[HN Gopher] Xerox scanners/photocopiers randomly alter numbers i...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Xerox scanners/photocopiers randomly alter numbers in scanned
       documents (2013)
        
       Author : SergeAx
       Score  : 455 points
       Date   : 2021-11-15 04:47 UTC (18 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.dkriesel.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.dkriesel.com)
        
       | jl6 wrote:
       | Interestingly, we have seen in the last week in the Rittenhouse
       | trial an example of a judge taking a hyper-skeptic position on
       | technology - namely, distrusting the zoom feature because it
       | might add in extra information not present in the original image.
       | 
       | It's easy to ridicule this, and I do think that particular
       | judge's thought process was rooted in ignorance rather than
       | plausible paranoia, but it's not hard to see how cases like this
       | Xerox bug sow the seeds of distrust in the non-tech populace.
       | There really isn't a lot of clear daylight between "the scanned
       | copy might be different to the original" and "the zoomed version
       | might be different to the original".
        
         | megous wrote:
         | Skype can replace your "background" in realtime, so why
         | ignorance, when regular users are using these video
         | modification features all the time?
        
         | syshum wrote:
         | IMO the Rittenhouse claim is not paranoia at all, Other
         | analysis of that same video has definitely proved that what the
         | prosecution is claiming is taking place is not taking place at
         | all,
        
         | ryanmonroe wrote:
         | The discussion around zoom becomes a lot less ridiculous when
         | you see the video still they wanted to zoom in on. The
         | prosecution wanted to zoom in in this video for the jury and
         | argue Kyle was raising his gun and not his arm at that point in
         | time. With this resolution, and the importance of that question
         | to the trial, it makes more sense that the judge was being very
         | cautious about zooming in.
         | 
         | https://i.imgur.com/pTY58LW.jpeg
        
         | wodenokoto wrote:
         | With AI up-ressing, zooming can definitely add new information,
         | so the judge is not far off.
        
         | 83457 wrote:
         | Sounds like the reverse of ignorance.
        
         | georgesw wrote:
         | If you watched the trial, the reason the judge was skeptical is
         | because the expert witness present to explain the process
         | responded "I don't know" when asked to explain how the image
         | enlargement works and admitted it adds additional unknown
         | information.
         | 
         | The judge further clarified by using an analogy, breathalyzers
         | are often used by cops who dont know how they work, but the
         | breathalyzers machine has already been judicially accepted as
         | reliable evidence. This is not the case for upscale images.
        
         | dinkelberg wrote:
         | In my view, it has become necessary to place some distrust in
         | digital images due to the ML video processing that is being
         | applied nowadays. Artificial neural networks are being used to
         | "upscale" video footage, that is, to create footage that
         | appears to have a higher resolution than the source material.
         | It is clear that these methods can introduce artifacts
         | ("details") into images that were "dreamt up" by the artificial
         | neural network.
         | 
         | I do not know how this relates to this specific trial, but if I
         | were a judge I would want to rule out that footage used as
         | evidence was manipulated by "AI".
        
         | anonu wrote:
         | > was rooted in ignorance
         | 
         | Not sure I follow. Someone questions a technical process
         | because it might add extra information seems like a fairly
         | cogent thought and awareness of tech. Even if it's not
         | described or discussed in technical terms.
        
           | kzrdude wrote:
           | Yes I think it's good if the judge has a deep respect for
           | "There might be things I don't know here" instead of jumping
           | to judgment
        
           | jl6 wrote:
           | I just meant that I think the judge simply has no idea of how
           | computers draw images to screens, and that he wasn't making a
           | sophisticated argument about the risks of AI-based upscaling
           | or unverified closed source software or some other kind of
           | techno-trickery.
           | 
           | And furthermore that this isn't a slight on him, given how
           | hard it is for the public to divine exactly how technology
           | works, as illustrated by Xerox.
        
             | post_break wrote:
             | Ignorance and skepticism are completely different things.
        
