes

Some generators prevent a user from creating images that include celebrities or other famous faces. But as the technology develops and becomes democratized, it is impossible to deny the threat of disinformation that can arise from this.

This article by a photographer who used AI to imagine how dead celebrities would look if they were still alive today shows the remarkable possibilities. Furthermore, the video below shows the somewhat unnerving capabilities of the technology in video.

Learn more: Deepfake videos have us concerned, but are we overlooking a more sinister threat found within them?

Copyright infringement

There are two main issues around copyright and AI image generators. The first is whether the images that are used to train the software have been licensed. The second is the issue of who owns the copyright to the final image.

Image training

As AI image generators are trained using existing digital images, there is also a question over how these images have been sourced – and whether they have been properly licensed.

For example, take a look at this article from The Verge, which includes evidence of an AI image generator reproducing the Getty Images watermark. This suggests the software is being trained using images that have not been paid for.

Furthermore, the question of whether valid model releases have been obtained raises another issue around personal data misuse.

All this evidence has prompted Getty Images and PurplePort to ban AI-generated images from their platforms – and Shutterstock is following suit.

Intellectual property

Another potential problem is the question of who owns the rights to the final image that is produced.

The US Copyright Office recently dismissed a claim by an AI image creator who tried to attribute the rights to an AI-generated image to the algorithm that created it.

US law says that works can only be protected by copyright if they were created by a human. Therefore, if a computer, a monkey, or some other non-human author was responsible for it coming into existence, it is not possible for anyone to claim ownership over that work.

This is, however, a contentious issue that we would expect to continue evolving as the technology grows.

Taking work away from creators

While the above issues focus on specific pieces of AI-generated imagery, there is a wider concern over the photography and creative industries as a whole.

As this technology matures and becomes more capable, people may no longer see the benefit of paying for creative talent.

This issue of democratizing creativity is one that could have a significant impact on not just the photography industry, but also art, CGI, architecture, and much more.

Why is the AOP concerned about changes to the UK’s copyright framework?

It is perhaps unsurprising that many potential issues surrounding AI image generators have caught the attention of the Association of Photographers (AOP), a UK-based organization that promotes and protects the rights of photographers, which has recently released a statement regarding the proposed exception to the UK’s copyright bill – the Text and Data Mining Exception.

In its own words, the AOP states that: “Currently, the Text and Data Mining exception (to copyright protection) permits non-commercial purpose machine analysis of online content, provided that there is lawful access (such as a subscription). It is also limited to prevent the resale or reuse for other purposes and must be accompanied by an acknowledgment of the source.

“This new proposed Text and Data Mining exception for commercial purposes – by the UK government – undermines this by freely allowing the machine mining of all imagery published online for any use by anyone, including AI developers. It would cover both copyright works and those protected by the UK Database Rights.”

It goes on to talk about “serious economic consequences”, saying that the proposal “completely short-circuits the licensing process allowing AI developers and others free commercial access to content for which, under normal circumstances, they would have to license and pay for.”

Identifying AI bots and crawlers as being able to scrape images from creators’ websites and social media pages in an instant, the AOP concludes that this “change in UK legislation would fundamentally turn the tables on creators giving way to economically harmful competition by allowing a content ‘free for all’ and invoking an unfair machine-endeavour vs. human endeavour scenario.”

What does it all mean for the digital imaging industry?

With so much still to be decided, it is hard to predict just how AI image generators will affect the imaging industry.

With bottom lines being squeezed tighter than ever, many commercial organizations will welcome the arrival of a cheaper alternative to traditional methods. But will the appeal of truly human creation ever die? The character that comes with an artist’s unique personality and life experience is something that is impossible to emulate.

With photography, it’s easy to imagine concerns over commercial usage in genres such as fashion or fine art. But in most cases, photography is used commercially as a way to document real-life occurrences or locations, such as a wedding day, a news event, or a travel destination – and it would be extremely difficult to effectively replace this kind of photography with an AI image generator.

There is, of course, also a certain magic in capturing the beauty of a moment you have witnessed. And when you consider this, it’s difficult to imagine a world of humans without photography.

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Negative body image: Should retouched images be labeled as such?

Peter Townshend — Wed, 21 Sep 2022 14:43:45 +0000

A recent paper reported clear links between negative body image and retouched digital images in advertising and on social media. So is labeling retouched images the answer?

On August 2, 2022, the UK’s Health & Social Care Committee published a report that focused on the impact of body image on mental and physical health.

The report had some alarming findings – and, unsurprisingly, found that retouched digital images were recognized as a driver of negative body image. Here, we look at the broader findings of the report, the recommendations it makes, the role played by digital images in particular, and the ways in which the issue could be mitigated.

What is negative body image?

Negative body image refers to a person’s dissatisfaction with the way their body looks. This could be down to its size, for example, its shape, or its general appearance.

Looking in the mirror and feeling like you could lose a few pounds may be dismissed as a harmless passing thought by many. But in such a hyper-connected world that is dominated by unregulated digital media, negative body image has the potential to develop into a more serious issue.

For example, it has been linked to damaging physical and mental disorders, such as body dysmorphic disorder, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and depression.

What were the findings of the report?

The Health & Social Care Committee’s paper reported a number of concerning statistics around body image and mental health.

A 2019 study by the Mental Health Foundation, for example, found that 20% of adults felt shame, 34% felt down or low, and 19% felt disgusted by their body image at some point in the preceding year. The same study found that 13% of adults felt suicidal thoughts as a result of negative body image.

Furthermore, it was found that 21% of adults cited images used in advertising as a cause of negative body image, while 40% of teenagers said their body image issues were caused by images on social media.

In this article, our main focus is on sections 61-63 of the report, which concentrate on the potential link between negative body image and retouched digital images used in advertising and social media. The report states:

“We believe that more needs to be done in regard to the regulation of digitally altered images for advertising and social media use. We heard evidence about the potential harm from online content that promotes an idealized, often doctored and unrealistic, body image and the link to developing low self-esteem and related mental health conditions.”

The report goes on to recommend that specific action is taken, calling for new research into the impact of social media on body image dissatisfaction. It emphasizes the need to better equip new generations with skills such as critical thinking and image appraisal that can help them recognize when an image has been retouched.

It also calls for the clear labeling of retouched commercial images. “We believe the Government should introduce legislation that ensures commercial images are labeled with a logo where any part of the body,” it says, “including its proportions and skin tone, are digitally altered.”

This is a practice already adopted in Norway with the passing of a new law in 2021 that requires content creators to “ensure that the advertisement in which the shape, size or skin of a body has been changed by retouching or other manipulation must be marked.”

What role do digital images play in fueling negative body image?

With so much different content hitting us from so many different angles today, there are countless ways retouched digital images can find their way into our lives and contribute to negative body image.

However, the Health & Social Care Committee’s report quotes a number of individuals who cite social media as playing a significant role. This view is backed up by a study from Science Direct, which found that social networking is positively related to body image concerns.

With a reported 4.7 billion social media users worldwide spending an average of 2hrs 29min a day on these networks, is the connection really a surprise?

Social media influencers in particular have faced criticism for their role in this in recent years, leading to body-positive campaigns like the Dove Real Beauty Pledge and hashtags like #bodypositive and #nofilter, which have helped to put a greater focus on self-esteem and authenticity.

However, while this greater responsibility around commercial content has helped to raise awareness, research shows that the biggest driver of negative body image is actually content from friends and acquaintances.

This is concerning because, while commercial content can be regulated by consumer-protection bodies such as the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and the USA’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC), personal content from friends and connections is much harder to control.

What defines a retouched image?

The idea of labeling an image to indicate it has been retouched – as the Health and Social Care Committee’s paper suggests – is certainly the right sentiment. The only problem is that defining a ‘retouched’ image is harder than it sounds.

It wasn’t long ago that many of us would regard image retouching as a practice reserved for professionals in expensive photo-editing suites, airbrushing images of supermodels on national magazine covers and high-level advertising campaigns.

Today, however, retouching images is easy and often free through software programs and countless apps that can do anything from adding eye shadow to completely reshaping facial features. These apps are simple to use and, in many cases, the technology is so advanced that it can be difficult for the untrained eye to spot.

Apps such as these are the more extreme examples of image retouching being used to deliberately alter a subject’s physical appearance, but there are many other less obvious and arguably less damaging ways to change the appearance of an image. So where do you draw the line?

For example, professional portrait photographers often spend a significant amount of time and effort using image-editing software to ensure their photographs look their best. While they may not change the physical appearance of the subject, it is likely they will make tweaks to contrast or color to enhance the overall result. So should these images be flagged as being retouched?

Even digital images straight out of the camera with no filters or subsequent editing cannot be described as truly authentic due to the processing that happens in-camera between the sensor capturing the scene and the image file being created.

Then there is the question of the hardware that is used. A lens with a moderately long focal length and a wide aperture that can achieve a shallow depth-of-field is usually the most flattering equipment setup for portraiture. Granted, this is not retouching, but could be considered a form of image manipulation. Should this also be taken into consideration?

With so many ways to alter an image, and degrees to which it can be manipulated, what is the answer?

Potential solutions

Labeling images as one or the other is a step in the right direction. But with so much grey area surrounding what constitutes a ‘retouched’ image, the more useful option would be to provide complete transparency over what edits have been made.

This can already be achieved with technology such as the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI), which is currently in development. By adopting CAI technology, it is possible to automatically attach tamper-evident image provenance data to a digital image in-camera at the time of its capture, such as date, location, author, and technical information.

Furthermore, CAI can track and record every edit that is made to a digital image throughout its lifetime, from simple contrast adjustments or filters right up to compositing and more advanced image editing. It is even possible to view thumbnails of the image before and after edits were made.

Rather than having to determine whether or not each and every image has been retouched, this approach provides the user with all the information they need to make their own decision on the trustworthiness of what they see.

Learn more: Content Authenticity Initiative: What you need to know

Image-streaming technology, which has been used to display the images in the body of this article, can also be useful here.

This method of publishing images online provides built-in captions for context; permanent attribution and theft deterrents for security; and interactive features like Hyper Zoom and full-screen viewing for higher engagement. A demo that incorporates both systems has also been developed.

Conclusion

While some images used for advertising or posted on social media can be problematic, deciding on and labeling retouched images is a complicated and potentially time-consuming process that could be difficult to implement effectively.

By adopting the technologies mentioned above, social media platforms could ensure transparency when it comes to image editing and manipulation, and address some of the issues they have had to grapple with in recent years around negative body image.

They could lead the way in creating safe havens for digital imaging in which users can make their own decisions on the authenticity of the content they are viewing, and this could in turn pave the way for a whole new digital image ecosystem for the wider web in which content can once again be trusted.

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How to future-proof your digital images

Peter Townshend — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 10:59:34 +0000

Ensure your photographs stand the test of time with our guide to future-proofing your digital images

There’s no doubt a photograph can be an extremely powerful thing from the moment it is captured, but the addition of time can really add something special. As years go by, even what once seemed like the most mundane of images can become remarkable.

Many of us have enjoyed looking at old photographs, traveling back in time to admire the fashion, laugh at the hairstyles, and romanticize the years gone by. But have you ever considered how future generations will do the same with your photographs?

Since the transition to digital photography, the ever-evolving nature of technology has seen photo storage go through a number of different formats, with those that are replaced quickly becoming forgotten.

For example, even as late as 2010, many photographers could still be found writing their images to DVD-Rs. However, just 12 years later the format is all but obsolete, with disk drives no longer a standard feature on most modern personal computers and the disks themselves useful as little more than coasters in many of today’s homes and offices.

With the decline of printed albums and the possible risk of format obsolescence, it is important to ensure that you have done everything you can to future-proof your digital images so they can be enjoyed in years to come. So what are the key things to consider?

Using the most accessible digital image file format

It is not just hardware that changes – software does too. Updates take place frequently – often automatically – and as software evolves, so do supported file formats.

For example, we have recently seen the introduction of the HEIC file format on Apple devices. This proprietary image file format was introduced with the iOS 11 update and is the only format used by iPhone and iPad cameras operating on that system or later.

This evolution of file types presents two concerns. On one hand, as more are introduced and those that have been superseded become less common, there is a danger the latter could slip into obsolescence.

On the other, new file formats such as HEIC, which has limited support outside Apple’s ecosystem, restrict wider compatibility and could potentially cause problems in the future. For example, while unlikely, there is a possibility that in 50 years’ time Apple may no longer exist.

Learn more: Image file formats: Which is best and how to convert between formats

For this reason, where possible, it is a good idea to save your most treasured photographs in a format that is widely accessible and compatible across hardware to ensure it will stand the test of time.

Most smartphone cameras do not offer the option to choose what file type is used, although it is relatively easy to convert files after taking them using photo-editing software or online converters.

Shooting Raw

If you’re using a mirrorless or DSLR camera, you will have the option to take photos as Raw files in addition to standard JPEGs. This option is also available on more premium compact cameras and an increasing number of smartphones.

As the name suggests, a Raw file contains all image data captured by the camera’s sensor in its entirety, without the usual processing. This data is also typically losslessly compressed or uncompressed, which helps to preserve maximum quality.

The advantage of this is that, by using a Raw file as your starting point, it is possible to create most other image file types with the highest possible quality. For this reason, it is one of the most futureproof image file formats.

That said, even Raw files are susceptible to the unstoppable evolution of the digital world, and camera manufacturers tend to offer different formats from one another, from Canon’s CRW, CR2, and CR3 files to Nikon’s NEF and NRW files and Sony’s ARW, SRF, and SR2 files.

As specific cameras and their corresponding Raw files grow older and less common, there may come a time when photo-editing software simply stops supporting them. In an effort to combat this, Adobe created the DNG format.

What is a DNG file?

A DNG or ‘Digital Negative’ file is an open standard for the Raw file format. It was developed by Adobe and is designed to provide universal compatibility across hardware and software providers.

Not only does this make DNG files future-proof but they are also smaller, so they take up less storage space.

While this sounds like the perfect file-storage solution, the problem with DNG files is that they have not enjoyed widespread adoption. While some cameras, such as those manufactured by Leica and Pentax, can write DNG files natively, many still use their own specific Raw file formats.

It is, of course, possible to convert Raw files to DNGs before archiving, but this can be a time-consuming addition to already busy workflows. Nevertheless, many would argue that this is a small price to pay to ensure the most future-proof image file format available.

Employing an effective digital image filing system

A digital image archive is only as good as its filing system. That’s why it is important to ensure that your images are appropriately labeled and arranged in a way that is easily accessible.

What constitutes an easily accessible filing system is entirely dependent on the collection of images and your own personal preference.

A good way to approach it is to start at the end. Consider your future self, searching for an image. How would you begin that search? By date? By location? By genre?

Alternatively, think of a filing system you have used in the past that you have found most intuitive and replicate that.

Another thing to remember is to always attach and preserve accurate metadata to the images you take. This will ensure you always have a reliable record of when, how, and even where each photo was taken (provided your camera supports geolocation and the feature is activated).

Choosing reliable digital image storage

In a study carried out by the Library of Congress into the longevity of information stored on CDs, almost 10% of disks tested failed within 25 years of their manufacture, when subjected to an accelerated aging process designed to simulate this length of time.

Given that the first mainstream digital cameras were released in the late 1980s, it’s startling to consider how many treasured memories are tucked away on disks at the back of cupboards that are in genuine danger of disappearing forever.

For this reason, it is important to ensure your photo storage stays up to date. Below, we offer some ways to ensure yours is as future-proof and dependable as possible.

Cloud storage

Probably the most well-known and convenient form of digital image storage is cloud storage. Cloud storage refers to storage space that is located away from a physical device you own, and accessed via an internet connection.

A big advantage of cloud storage is that, in many cases, it backs up your images in real time, as soon as they appear on your device. This eliminates often tedious periodical manual backups.

Popular cloud storage solutions include Dropbox, Google Drive, SmartFrame, Microsoft OneDrive, and Apple iCloud.

While cloud storage does offer convenience, it is worth remembering that the space is only yours for as long as you can pay the subscription fee.

External hard drive

Another option is to create a backup of your photos on an external hard drive, which can either replace or complement cloud storage. The two most popular forms are solid state drives (SSDs) and hard disk drives (HDDs), and both of these have specific advantages over the other.

While SSDs are the most reliable, they do come at a cost, so many people opt for the more affordable HDD option instead, which comes in a variety of capacities to suit most requirements.

External hard drives are more expensive than cloud storage in the short term, but it is a one-off payment compared to an ongoing subscription. Additionally, they offer the added security of being offline, keeping you in complete control of their whereabouts.

While external hard drives do come with many advantages, remember that they are physical objects – some with moving parts – and are therefore susceptible to wear, damage, and malfunction.

Second backup

A great way to protect yourself against the unexpected loss of your digital image archive is to create a second backup.

One hard drive failure is possible, but the chance of it happening twice is naturally far slimmer.

It is also well worth considering storing the second backup in a different location to the first, as this can protect against burglaries, fire damage, and similar issues.

RAID storage

For the ultimate reliability, consider a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) storage setup. A RAID device is made up of a number of different individual hard drives that are connected using disk mirroring or disk striping to allow photographers to write their digital images to multiple different hard drives simultaneously.

This setup not only improves performance but also increases fault tolerance to maximize reliability.

Printing

Finally, while the world we live in is becoming increasingly digital, it would be remiss of us not to mention the good old-fashioned photographic print.

Granted, a photographic print does not provide the option to produce high-resolution copies, but it can be a great way to physically back up your memories.