         | jasode wrote:
         | _> an example of a judge taking a hyper-skeptic position on
         | technology - namely, distrusting the zoom feature because it
         | might add in extra information not present in the original
         | image._
         | 
         | Some mocked the judge but here's an example where an AI
         | upscaling algorithm added a human face that was never there:
         | 
         | https://petapixel.com/2020/08/17/gigapixel-ai-accidentally-a...
         | 
         | For terminology trivia, that algorithm seems to be doing a
         | human version of _pareidolia_
         | :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia
         | 
         | EDIT: based on some replies I see, my cite isn't to claim that
         | Apple iOS is using AI enhancement during zoom to add fake
         | pixels. The point is to consider why the judge (who is not a
         | computer programmer) is skeptical. Therefore, his request for
         | _expert testimony_ to rule out that the zoom function doesn 't
         | add false information is not that unreasonable.
         | 
         | In other words, what's obvious to a HN tech audience doesn't
         | always apply to judges who don't have the same technical
         | knowledge of how zoom algorithms actually work. So considering
         | the judge's state of mind, the "fact" that iOS zoom doesn't add
         | false incriminating pixels isn't a _fact to his level of
         | satisfaction_ unless the prosecutors bring in an expert to
         | confirm it.
        
           | croes wrote:
           | Does the iPad zoom function any upscaling?
        
             | ImprobableTruth wrote:
             | You can't zoom without upscaling in some form. If you zoom
             | in on an image in your browser, the image gets upscaled.
             | It's going to be using a simple form of upscaling (default
             | is bilinear), but it's still upscaling.
        
               | _djo_ wrote:
               | AI-driven upscaling which fills in pixels using data from
               | other images is quite different to algorithmic
               | interpolation that only uses the available information in
               | the image being worked on.
        
               | ImprobableTruth wrote:
               | Both can introduce wrong information or cause artifacts.
               | "It only uses the available information" is a red
               | herring.
        
               | gifnamething wrote:
               | Then this is a problem inherent with digital photography.
               | Any image you see is interpolated from Bayer data. There
               | are multiple algorithms with different results, the
               | colour needs to be adjusted, and the camera distortion
               | needs to be reversed. All of this happens before you see
               | anything on your screen.
        
               | _djo_ wrote:
               | A zooming or scaling algorithm that only uses available
               | image data is deterministic, it should get the same
               | result every time.
               | 
               | One that relies on a neural network trained on other
               | images is not, it might produce a subtly different image
               | each time it's run and introduce artefacts from other
               | images.
        
               | numpad0 wrote:
               | Neural network _is_ deterministic, in the same sense that
               | bilinear interpolation is deterministic.
        
               | ImprobableTruth wrote:
               | What? Not only is this a bizarre argument (why would
               | deterministically creating wrong information be okay?),
               | it's not even correct. There's nothing that fundamentally
               | prevents an image scaling NN from being deterministic and
               | I doubt you think that deterministically adding someone's
               | face would be fine, right?
        
               | _djo_ wrote:
               | 'Wrong' information, if it's expected, understood, and
               | predictable, is still usable. Especially if we know it's
               | not going to introduce completely alien artefacts into an
               | image like Ryan Reynold's face.
               | 
               | All of the standard zoom algorithms fall into that
               | category. Whether bilinear, nearest neighbour, or
               | similar, they're all going to produce similar outcomes
               | with which, importantly, a teenaged witness on the stand
               | will be familiar. Same with the way TVs upscale content.
               | 
               | It's not like this is new evidence being introduced in
               | its zoomed-in form. It's an iPad and footage or images
               | being used in the same way prosecutors and defence
               | attorneys have used them for years when cross-examining
               | witnesses.
        
               | jschwartzi wrote:
               | The reason it's okay to be deterministic and wrong in
               | engineering is because it's a lot easier to explain the
               | conditions under which the wrong result will be produced
               | and how you can identify those situations in the specific
               | photo. The reason I think a simple resize that
               | deterministically adds misinformation is better than a
               | neural network is because I can calculate the bounds
               | under which the algorithm produces wrong information and
               | label the image. And I can do that without running the
               | algorithm.
        
               | andrepd wrote:
               | What stops a neural network zoom to be just labelled as
               | "zoom"? I think its a very pertinent question from the
               | judge.
        
               | _djo_ wrote:
               | Asking a question is fine, accepting the defence's claim
               | without further substantiation and the rest of the follow
               | up is less so.
        
               | jtbayly wrote:
               | And how do you resolve conflicting technological claims
               | from the defense and prosecution? By expert witness.
               | Which is what the judge did. So what's the problem?
        