Of course, with the average person taking hundreds, if not thousands of photos a year – and keen photographers likely to take considerably more – most of us will not have the physical storage space to print every photo.

However, by being selective, it is possible to create a collection of your most treasured memories that will last a lifetime, regardless of future advances in digital storage technology. After all, the healthy human eye will always be able to see a printed photograph.

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The business of sport: How to use digital assets to maximize revenue in the sports industry

James Prosser — Fri, 27 May 2022 13:43:43 +0000

The sports industry faces significant changes, which makes it vital to ensure maximum value can be realized from digital assets. But how?

The global sports industry is in the midst of a considerable transformation. The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, combined with a market that comprises an increasing proportion of tech-savvy millennials, is changing the way sport is consumed.

For this reason, increased attention is turning to the digital world for solutions. For example, a 2021 survey from PwC found that 70% of sports leaders felt connected tech is the greatest opportunity for physical sport.

In this article, we explore the challenges faced by the industry’s most lucrative revenue streams and discuss how the digital world – specifically digital assets – can not only help maximize existing income, but also create entirely new sources of revenue.

Traditional sports industry revenue streams

The sports industry has traditionally relied on a few main sources of income, and while these revenue streams are unlikely to stop, there are certainly challenges ahead.

Ticket sales

Income from ticket sales has historically provided a significant proportion of overall revenue for the sports industry. The global pandemic, however, dealt a huge blow.

With many events canceled, and those that did go ahead taking place in empty or partially filled stadiums, income generated from ticket sales simply disappeared.

A report from the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) reveals that 88% of gate receipt revenues across its European soccer club members were wiped out in 2021 and consequently made up just 2% of overall revenue.

On a global scale, figures show that online ticket sales revenue for sporting events was down 60.6% at the height of the pandemic, dropping from $20.95bn in 2019 to $8.95bn in 2020.

While the same figures project that online ticket sales revenue will bounce back to $27.62bn in 2022, and resume steady growth in subsequent years, the fallout from the war in Ukraine could have further detrimental effects.

Broadcasting rights

The cancellation of events and tournaments also affected one of the largest revenue streams for the sports industry – broadcasting rights. One report shows that the global value of sports media rights fell to $44.6bn in 2020, a drop of more than 12% on 2019’s total.

However, while the pandemic certainly had a big impact on revenues in the short term, the long-term driver of overall change is the increasing move towards streamed content. For example, US streaming subscribers doubled from 2019 to 2020 to reach 275 million.

Such a rise was, in part, fueled by imposed lockdowns. Once relative normalcy resumes, however, a continued increase is expected, with the global streaming market projected to grow at a CAGR of 21.3% to 2030.

This trend has prompted major sports leagues to invest more in streamed content. Notably, the NFL added Amazon to its list of broadcast partners – the first time a streaming service has been included. Furthermore, the league is reportedly launching its very own in-house streaming service called NFL Plus.

Research suggests the same is also true on the other side of the Atlantic, with streaming predicted to generate 20% of major European sports rights revenue in 2022.

Sponsorship

It’s no secret that sponsorship deals are big business in the sports industry, generating a large proportion of overall revenue. In fact, the global sports sponsorship market is expected to grow to nearly $90bn by 2027.

While this revenue is here to stay, many believe that the increasingly digital nature of the sports business, coupled with the transparency of modern marketing, will lead sponsors to demand more transparency and measurable ROI.

This demand will place a large focus on data – the more the sports industry can generate, the better. With the arrival of GDPR and the demise of the third-party cookie depriving many of a treasure trove of information, clubs and leagues the world over will be looking for new ways to gain this valuable insight.

Merchandise

Whether it’s team kits, footwear, or toys and games, the sports merchandise market is another significant revenue stream for the industry.

The global market for licensed sports merchandise is reportedly growing at a CAGR of 3.4%, and is expected to reach a value of $27.2bn in 2026.

With the market enjoying such steady growth, it’s important to ensure merchandise is marketed as widely and accurately as possible.

Future sports industry revenue streams

There’s no doubt the sports industry has learned valuable lessons from the unprecedented events of the past few years and, with an eye on the future, it is laying the foundations for new revenue streams that will provide greater financial stability in an increasingly digitized world.

Below are some of the most notable opportunities being explored by some of the industry’s biggest players.

NFTs

There are many ways in which non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are expected to play a part in the future of the sports industry. For example, NFT tickets could provide holders with exclusive in-stadium access, become digital keepsakes, and even offer a whole new fan experience in the metaverse.

However, the most commonplace and profitable current example is the collectibles market.

Through the authentication of video clips and images, NFTs are turning digital assets into modern-day trading cards. Their unique nature makes them desirable to collectors and this is fueling a thriving online marketplace.

Marketplaces such as OpenSea, NBA Top Shot, and NFL All Day along with startups like Autograph are contributing to an industry that was worth $7.29bn in 2021 and is enjoying significant growth.

Documentaries

Another area that has gained momentum in the sports business is documentary filmmaking. There have been a number of success stories in recent years, with Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive to Survive contributing to a surge in the popularity of the sport in the US, as reported here.

The Last Dance also enjoyed huge viewing figures, while Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have made no secret about documenting their first two seasons as owners of Welsh soccer club Wrexham AFC.

While broadcasting rights from such productions can certainly generate additional revenue, arguably the most valuable aspect is the unique ability to expand fanbases by using storytelling to win the hearts and loyalty of previously disinterested audiences.

Sports betting

The global sports betting market was valued at $66.98bn in 2020 and is expected to rise to $140.26bn by 2028, with the majority coming from the online segment.

While Europe has always claimed the lion’s share of the market and is enjoying steady growth, all eyes are currently on the US, which is experiencing something of a frenzy.

Sports betting is now legal in a growing number of US states, so in anticipation of this legalization spreading nationwide, sports betting companies are jostling to establish themselves as household names.

This has led to a raft of mergers and acquisitions and newly formed partnerships across the industry, along with huge advertising budgets to ensure betting brands gain the exposure they need.

Image streaming

Digital images are one of the most important aspects of sports marketing. From news reports to marketing materials, the power photography has to inspire is immeasurable.

As such, sports clubs, leagues, and associations have amassed enormous libraries of images that document everything from tournament-winning touchdowns and injury-time goals to player profiles and stadium facilities.

These images are viewed and shared countless times online, but with so many digital images published in so many places – and the ability for users to copy and share freely – it is impossible to tell how many times these images have been viewed and where.

Image streaming can not only change all that, but it also offers the ability to monetize every single one.

The technology offers a new way to display images online that is more secure, engaging, and measurable than current formats like JPEG and PNG. It works in a similar way to a YouTube video in that one high-resolution image is uploaded to a central server, which can then be streamed to unlimited websites using an embed code.

There are some significant benefits to streaming images:

Because images are streamed from a high-resolution original, it is possible for users to zoom in to the fine details and even go full-screen without affecting webpage loading times. Experience it for yourself with the images included in the body of this article.
To provide protection against theft and unauthorized use, streamed images are obscured by a deterrent message when users attempt right-clicks or screenshots. Instead of being copied and republished, images can be embedded for free using an optional built-in share button.
It is possible to track every URL to which an image is streamed. This means image owners gain valuable analytics data and can control distribution by blocking domains as they wish.
Image owners have the option to monetize entire collections by serving contextual advertising into streamed-image frames. This generates money every time an image is viewed, wherever it is online, tapping into a potentially huge new revenue stream.

In addition to generating advertising revenue, image streaming can perfectly complement all the existing revenue streams mentioned above, forming an essential part of the overall sports business model.

In-image advertising can provide a highly targeted way to market tickets, merchandise, and even upcoming documentaries – all to an engaged audience without the use of cookies. It also offers an ideal place for sportsbooks to spend their ever-growing digital advertising budgets.

What’s more, this brand-safe advertising can form part of sponsorship deals, while image analytics can provide valuable impressions and engagement data as proof of ROI.

Image-streaming technology can even complement the use of NFTs by encouraging the sharing of assets without making additional copies in the process. This maximizes exposure and exclusivity at the same time.

Final thoughts

The PwC Annual Sports Survey 2021 mentioned at the beginning of this article found that 56.1% of industry leaders thought sports organizations should focus primarily on increasing revenue, while 43.9% believed the focus should be on controlling costs.

Considering the state of the current industry, it is easy to see the argument from both sides. On one hand, it should be about licking the financial wounds inflicted by the global pandemic and the potential effects of the events in Ukraine. On the other hand, it should be about chasing down potentially enormous opportunities in the industry’s ever-evolving future digital landscape.

With such strong arguments either way, it could be prudent to take a balanced approach.

Creating the digital infrastructure to realize the full potential of NFTs will take significant investment with no guarantee of return. However, by leveraging technologies such as image streaming, it is possible to enhance the current sports business model and prevent value leakage from existing image assets, while at the same time tapping into a well-established global digital advertising market projected to be worth $646bn by 2024.

Whatever the answer, one thing for certain is that the landscape of the sports industry will look very different in the next few years, so sports organizations need to take action now to ensure they are well-positioned to capitalize on new opportunities.

The post The business of sport: How to use digital assets to maximize revenue in the sports industry appeared first on SmartFrame.

8K resolution: What it is and whether it’s worth it

Peter Townshend — Sun, 02 Jan 2022 12:19:47 +0000

8K resolution is on track to become the new standard for TVs and monitors, but is it really worth the extra money? Read on to learn about the teequirements, and other things to consider before investing in 8K.

We’re only just beginning to see 4K video widely accessible through our favorite content providers, but its successor – 8K – is already available.

So what’s the difference between 4K and 8K resolution? How can you record 8K video? Where can you watch 8K content? And is it worth the additional cost? In the following article, we answer these questions and many others.

What is 8K resolution?

8K resolution is the next step up from 4K resolution, with four times the number of pixels of its predecessor.

As with 4K, the term applies to both devices that record in this resolution (cameras and smartphones, for example) and displays capable of showing it off (televisions and computer displays).

Whereas 4K recording devices and displays use 4840 x 2160 pixels, 8K devices and displays boost this to 7680 x 4320 pixels – a combined total of 33,177,600 pixels (33.2MP).

Some 6K devices, which sit between the two, also exist, although this resolution tends to be confined to a handful of professional recording products rather than widely available consumer devices.

Resolution comparison table

	Full HD	4K UHD	8K UHD
Dimensions	1920 X 1080	3840 x 2160	7680 X 4320
Total pixels	2.1MP	8.3MP	33.2MP
Aspect ratio	16:9	16:9	16:9

Why is it called 8K?

The name 8K refers to the number of pixels found on the horizontal edge of the image, which is approximately 8,000.

While this name is commonly used as a catch-all term, it’s actually broken down into two main sub-categories: 8K UHD (Ultra-High Definition) – also known as UHD2 – and 8K DCI (Digital Cinema Initiatives – a partnership between a number of major movie studios that was formed to establish standards for digital cinema systems).

8K UHD vs 8K DCI: What’s the difference?

8K UHD has the standard 16:9 aspect ratio used by the majority of modern TVs and computer monitors, and has 7680 x 4320 pixels.

8K DCI refers to the slightly wider 256:135 aspect ratio used in movie projection, measuring 8192 x 4320 pixels.

This dual format is common to previous display resolutions, such as 4K UHD vs 4K DCI and Full HD vs 2K DCI, as illustrated in the diagram below.

The reason for the difference is simple: by making movies in a wider aspect ratio, people still have a reason to go to the cinema.

Widescreen cinema was first adopted in the early 1950s, when TVs were becoming a common feature in people’s living rooms and the movie industry wanted to be able to offer viewers something extra.

While modern 16:9 TVs are now much wider than their 4:3 ancestors, the differentiation remains, enabling cinemas to provide a more immersive widescreen experience.

How does 8K work?

To understand how 8K works, it is important to understand resolution. The term ‘resolution’ can mean different things, but in this article, we’ll be talking about pixel resolution – that is, the total number of pixels included within an image or frame of video footage.

Learn more: What is image resolution? Everything you need to know

Each of these pixels can only represent a single value, so the higher the number of pixels in each frame of footage, the more detailed a video can potentially be. And when you consider that 8K includes four times the number of pixels found in 4K, its capacity for additional detail is huge.

However, that’s not to say 8K automatically makes a video better. There are many other factors that determine video quality, such as the quality of the lens used to record footage and the skill of the videographer, along with the choice of frame rate, bit rate, and color depth.

How do you record 8K video?

In order to record 8K video, you need to use a device that is capable of creating footage at that resolution.

These cameras used to be reserved for professionals, but recording in 8K is now much more accessible to the everyday consumer.

In fact, many mirrorless and 360 cameras have this option, while advances in mobile sensor and processor technology mean that it’s even possible to record 8K footage on some smartphones.

Qualcomm has even taken it a step further by recently releasing the first ever 8K HDR footage recorded on a smartphone.

As long as your device has this capability, there’s little more to it than selecting the option to record at 8K resolution and pressing record. There are, however, a couple of things to consider beforehand.

First, a higher resolution results in a larger file size (assuming all other things are kept equal), so you should make sure you have plenty of memory card space.
Second, all this additional information requires additional processing power, so you should check that your memory cards are fast enough and that your post-production setup can handle it.

How do you watch 8K video?

You need an 8K-ready display in order to watch 8K footage. These are now quite commonplace, with current 8K TVs relatively cheap compared to the more expensive price tags attached to earlier models. 8K computer monitors are also readily available for consumers, although these are more expensive.

That said, an 8K display is pointless if you have nothing in 8K resolution to watch. Of course, if you have the means to record in such high resolution, you can watch the footage you create in all its glory, but for the vast majority of us who aren’t professional filmmakers, endless home videos might leave a little to be desired. So where can you find 8K content?

Can you stream 8K content?

The short answer is yes, but it comes with a couple of caveats.
First, the only streaming services that currently support 8K are YouTube and Vimeo, and while the footage looks great on 8K and non-8K displays alike (see video below), the choice is limited.

Second, the bandwidth required to stream 8K content is estimated to be 20-50Mbps. If your connection does not support this, you may encounter issues.
While these internet speeds are available in most territories around the world, there are still large numbers of people who would not be able to achieve them. Therefore, be sure to check your connection before investing in a new 8K display.

Is 8K gaming possible?

Once again, the short answer is yes, but it needs a bit of unpacking.

It’s possible to buy a PC that supports 8K gaming, and the latest PlayStation and Xbox consoles are also capable of supporting this resolution.

However, the problem lies with a shortage of 8K games to play on them.

In the video game world, resolution has never been the priority. Developers have instead preferred to focus on other aspects of graphic quality, such as texture, dynamic range, and – arguably most important – frame rate.

What is frame rate? Put simply, frame rate is the number of frames that are displayed in sequence every second to create a moving image. The more frames per second (‘fps’ or ‘p’) that are displayed, the smoother the moving image.

There are a number of additional benefits that high frame rates bring to gaming, so making a game at 4K/120p is more desirable than making a game at 8K/60p.

Watch the video below to learn more about the fundamentals of frame rates in gaming.

This means that video games are often one step behind a console or PC’s resolution capabilities because game developers will instead use the extra processing power these machines possess to improve frame rates and other areas of graphic quality.

It’s for this reason that, while the latest consoles have the power to support 8K gaming, the feature is not yet available to actually use.

Manufacturers have said full support for 8K will be activated via a future system update once the format is more commonplace. So, bear this in mind if resolution is your main reason for upgrading.

Does Blu-ray support 8K?

The answer to this is a slightly more straightforward ‘no’, but the situation could still change.
4K is currently the highest resolution Blu-ray supports, via its Ultra HD Blu-ray discs and players. However, while there’s no indication that 8K Blu-ray will be launched any time soon, it remains a possibility.

With the high demands that 8K places on storage and bandwidth potentially leading to unstable playback, there are certainly advantages to playing content directly from a disc over streaming.

Can the human eye even see 8K?

This seems like a simple question, but it’s actually quite complicated. First, we need to answer another question: what is the resolution of the human eye?

While this is a complex subject, with endless variables (watch the above video for an entertaining explanation), scientist and photographer Roger N. Clark did the calculations and concluded that the resolution of the human eye is 576MP.

576MP is, of course, much higher than 8K’s humble 33.2MP, but that doesn’t settle the issue. We must also consider the size of the display and the distance it is from the eye, as both of these factors also play a significant role.

Why’s this? Imagine you are standing on a shingle beach. Looking down, you can clearly see each individual stone around your feet in detail, and you can make out the different colors and textures of each one. Now imagine you are standing at the top of a tall cliff that overlooks the same beach. From such a distance, the stones have lost all their individual color and definition, blending into one.

The same is true for screen resolution in that the further away from the screen you sit, the less detail you will see, until you eventually reach a distance at which it’s impossible to tell the difference between 4K, 8K, and even lower resolutions like Full HD.

When dealing with super-fine resolutions like 8K, the optimum viewing distance can become very short. Therefore, while your eyes are indeed more than capable of seeing the benefit of the additional pixels, any enjoyment you gain will likely be offset with discomfort at having to sit so close.

For example, research suggests that in order to appreciate the benefits of 8K resolution on a 60-inch screen, you would need to sit between 0.6-1.25m away from it.

Another factor to consider is visual acuity (or clarity of vision), which can vary significantly between individuals.
For example, Warner Bros. and a number of other movie production companies reportedly collaborated to perform a double-blind study to see if people could tell the difference between 4K and 8K. While the overall results showed the majority of subjects didn’t see a huge improvement, visual acuity did play a significant part.