               | _djo_ wrote:
               | That's not what happened. The judge placed the burden of
               | proving that zooming didn't do that on the prosecution,
               | and only afforded them a few minutes to find an expert
               | witness.
               | 
               | In the end the iPad was not used.
        
               | ClumsyPilot wrote:
               | Untill iPad is open source, you can't trully know what
               | they did to the image
        
               | masklinn wrote:
               | > You can't zoom without upscaling in some form.
               | 
               | Of course you can, by having the image originally be
               | displayed downscaled for instance. The back camera of
               | your average phone has a much higher resolution than its
               | display, or most computer displays for that matter.
        
           | londons_explore wrote:
           | While as far as I know no pinch-to-zoom software does this
           | today, I can totally imagine that in just a few years it
           | might be common for pinch-zoom in browsers and photo gallery
           | apps to do AI upscaling.
           | 
           | Remember, for most users, a photo only has to be as accurate
           | as their own memories. If extra detail is added to make the
           | photo look better, it doesn't matter as long as it isn't
           | detail the user remembers differently.
        
             | ben-schaaf wrote:
             | Apple already uses AI to enhance photos with their Deep
             | Fusion and Google makes even more use of AI in their Pixel
             | 6. Added detail where it doesn't exist seems like a very
             | reasonable concern.
        
           | cm2187 wrote:
           | And in a trial you only need to slightly modify a facial
           | expression to affect the outcome. Imagine if some defendant
           | appears to smile while a victim describes its ordeal.
        
             | IshKebab wrote:
             | Yes I point that out on this very recent submission where
             | it actually does modify the expression of a tiger:
             | 
             | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29202899#29213771
        
           | _djo_ wrote:
           | Anyone would be supportive of judges being cautious over
           | upscaling, which we know has the potential to introduce false
           | information because it's doing inference and interpolation.
           | 
           | Zooming is another issue entirely.
        
             | ClumsyPilot wrote:
             | Last time we in UK court assumed that prosecution's claims
             | about technology could be trusted, we sent 200 (!!)
             | innocent people to jail
             | 
             | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Post_Office_scandal
        
             | ImprobableTruth wrote:
             | How do you think zooming works?
        
               | Twisol wrote:
               | If the pre-zoomed image was already downscaled (e.g. to
               | fit a small display), then up to a point, zooming should
               | simply downscale _less_ , i.e. remove fewer pixels.
               | Beyond that point, yes, a zoom would have to perform some
               | kind of interpolation.
               | 
               | In the CSI "zoom and enhance", anything beyond the
               | simplest forms of interpolation would be part of
               | "enhance", which is to say, not part of "zoom".
        
               | ImprobableTruth wrote:
               | Even downscaling uses interpolation, but sure. The zoomed
               | in part definitely wasn't shown at its native resolution
               | though.
               | 
               | And bilinear interpolation is as simple as you can get
               | besides nearest neighbor, yet it still has the potential
               | to introduce wrong information/cause artifacting. So even
               | in the "CSI" sense, zooming can cause issues (unless you
               | want to argue that only nearest neighbor is CSI
               | 'zooming'? But then not even browsers do only CSI
               | 'zooming').
        
               | _djo_ wrote:
               | As Twisol said, zooming doesn't inherently require
               | interpolation. But when it does require interpolation,
               | it's usually an extremely simple and well-understood form
               | like nearest neighbour interpolation that's not going to
               | result in things like faces being inserted.
               | 
               | It also only uses the available data in the image itself
               | on which to work.
               | 
               | It's fundamentally different from neural network-driven
               | inference and interpolation that attempts to fill in
               | pixels using evidence from _other_ images that the
               | network has been trained on.
        
               | ImprobableTruth wrote:
               | This is just pivoting. _In this case_ zooming uses
               | interpolation which  "has the potential to introduce
               | false information" exactly as you mentioned. It using
               | only the available data doesn't mean that interpolation
               | can't go wrong. So what if it's not AI?
               | 
               | And yes, it's so well understood that the prosecution had
               | no idea of what's going on, claiming that it's "common
               | sense" that it works just like a magnifying glass, which
               | is simply wrong. Using bilinear (or bicubic)
               | interpolation makes the edges of an image blurrier,
               | especially when you're zooming in as much as they did on
               | low-quality footage.
        