Why buy an 8K display?

With so little 8K content available to enjoy, combined with the fact you’ll probably not even notice the difference in an everyday environment, why buy an 8K display at all?

First of all, 8K displays are perfectly capable of showing lower-resolution content by automatically upscaling the video to fill the extra pixels.

This means that you can not only watch 4K Blu-rays and Netflix shows, and play video games on such displays, but also be able to get the most out of them in the future when watching footage that was originally recorded in 8K.

Another advantage is that, because 8K is still relatively new technology, the TVs and monitors that support it are often the latest models with the most up-to-date features. This means they are more likely to benefit from things like fast refresh rates, high dynamic range (HDR), and wide color gamut (WCG), which are arguably more important than resolution when it comes to overall image quality.
So the inclusion of an 8K badge on a display’s box could translate into a lot more than just higher resolution, but it’s not a given and could even go the opposite way. Therefore, be sure to check specifications carefully and compare them to your current display before committing to a purchase.

What’s the point in recording 8K?

While the benefits of an 8K display may be hard to see for the everyday consumer, the benefits of recording in 8K are abundant. Indeed, many of us are already enjoying them without even realizing it.

More shooting and editing freedom

Shooting 8K footage for a 4K production brings great advantages for filmmakers.

With 8K offering so many more pixels than 4K, it’s possible to crop significantly into footage without losing the resolution required for 4K output.

This brings much more freedom when framing shots because it makes it possible to alter composition and stabilize footage in post-production.

It’s even possible to pan across an image or zoom in when working with such high resolutions. A filmmaker could, for example, record a long, wide-angle shot, before splitting it into wide and close-up shots by simply cropping in. This means one camera effectively does the work of two, saving both time and money.

Potential for better overall quality

It’s not unusual for hardware manufacturers to have their devices record 4K footage at a higher resolution if it’s possible (such as 5K or 6K) before downsampling the footage to 4K for output.

It is often claimed that by doing so, better quality footage can be obtained than if it were simply recorded at 4K to begin with.

So it’s entirely possible that the surplus of information that 8K recording brings may also benefit downsampled footage, with respect to certain aspects of video quality such as color and image noise control.

Futureproofing

While this is still new technology, there will come a time when it’s the norm, so there’s no harm in being prepared by adopting 8K now. Filmmakers will be ensuring their work stands the test of time and editors will already have the processing power and storage in place to ensure they’re ready for a seamless transition.

What about 12K and 16K?

12K and 16K may sound like they’re a long way off, but they’re closer than you think.

Back in April 2019, Sony unveiled a huge 63ft by 17ft 16K commercial screen at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) trade show, estimated to be worth up to $5m. Later that same year, it announced that it would be bringing the same capabilities to its consumer products.

Footage for a screen this size currently has to be made using more than one camera, but with companies like Blackmagic already offering 12K recording capabilities, it won’t be long until they reach the next stage.

Conclusion

So is 8K worth it? From a viewer’s perspective, it very much comes down to the individual and their specific display. As mentioned, visual acuity, preferred viewing distance, screen size, and overall display specification all contribute to the viewing experience, so they all need to be considered.

From a production point of view, the answer is much more straightforward. Recording at 8K and even 12K resolutions gives producers and editors an unprecedented level of creative freedom. While storage and performance issues need to be considered here, if it allows filmmakers to overcome certain challenging conditions on location, or achieve more creative compositions, or save time and money on additional equipment, it ultimately ends up appearing as the most logical option.

The post 8K resolution: What it is and whether it’s worth it appeared first on SmartFrame.

What has #FreeHawaiiPhoto taught us about making money from photography?

Peter Townshend — Fri, 05 Nov 2021 12:19:11 +0000

With high-quality cameras more accessible than ever, it’s harder than ever to make money out of photography. So how can photographers, image libraries, and content owners prosper in such tough times?

There’s a dilemma that’s all too common in photography and throughout the creative industries: To make money, your work needs to be popular and to be popular, it needs to be out there. But it can’t be out there if it’s not yet popular because many are not willing to pay for it.
So what’s the answer? How do you make money out of your images online?

Distribute them for free.

Sounds crazy, right? But bear with us

The case of #FreeHawaiiPhoto

Canadian-born photographer Cath Simard took the below photo of a Hawaiian road in 2017, which subsequently went viral across social media and the wider web. The image was shared countless times around the world, largely without permission or attribution.

Simard spent a great deal of time and effort trying to track down every illegal usage of the image and retrospectively gain fair compensation. But with no way of knowing just how many copies of the file were out there, it was impossible for her to keep up.
Exasperated at how the current method of online image display creates an ecosystem that does little to protect the intellectual property of creators, she decided to take a different approach. She began the #FreeHawaiiPhoto campaign. Simard sold the image as a non-fungible token (NFT) and then immediately released it for commercial and non-commercial use, with no fee attached.

The theory was that by encouraging usage of the image, the resulting fame would add value to an authenticated original. You could think of it like a record sleeve that has been signed by the band that recorded it, a football shirt signed by the player who wore it, or indeed, a printed image signed by the photographer who took it.
And it worked; the NFT, released as a 1/1 edition, ended up being sold to a collector for the equivalent of $303,481.

How it challenges the current image-monetization model

While this case is very specific and completely unique in many ways, it raises broader questions about the way in which we have historically made money out of digital images.

With the democratization of photography and mainstream access to high-quality scanning hardware, countless images are either freely available online (both legally and illegally) or relatively easy to create with the average smartphone camera.

With photography facing such devaluation, and the prospect of tracking down and being paid for every online use extremely difficult, it begs the question: is the traditional restrictive image-licensing model obsolete? We believe it is. It’s time to be free from the threat of image theft and give your images the exposure they deserve.

This isn’t to say that you should send a high-resolution JPEG of your image to everyone on the internet and hope it gets popular.

Rather, by using image-streaming technology to distribute it freely but securely, you can provide widespread access at maximum quality, while retaining complete control over where it appears.

This means that, as with the #FreeHawaiiPhoto case, the more your image is shared and the more times it is viewed, the more value could be added through its subsequent fame.

However, the difference with image streaming is that shares do not mean duplications; all views are securely streamed from just one original online copy.

The money, of course, still has to come from somewhere – and that’s where in-image advertising comes into play.

The new image-monetization model

Image streaming works for images much like YouTube works for videos. As an image owner, you store all your high-resolution original files on one secure server and each of those images can then be published across the web using embed codes.

Once displayed, they are protected from theft through right-clicks and screenshots and they can appear with uneditable captions and dynamic watermarks. Users can also zoom in to view all the finest details without affecting page loading times, and it’s even possible to include call-to-action buttons that direct a viewer to your online shop.

This highly engaging user experience is perfectly complemented by in-image advertising, whereby contextually targeted ads are served within the image frames as they are streamed.

Using artificial intelligence (AI), the content of the image and the page on which it appears can be evaluated, and this can then be combined with the geolocation of the user. Using this data, ads that are completely relevant to the content a user is viewing can be served within the frames of these images. This avoids wasted impressions through poor ad placement and flawed retargeting.

Read more: The fascinating ways in which the biggest brands are using AI today
Revenue from advertising is, of course, paid to the content owner, but a proportion is also paid to the publisher. This means that publishers not only get to use an image for free, but they also get paid every time it is viewed, providing an incentive for them to share it as widely as possible.

The result is the best of all worlds: Maximum exposure with no loss of revenue, while maintaining complete control.

Image streaming is the future of digital publishing

This article began with a moneymaking dilemma and has ended with what we believe is the ideal monetization model for creators, owners, and publishers of digital images.

With 1bn hours of YouTube content being watched every day, it’s clear that streaming works – and with YouTube’s 2020 ad revenue totaling $19.77bn, the potential earnings are undeniable.

The idea of speculating to accumulate can be a hard one to justify for photographers, image libraries and other content owners in the current landscape.

However, by using image streaming and in-image advertising, it’s possible to offer the incentive of payment for the publication of your images, without putting your hand in your pocket – and crucially, without making a single copy of the original image file.

Image streaming and in-image advertising make it possible to incentivize viral popularity with minimal security risks, while all the time getting paid. What’s not to like about that?

The post What has #FreeHawaiiPhoto taught us about making money from photography? appeared first on SmartFrame.

C2PA: Everything you need to know about the C2PA project

Peter Townshend — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 14:57:45 +0000

The Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) aims to implement a new standard for online content. But what exactly is it and how does it differ from existing initiatives?

From the safety of vaccines through to the reputation of political figures and everything in between, most people will be familiar with the idea of online audiences being intentionally misled by what they see on social media and forums. But few will be familiar with the various tools and initiatives that are currently being developed to help people understand the trustworthiness of what they see online. In this article, we examine one of the latest of these, the C2PA.