               | _djo_ wrote:
               | Come now, you're reaching. The defence attorney
               | specifically claimed that "iPads, which are made by
               | Apple, have artificial intelligence in them that allow
               | things to be viewed through three dimensions and
               | logarithms." and "[The iPad] uses artificial intelligence
               | or their logarithms to create what they believe is
               | happening. So this isn't actually enhanced video; this is
               | Apple's iPad programming creating what it thinks is
               | there, not what necessarily is there."
               | 
               | Aside from the confusion about logarithms, where I
               | presume he meant algorithms, and the false claim about
               | 3D, the defence was making a claim about _artificial
               | intelligence_ being used to upscale the footage. Which is
               | inaccurate, and a specific claim being made that 's
               | unsupported by any evidence.
               | 
               | Funny enough, the same sort of question arose with regard
               | to a crime scene image that was enlarged by the state's
               | forensic lab, but a simple explanation of the mechanism
               | used was deemed sufficient.
        
               | ImprobableTruth wrote:
               | I'm reaching? Like, why would the defense's wrong
               | argument be relevant? You're not arguing with the defense
               | here.
               | 
               | Your claim was that the judge's call is wrong because
               | zooming doesn't actually do interpolation and has thus no
               | potential to introduce wrong information. I've told you
               | that zooming in this case _does_ interpolate and that
               | interpolation has the potential to go wrong.
        
               | jschwartzi wrote:
               | When interpolation goes wrong it's predictably wrong,
               | which is not true of more complex algorithms using AI. If
               | we can predict how it goes wrong we can extract the
               | meaningful information from it.
        
               | mschuster91 wrote:
               | > Aside from the confusion about logarithms, where I
               | presume he meant algorithms, and the false claim about
               | 3D, the defence was making a claim about artificial
               | intelligence being used to upscale the footage. Which is
               | inaccurate, and a specific claim being made that's
               | unsupported by any evidence.
               | 
               | With AI being used in ever more parts of technology, it
               | is _not_ surprising that a layperson wants to clarify if
               | such technology is being applied here.
               | 
               | Apple has been advertising the usage of AI in dealing
               | with photos ("Deep Fusion" of 2019 IIRC), so the
               | suspicion is warranted.
        
               | Kye wrote:
               | And recently made a huge deal about applying it to video
               | in newer phones.
        
               | _djo_ wrote:
               | I think you may want to read the transcript.
               | 
               | Also, things like Deep Fusion are capture-time
               | technologies, they don't alter the photo or video each
               | time it's viewed. There's also already precedent in US
               | courts for handling automatic enhancements applied to
               | digital camera evidence.
        
               | mschuster91 wrote:
               | > Also, things like Deep Fusion are capture-time
               | technologies, they don't alter the photo or video each
               | time it's viewed.
               | 
               |  _We_ know that. A random old judge? Any random you pick
               | on the street for a survey? Probably not. All they heard
               | is something about AI and photos.
        
               | ectopod wrote:
               | Great. So the zoom feature is showing information
               | fabricated at capture time. How does that help?
        
               | iainmerrick wrote:
               | How is a non-expert, and somebody whose job specifically
               | requires them to be sceptical and to question unstated
               | assumptions, supposed to be _sure_ of that?
        
               | _djo_ wrote:
               | It's a simple enough thing to verify, or require the
               | defence (in this case) to substantiate the claim without
               | throwing out the method of showing evidence entirely.
               | 
               | Courts have to deal with questions like this all the time
               | and handle them well enough. Technology isn't magic, nor
               | do we have to go down a rabbit hole on each point about
               | what _might_ be there rather than what is there.
        
               | trothamel wrote:
               | This inverts the burden. The prosecution proposed the
               | exhibit, and so the burden is on them to show that
               | everything about it - that the chain of custody was
               | valid, that the processing done on it was meaningful - is
               | correct. It's not the defense's place to prove them
               | wrong.
               | 
               | All of the other evidence was processed through forensics
               | software, and displayed on Windows laptops. Then, at the
               | last minute, the prosecutor asks to show this late-
               | discovered evidence on an iPad. Watching the trial, that
               | felt suspicious - why should this one piece of evidence
               | be shown in a novel way?
        
               | _djo_ wrote:
               | It's not a new exhibit being introduced, and the zoomed
               | in form is not evidence. Therefore there's no chain of
               | custody question.
               | 
               | It was being used to show the footage to the witness on
               | the stand, in order for them to explain what's shown on
               | it. As has been done in American courts hundreds of times
               | before.
               | 
               | Now sure, the witness and prosecution or defence could
               | argue that a witness doesn't need to make guesses about
               | what they're seeing on zoomed in low-quality footage when
               | under cross-examination. That happens all the time, too.
               | 
               | What doesn't happen every time is for iPads to be
               | rejected for this purpose because of magical AI
               | 'logarithms' inventing imagery.
        
               | trothamel wrote:
               | I believe this was entered into evidence separately from
               | the video as a whole:
               | 
               | https://twitter.com/frostycharacter/status/14597224299498
               | 782...
               | 
               | That means the jury will be able to see this as its own
               | exhibit. (It may have been assigned two exhibit numbers.)
               | 
               | And I'd say it makes sense. Each additional processing
               | step can change the image. For example, if one used the
               | waifu2x algorithm to scale the image up, that would
               | certainly be wrong.
        
               | syshum wrote:
               | >>and handle them well enough.
               | 
               | I would argue they DO NOT handle them well enough at all,
               | and I have a feeling that if the person on trial had a
               | different political affiliation you would also be
               | claiming they do not.
               | 
               | Courts routinely get technology wrong, and use this the
               | send innocent people to prison all the time. I would say
               | the courts get technology related evidence wrong more
               | than they do correct.
        
               | _djo_ wrote:
               | > I have a feeling that if the person on trial had a
               | different political affiliation you would also be
               | claiming they do not.
               | 
               | That's an _ad hominem_ argument. In truth I don 't care
               | who's on trial, as the outcome of this specific trial is
               | at this point an American culture war & politics issue
               | that I'm uninterested in.
               | 
               | I am interested in how well courts handle technology and
               | whether either prosecutors or defence attorneys can throw
               | a wrench in proceedings with fanciful woo like "iPads,
               | which are made by Apple, have artificial intelligence in
               | them that allow things to be viewed through three
               | dimensions and logarithms", and have that tolerated by
               | judges who themselves are often technologically
               | illiterate.
        
               | syshum wrote:
               | That is not a direct quote, further it is telling you are
               | not pointing out all the ways the prosecutors are using
               | technologically illiteracy to manipulate both the judge
               | and the jury into a false narrative about what actually
               | happened.
               | 
               | Sure the defense in this case is fucking terrible, no
               | arguments there, they are 100% technologically
               | illiterate.
               | 
               | That however does not excuse the complete and utter
               | perversion of the truth the prosecution is attempting to
               | claim as "evidence"
        
               | A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote:
               | It is not magic, but, as other posters alluded, sometimes
               | it can be merely an educated guess. It is hard to accept
               | a life changing verdict based on a guess.. even if it is
               | an educated one.
               | 
               | So no, each time a given technique is used, the way it
               | works has to be explained so that a decision based on
               | facts of the case is made.
        
               | _djo_ wrote:
               | Nothing wrong with that, but a common sense explanation
               | by an expert witness ought to be enough. Does Apple need
               | to be dragged into each and every case to testify as to
               | how pinch to zoom works, as was demanded here?
               | 
               | Courts have established mechanisms for handling technical
               | questions around evidence. It's not like any of this is
               | new.
        
               | jtbayly wrote:
               | All that was required _was_ an expert witness, right? So
               | what's the problem?
        
               | _djo_ wrote:
               | The judge did not give the prosecution time to find an
               | expert witness, did not ask his clerks to search for
               | similar usage of iPad zooming in previous cases, and did
               | not require the defence to provide expert testimony of
               | their own to substantiate their claim.
               | 
               | In the end the iPad was not used. Instead a 4K TV was
               | used, which ironically probably upscaled the image too.
        
               | vorpalhex wrote:
               | The judge does not provide clerks for research. The party
               | introducing the evidence does that.
        
               | _djo_ wrote:
               | This wasn't a new evidence exhibit being introduced. Did
               | you actually read the transcript, or are you reacting to
               | this story based on what you've read elsewhere?
        
               | ClumsyPilot wrote:
               | "In the end the iPad was not used. Instead a 4K TV was
               | used"
               | 
               | Okay, so what's the issue then?
        