What is the C2PA?

The C2PA is a coming together of some of the biggest players in the tech, creative, publishing and broadcasting industries to create an open standard for content provenance and authenticity.

Leonard Rosenthal, Chair of the C2PA Technical Working Group and Adobe’s CAI Architect, described its goal as bringing “an open standard that can be adopted anywhere in the world, in individual organizations, in individual businesses, in industry segments. We want something that is usable anywhere and everywhere. And that’s whether we’re thinking about images, videos, audio, or documents.

“All we’re really saying here is we’re using some well-established mathematics and technology in the area of cryptography to be able to ensure that we can detect – or more specifically, you, as a consumer, can detect – when assets have been modified.”

Who are members of the C2PA?

The C2PA has over 30 members among its active contributors, including many extremely influential names, such as Adobe, Arm, BBC, Intel, Microsoft, Truepic and Twitter.

Why was the C2PA formed?

The aim of the C2PA is to combine the efforts of two existing initiatives designed to vouch for the integrity of digital media: The Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) and Project Origin.

What is the C2PA’s mission?

Laura Ellis, Head of Technology Forecasting at the BBC – one of the leading forces behind Project Origin – gave a good description of what the C2PA aims to achieve: “Given the disinformation that we’re encountering right across the media landscape, we just feel that now’s the time to be thinking about, in the long term, starting to embed these signals or align these signals to our content.

“If you can’t trust what you see, and you can’t trust that what you see is coming from the bona fide media organization that you believe it is, then that undermines trust right across the board for us.

“It’s something that we felt we needed to invest a lot of time and thought in, and we were more than delighted to find that there were like-minded people in the CAI at the time.”

How is the C2PA making a difference?

Release of the C2PA technical specification

On January 26, 2022, the C2PA released version 1.0 of its technical specification, forming the basis of the world’s first industry standard for content provenance.This open-source specification is designed for easy implementation with any hardware, software, or online platform – from the smallest outfits right up to the biggest tech. Such accessibility paves the way for the widespread adoption of a global standard for digital provenance.

At a recent online launch event, Adobe’s Executive Vice President Dana Rao celebrated the release of the C2PA open standard as an important milestone in the journey towards restoring trust in online content, saying: “Today’s release means that everybody – software companies, social media platforms – can start building trust into their tools right now. And this is critical, because we all as a society need to be able to trust what we see, what we hear, and what we read.

“Being able to leverage our joint technical expertise has allowed us to create something that’s really going to work in our products and our tools and that’s the benefit of a standard that is created by and for the industry. We know what the problems are, we know how to solve them.”

The specification provides a comprehensive overview of the standard, covering the most technical details, while also offering a jargon-free explainer that’s designed to be accessible to all.

It also outlines the potential threats C2PA faces, provides detailed harms modelling, and offers information on user experience, including how C2PA information will be presented.

The Deepfake Taskforce Act
The release of version 1.0 of the C2PA technical specification comes shortly after the United States Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee unanimously passed the Deepfake Task Force Act, which will create a task force at the Department of Homeland Security to tackle the ongoing threat posed by deepfake technology.

The act was introduced by Ohio Senator Rob Portman and Michigan Senator Gary Peters, both of whom appeared via video at the C2PA specification launch event.

“I’m pleased to help lead this good fight against deepfakes and to promote the authenticity of online content,” said Senator Portman.

“I’ve been honored to work closely with Dana Rao and teams at Adobe, Truepic, and other C2PA members to introduce new legislation to help develop standards for digital content provenance.”

Senator Peters continued: “This important bill will give the Department of Homeland Security additional tools to address the threats posed by deepfakes. It creates a taskforce made up of experts from government, academia, civil society, and industry, who will be charged with creating a coordinated plan to explore how the creation of a digital content provenance standard could help prevent the spread of deepfakes and disinformation.”

Such powerful support for the C2PA open standard is testament not only to the level of expertise that has gone into its creation, but also the level of threat that misinformation and disinformation poses to society.

CAI vs Project Origin vs C2PA

So, what exactly is the CAI? And what is Project Origin? And how will these fit with the C2PA project?

What is the CAI?

Led by Adobe, the CAI is a group that’s working on a secure end-to-end system regarding the provenance of digital content.

Who are members of the CAI?

The CAI was formed by Adobe, Twitter, and the New York Times, but has since added a large number of prominent names to its list of members, such as the BBC, Getty Images, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Truepic, and SmartFrame Technologies.

How does the CAI work?

The CAI gives photographers the option to automatically add tamper-evident time, date, location, and author details to an image at point of capture, which can then follow that image, unchanged, for the rest of its life.

In addition to these primary details, CAI data can be added every time that image is edited, logging anything from contrast tweaks, right through to composites. What’s more, by visiting a dedicated verification page, it’s possible to view versions of the image before and after edits, along with – if applicable – thumbnails of original images as they looked before they were combined.
Experience the CAI for yourself with the below image from renowned photographer David Yarrow, displayed using SmartFrame’s image streaming technology. Simply click on the information icon in the top left-hand corner of the image.

To read more about the collaboration between the CAI and SmartFrame, click here.

While the CAI’s current focus is images, it has earmarked other content that may eventually use the set of standards under development.

Learn more: Content Authenticity Initiative: What you need to know

IPTC data vs CAI data

So what’s the difference between the existing EXIF and IPTC metadata, and the standard proposed by the CAI?

There are three main ways that CAI improves on IPTC. The first is detail. As outlined above, the CAI not only makes it possible to log when, where and how the image was created at the point of capture, but it also continues to add to this data set as the image evolves, providing complete transparency around its provenance.

The second is accessibility. CAI data can be viewed at the touch of a button when an image is displayed online, making it as easy as possible for even the least tech-savvy users to access the data, without the need for any specialist software.

The third advantage is security. CAI data is tamper-evident, meaning that once it is added, any alterations will be clearly visible.

What is Project Origin?

Formed by the BBC, Microsoft, CBC/Radio Canada and the New York Times – and joint-led by the former two organizations – Project Origin is an initiative that provides a way of quickly and reliably authenticating the provenance of a piece of media online.

It aims to achieve a similar goal to the CAI, but for broadcast media instead of still images.

How does Project Origin work?

Producers can register the final edit of a production with Project Origin and give it a digital fingerprint in the process. Using this unique identifier, a tamper-proof certification of authentication is created and stored securely on a distributed ledger. This certification can then be embedded into the media item before it is published.

A user’s browser will then compare the fingerprint of the media being played with the original fingerprint on the distributed ledger. If the media has been altered in any way from its original certified form, Project Origin will alert the user.

How will the CAI and Project Origin work together?

As outlined above, the CAI and Project Origin essentially aim to achieve the same thing in a slightly different way, for slightly different applications. And with plans in place to develop the CAI standards to include video among other types of media, the technologies would inevitably end up in competition with one another.

The C2PA changes all that, and while the technology may still be evolving, the collaboration between these players is firmly established.

“The CAI has been focused on the creator ecosystem on devices and on social media. Project Origin has been focused on the news media ecosystem, particularly on video,” explained Andy Parsons, Director of the CAI.

“I don’t want to leave the impression that these are the only [two] organizations,” Parsons continued, “but these have been the focal points that agreed, early on in the lifetime of the C2PA, would come together to develop technical standards in one place, and effectively learn from each other in these various ecosystems.”

What has changed with the formation of the C2PA?

While the overall goal of the C2PA has not changed from that which was set out in detail by both the CAI and Project Origin, the key point is that this force has been strengthened.

A number of powerful organizations linking arms and forging ahead in the same direction certainly bolsters the fight against misinformation and disinformation.

However, the C2PA is keen to stress that these specifications have been designed not to prevent bad actors from acting badly, but to instead equip users with the tools they need to make their own decisions on the trustworthiness of the content they’re viewing.

“We’re not saying that this piece of content can be trusted, we’re saying it comes from where it says it comes from and it’s not been manipulated on its way to you,” emphasized Ellis. “C2PA is going to help you to make those decisions, but it cannot make those decisions for you.”

How will the C2PA bring transparency to the digital world?

While the leaders of the new coalition are the first to acknowledge that this is the beginning of a long and challenging road to popular adoption of the standard, all agree that it will ultimately lead to a safer, better-informed digital world.

“Project Origin focuses on the professional news organizations and they work with their constituents to make sure we’re building the right thing,” explained Rosenthal. “CAI is doing the same sort of thing within the creative community.

So, it’s outreach, it’s education, it’s all these things – but all of it then comes together in the C2PA for the technical work.”

What is the scope of the C2PA?

With this concerted focus on educating the masses, you can expect to hear a lot more about the C2PA in the coming weeks, months, and years, in a broad spectrum of areas other than the primary – and arguably most important – areas of the media and human rights.

“We’ve gotten interest from a wide range of industry segments with regard to this technology – for example, the insurance industry, medical imagery, satellite imagery, the music business [and] government documents,” said Santiago Lyon, Adobe’s CAI Head of Advocacy and Education.

“Essentially, any piece of digital content that would benefit from more information about its provenance, regardless of where that interest arises or what the use case is. That’s how broad this is.”

This article was updated on January 28, 2022.

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The problem with Google’s SR3 image-upscaling technology

Peter Townshend — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 09:16:20 +0000

Google’s new AI-powered, super-resolution image technology certainly looks impressive, but what are the implications for a digital imaging industry that has historically used downsampling as a form of protection against theft?

While many of us still regard artificial intelligence (AI) as something out of science fiction movies, its role in digital imaging has made it more a part of our everyday lives than we might think. And its usage is only set to increase.

If you have an interest in photography, you might be familiar with the term in relation to your camera and the editing software you use, but beyond this, there is a huge number of other applications for the technology. These include the moderation of social media content, medical diagnostics, and driverless cars, among many others.

However, one of the most recent breakthroughs in the use of AI in imaging is Google’s new image upscaling (or super-resolution) technology, which is designed to increase image resolution.

Announced in a blog post by Google AI – a division of the tech giant dedicated to artificial intelligence – it is called Super-Resolution via Repeated Refinements (SR3) and uses deep learning, an advanced form of machine learning that is based on artificial neural networks.

In this article we provide an overview of the technology and discuss how, while designed for good, there could also be a darker side.

What makes Google’s AI-powered super-resolution imaging so special?

AI-powered image upscaling is no new thing; the technology has been around for some time, courtesy of a raft of online apps. But while the results from some of these have been impressive, traditional models have struggled to produce perfect results, with upscaled images often appearing blurry.

Google has taken a new approach by adopting a different type of deep generative model called a diffusion model, which it believes is the more stable and higher-quality option.

A diffusion model works by taking a high-resolution image and gradually adding Gaussian noise until the image details are obscured. The process is then reversed, slowly ‘de-noising’ the image, adding details back in until it reaches full resolution.
By doing this many times, with many different photographs of many different subjects, it is possible to develop an optimization algorithm for the process.

Using this model, SR3 reduces a low-resolution input image down to pure noise, then regenerates it as outlined above. However, through extensive training on countless images, SR3 is apparently able to predict the most likely pixels required for it to continue adding detail above and beyond the input image’s original resolution.

While some small imperfections can be seen, the results appear remarkable. And when pitted against other face super-resolution methods in a two-alternative, forced-choice experiment, Google’s technology was the clear winner, with 47.4% of respondents choosing the SR3 image as the genuine version. See it for yourself here.

The problem with image upscaling

The benefits of this new and improved deep-generative image upscaling are both undeniable and abundant. For example, when futureproofing older images that were taken on a device with lower capabilities or optimized for outdated screen resolutions, this standard of upscaling presents a fantastic opportunity.

And that’s just on the most trivial level. With the potential for more efficient medical diagnostics and improved safety of driverless cars, there is undoubtedly a very important place for this technology in the future of our everyday lives.

However, while bringing much good to the world, what will this powerful super-resolution imaging mean for the security of digital images online?

Consider this: If you own the copyright to a particular image, in the vast majority of cases you would have access to the original file at maximum resolution. So why would you need to upscale it?
Furthermore, when you consider that over 75% of the world’s population carries a smartphone in their pocket, the majority of which possessing the power to create more than enough resolution to meet a user’s requirements (and some soon to push it to the extreme), it’s clear that the everyday user would have very little legitimate use for this technology.

In fact, many photographers deliberately downsample their images before sharing them online as a form of security against theft, the logic being that, while the images can still be stolen, their low resolution significantly restricts options for misuse.

Therefore, these advances in image upscaling could potentially expose trillions of downsampled images to fraud, affecting countless livelihoods as a result.

How can we benefit from image upscaling while ensuring complete image protection?

This is certainly a concern for many artists, photographers, and content owners around the world. With an industry reportedly already facing up to €532.5bn of annual losses through the theft of digital images, could this be the nail in the coffin?

There are other means of protecting images online, such as watermarking, adding metadata, and using Google’s reverse image search to detect unauthorized usage. However, these methods – like the practice of downsampling – do nothing to tackle the root of the problem: image theft.

Image streaming, on the other hand, provides complete image protection online. The technology works by a user storing their images in a secure central bank and streaming them to websites using an embed code – much like videos are streamed on YouTube.

Not only are the streamed images protected against dragging and dropping and right-click actions, but the image owner can also see a list of URLs that each image appears on, with the ability to block websites as they see fit.
What’s more, with Hyper Zoom functionality and full-screen viewing providing maximum detail, while maintaining fast load times (as illustrated in the SmartFrame below), image streaming also eliminates any need for photographers to downsample their images.

Conclusion

Until SR3 becomes available for testing, it remains to be seen just how effective the technology is. However, judging from the results published by Google, it appears to be a huge step forward in both imaging and AI that will bring outstanding good to the world.
That said, in the wrong hands, it has the potential to be devastating for the imaging industry. So, the question of how widely the technology will be available once released is sure be on the lips of photographers and rights-holders the world over.
With so many potential implications, it’s never been more important to ensure all online images are protected from day one. That way, the industry can simply enjoy the benefits of SR3 and other amazing forms of deep generative super-resolution imaging, without worrying about the potential harm this technology could cause when used by bad actors.

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Brand Protection: Everything You Need To Know

Peter Townshend — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 10:47:25 +0000

What are the various threats that your brand could face online? And how can image security and ad safety form an integral part of your brand protection strategy?

Keeping your brand safe has never been more important, but in a largely unregulated digital world, it can be difficult to achieve.

In this article, we look at how both digital images and digital advertising can damage your brand’s reputation. We also explain how a combination of protection over image theft and innovative contextual targeting can provide robust security.

What is brand protection?

Brand protection is the process of taking measures to prevent third parties from using your intellectual property without permission.

Intellectual property is defined as anything that’s created by the mind. This could range from a product name or a company logo to the design of a product, a written work, or an artistic creation.

This unauthorized use results in brand infringement or brand abuse, which can come in many forms, from counterfeiting and copyright infringement to brand impersonation. But they’re all designed to achieve the same thing, namely to allow bad actors to piggyback on your brand’s reputation for their own gain.

An obvious consequence of this is the loss of revenue. But what’s arguably more important is the potential for it to erode trust in your brand – and this can be devastating.

Why is brand protection important online?

Brand abuse is a well-established problem, but the arrival of the internet has seen it proliferate.

Recent statistics that provide a sense of the scale of the issue include the value of the global counterfeit goods market, which was estimated to be close to $2.8 trillion in 2022.

This is not just because the internet has given fraudsters a global reach, but also because of the impersonal nature of modern online shopping habits.

In the days before e-commerce, the process of buying a product or service usually meant inspecting that product or speaking to a professional in person before handing over any money.

With global retail e-commerce sales rising from $1.34 trillion in 2014 to $4.28 trillion in 2020, however, it’s clear that in modern times, we’re far more comfortable basing our buying decisions on what we see on-screen.

With this in mind, if there is a listing on a well-established e-commerce platform displaying the correct logos, design, and colors of a well-known brand – and backed up by official-looking images – can we really blame a less risk-aware shopper for clicking on the “buy” button?

Brand abuse through digital images

Digital images play a huge role in convincing online shoppers that what they’re purchasing is genuine.

A study by Etsy, for example, found that 90% of shoppers considered the quality of photos to be either ‘very or extremely important’ to a purchase decision. Such figures go to show just how valuable professionally taken images are when garnering trust.

And the threat goes beyond listings on e-commerce platforms. With high-quality, official brand photography freely available to steal online, what’s to stop a fraudster from creating a false social media account or, worse still, an entire imitation website?

When you consider that 5% of all Facebook profiles – a total of 142 million – are reportedly fake and that more than three billion phishing emails that typically direct users to scam websites are sent every day, the potential size of the issue becomes clear.

Damaging digital advertising

Another potential source of damage to your brand’s reputation is digital advertising.

With the rise of programmatic advertising, human intervention in the ad-selection process has been almost eliminated. On one hand, this complete automation has improved efficiency.

On the other, it has led to a reduction in quality control and the potential for big problems for both advertisers and publishers.

Poor ad placement

With the ever-more complex processes of selling digital ad inventory, badly placed ads have become a common occurrence. Astonishingly, one study revealed that only 2.8% of participants thought the last digital ad they saw was relevant.

Often this involves an ad appearing next to inappropriate content and, while it is possible to see the comedy in unfortunate placements, there’s a far more serious side too.

A 2020 study by Integral Ad Science (IAS) found that 70% of UK and 62% of US consumers will cease using a brand’s products if their ads are found near unsafe content.

And it’s not just dangerous or offensive content that causes problems – quality plays a big part too.

For example, the same study from IAS found that 52% of consumers are likely to engage with ads surrounded by high-quality content, as opposed to 13% when viewed in a low-quality environment.

All of this goes to show the importance of ad placement in the success of your advertising and, in turn, the protection of your brand.

Retargeting gone wrong

Retargeting is a form of behavioral targeting that uses cookies to target users who have left a website without converting.

If you’ve ever searched for something online one day, and then noticed it following you around the internet for weeks afterward, this will have been down to retargeting.

While in some cases this form of digital advertising has proven to be extremely effective, it does have its flaws.

For example, you may have changed your mind since you visited the website, or potentially bought the product on the high street already. Worse still, the advert could regard a personal or sensitive product that you’d rather not be reminded of.

Either way, the result is the same: a disgruntled user, which is bad for both advertisers and publishers.

Bad ads

Whereas above we spoke about the effect bad content has on a brand’s digital ads, it can also work the other way. Bad ads can be just as damaging to a brand’s carefully curated content.

The term ‘bad ads’ in the digital world is used to describe digital ads that make for a bad user experience. They could contain offensive or inappropriate content, promote fraudulent products or services, or even spread malware through a practice known as malvertising.

Bad ads are a big deal. To give you an idea, Google blocked and removed 5.2 billion bad ads in 2022 alone. A problem of this scale presents a very real threat.

With the anonymous nature of the programmatic landscape creating the perfect environment for bad actors to distribute this type of ad, you must take the correct security measures to protect your brand’s reputation.

Preventing brand abuse with image security

We believe that securing all imagery associated with your product or service is an essential part of any brand protection strategy. With proper protection in place, it becomes difficult for fraudsters to copy, manipulate, and redistribute your images as their own.

One way to do this is by using image streaming, which enables you to control the online use of every single image you upload.

By using this technology, all your brand’s images can be streamed from a single bank of individual, accredited master copies. This allows you to view a list of every page on which an image is displayed, with the ability to block domains as you wish.

A further advantage of this is that it gives those publishing your images peace of mind, in that they can be sure the images they’re using have come from a reputable source.

Potential abusers of your brand, on the other hand, would face multi-level theft prevention. Dragging and dropping are made impossible while right-clicks are met with image-obscuring copyright messages, and image-scraping bots are also deterred.

Such a strong combination of protection makes it extremely difficult for abusers to gain the imagery they need to impersonate your brand online with any credibility.

Ensuring brand safety through contextual in-image advertising

The risks that come with digital advertising boil down to two things: context and protection. If ads are not displayed in the right context for the brand in question, or if there are insufficient security measures in place to detect and block bad ads, even the most impeccable reputation can be very quickly tarnished.

Contextual in-image advertising is one way to ensure safe and effective online advertising. At SmartFrame, for example, we collaborate closely with image owners and libraries to contextually target in-image ads with complete accuracy.

Advanced technology analyzes the contents of the webpage, the image itself, and the user’s geolocation to build an accurate picture of the environment in which an ad will appear. Ads are then matched perfectly to their surroundings to ensure they’re always relevant.

To complement contextual advertising, it’s important that ad inventory is completely protected from bad ads and vetted to maintain maximum quality.

In summary

Brand protection is a broad term that can cover countless areas, both online and offline, and such scope can make it hard to know where to start.

While image security and contextual advertising alone will not make your brand impervious to harm, they should form a vital part of your overall brand protection strategy. With this in place, you’ll have a strong basis from which to build comprehensive online brand safety.

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Is the internet ready for Samsung’s 200MP smartphone sensor?

Peter Townshend — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 12:22:33 +0000

Samsung has announced the launch of its ISOCELL HP1, the world’s first 200MP smartphone sensor. But in a digital world dictated by bandwidth (or lack of it), are we ready?

Back in April 2020, we examined Samsung’s 600MP sensor ambitions, and specifically the company’s aim of providing sensors that capture better image quality than the human eye.

At the time this was purely a target, but the assumption was that Samsung had something up its sleeve. Otherwise, why say it? Besides, the tech giant certainly had form, producing the industry’s first 64MP sensor in 2020 before announcing a 108MP sensor later in the year.

Samsung has now taken another big step closer to its goal, with the announcement of its ISOCELL HP1 – the industry’s first 200MP mobile image sensor. To put that into context, the only other sensors that currently come close to this resolution offer 150MP and are found in Phase One professional medium format cameras. However, these can set you back a five-figure sum and certainly won’t fit in your pocket.

You can learn more about the sensor technology here or watch the below video to see exactly what it is capable of. Namely, a 616m² print of a cat.

While there are many advantages to offering such high resolutions, will the everyday smartphone user really see the benefit? In this article, we take a look at the how and the why behind this tech, and discuss why it can never work within the current online image ecosystem.

How do you fit 200MP into a smartphone sensor?

Such high sensor resolutions have historically only been squeezed into much larger medium format sensors, which can measure over 5cm on the longest edge. So you’d be forgiven for wondering how this can work in a smartphone sensor that is a fraction of the size.

The answer is in the size of the pixels. Samsung has been working hard to create the smallest sensor pixels out there at just 0.65µm – tiny compared to the 3.76µm pixels of the aforementioned Phase One sensor. With far less space taken up by each pixel, there’s plenty of extra room to pack more in.

Image quality v resolution

Those new to sensor technology may wonder why everyone isn’t doing this. The answer? Image quality.

Image quality is determined, in large part, by the amount of light a sensor absorbs, and the bigger each individual pixel is, the more light that can be captured.

Therefore, camera manufacturers are faced with a trade-off. By reducing pixel size and packing more into a sensor, it’s possible to achieve extremely high image resolutions – but with smaller pixels, less light can be absorbed, so image quality suffers.

That’s the reason for the larger medium format sensors mentioned above; they allow manufacturers to maximize both the size of the pixels and the number of pixels included. This means they can produce images with stunning detail, while retaining a wide dynamic range and the ability to perform in low-light conditions.

Pixel-binning technology

The way Samsung has overcome this trade-off is by using clever pixel-binning technology. In lower-light conditions, the technology automatically merges sets of adjacent pixels together to create one larger pixel with greater sensitivity.

This does of course mean that you sacrifice output resolution, which is reduced to as little as 12.5MP in the lowest light. However, that’s still higher than the iPhone 12 Pro’s maximum resolution of 12MP.

Why do you need 200MP in a smartphone sensor?

On the face of it, the attraction of Samsung’s 200MP smartphone sensor is clear. Not only can you enjoy extreme detail in still images and 8K video capabilities, but all those extra pixels can also greatly enhance digital zoom performance.

However, digital zoom aside, will the everyday user really see the benefit? In our super-connected modern world, photography has never been more important as a means of communication. While the photo-printing industry is on the rise, the vast majority of smartphone images will only ever be shared digitally – and with social media forming such an important part of our lives, many will indeed be taken specifically for that purpose.

With webpage loading times noticeably impacted by images larger than 2000px on the longest edge and most social media platforms applying significant compression to uploads, what will become of the huge 16,384 x 12,288px files captured by high-resolution sensors like this one? Will they languish unopened in the cloud? Or, worse still, simply be deleted for taking up too much precious disk space?

The answer is unclear, but what’s certain is that the historic method of online image display is becoming obsolete in the face of such rapid advances in digital imaging.

While the fastest broadband download speed in the world reportedly stands at 226.60Mbps in Singapore, the same report shows that there are nearly 1.5bn people around the world who suffer speeds slower than 20Mbps. So what can be done to maximize both quality and user experience for everyone?

The role of image-streaming technology

One way for this new technology to thrive is through image streaming. Rather than uploading image files directly to a website, they are uploaded to a central server and then streamed to individual websites using an embed code – much like embedding a YouTube video.

By using this method, only the optimum number of pixels required within the frame are streamed at any one moment. This enables users to zoom in to the finest details of the photograph they are viewing, without the usual impact on page loading times caused by the use of high-resolution images.

Learn more: More detail than ever: Hyper Zoom meets 100MP images

The result is the best of both worlds: extremely high-resolution images displayed in all their detailed glory, combined with fast loading speeds to ensure maximum page optimization for all users.

The future

There is no doubt that image resolution will continue to increase, with Samsung itself planning to release a 576MP mobile sensor by 2025. And while exact details are yet to be confirmed, one thing is certain: with increased resolution comes increased file size.

So, in a world where most photographs we take are made to share digitally, how can the current method of online image display be sustainable? Why would users invest in super-high-resolution sensor technology if they are unable to use the full extent of its capabilities to express themselves?

If the Samsung ISOCELL HP1 and others like it are to be truly successful, there needs to be a change to the way we view images online. With widespread adoption of image-streaming technology across websites, social media, and messenger apps, we can take the online image ecosystem to a whole new level of quality.

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