               | vidarh wrote:
               | It's only fundamentally different until some image
               | manipulation program chooses to label AI driven
               | interpolation as zoom.
               | 
               | Language is malleable, and so while it may be paranoid to
               | question a feature labelled as zoom now, it's an open
               | question how long that will last.
        
               | _djo_ wrote:
               | It was a claim made by the defence, which the judge
               | insisted that the prosecution prove the absence of,
               | rather than requiring the defence to substantiate.
               | 
               | That's not how technical claims of that nature are
               | normally handled.
        
               | snickerbockers wrote:
               | >That's not how technical claims of that nature are
               | normally handled.
               | 
               | That's because criminal law is purposefully biased in
               | favor of the defense. If the prosecution wants to argue
               | that they defendant appears to be pointing his gun at
               | somebody when they zoom in on a photo with an ipad then
               | they need to prove that the ipad's software can be
               | trusted to do so reliably. If there are programs that can
               | upscale images by creating new data then they need to
               | prove that the photo app on their ipad is not one of
               | those programs.
               | 
               | This should have been done with a program that is open to
               | scrutiny (and ideally one that's open-source) so that the
               | algorithm used to upscale the image is known. It's not
               | enough to just assume that the ipad uses bilinear
               | interpolation when there's a reasonable doubt that it
               | could be using another algorithm.
        
               | ImprobableTruth wrote:
               | The prosecution presented modified evidence, claiming
               | that the modification doesn't change it, which the
               | defense objected to. Why would the burden of proof not
               | fall on the prosecution?
        
               | _djo_ wrote:
               | Zooming into a video using the built-in feature on a
               | device is modified evidence now? We'd have to rerun a
               | bunch of trials in that case.
               | 
               | The fantastical claim was from the defence. Onus should
               | be on them to prove it, rather than making the
               | prosecution prove a negative.
        
               | core-utility wrote:
               | What does "built-in" have to do with anything? The entire
               | point of the issue was that it _wasn 't_ just zoom in, it
               | was enlargement (think upscaling). The software has to
               | actively interpolate and add pixels where it thinks
               | they're necessary in order to do so, and that changes the
               | image. In most cases, it's probably not a big deal. But
               | when it's from a nighttime camera of a person several
               | hundred feet away that's only a few pixels in the
               | original frame, there's a lot to go wrong there.
        
               | stefan_ wrote:
               | What do you think happened when they watched the video
               | material on a screen? Are you by any chance caught up in
               | some politics over this case to make such a ridiculous
               | suggestion?
        
               | _djo_ wrote:
               | 'Built-in' matters it's not custom software used by the
               | prosecution on which no expert could be consulted.
               | 
               | It's also likely that precedent testimony exists on using
               | an iPad to zoom into an image or video in other cases.
        
               | ImprobableTruth wrote:
               | So if in 5 years the iPad really uses AI when zooming,
               | it's perfectly fine because it's a built-in feature? What
               | an absurd argument.
               | 
               | And both the prosecutions and defense's claims were
               | fantastical, unsubstantiated (beyond some incorrect
               | 'common sense' handwaving) and wrong - so since it's the
               | prosecution that wants to enter new evidence, it's
               | perfectly fine to ask them to back to it up. This isn't
               | 'proving a negative', it's just asking them to prove that
               | what they said (that zooming doesn't change the
               | evidence).
        
               | _djo_ wrote:
               | This wasn't 'new evidence', it was an iPad being used to
               | play a video for Rittenhouse during cross-examination, in
               | which he was being asked to describe the events being
               | shown.
               | 
               | Both prosecutors and defence attorneys have used the same
               | mechanism countless times in previous cases, without
               | issue, because it is actually common sense that pinch to
               | zoom is not going to substantively change what's shown in
               | a video like that.
        
               | vorpalhex wrote:
               | There was not a question regarding visual facts
               | previously. Much of the video usage was used to either
               | establish timing or things someone said.
               | 
               | In this case the prosecution wanted to significantly zoom
               | into very grainy footage to ask about an object a few
               | pixels wide, on footage so grainy the prosecution
               | couldn't identify the face of their own lead witness.
               | 
               | The defense raised the question regarding zooning
               | altering or adding pixels and the judge said flatly he
               | didn't know. All the prosecution had to do was bring in
               | an expert on video to explain how zoom works - or have
               | the expert do a non-fractional proportional zoom.
        
               | snickerbockers wrote:
               | I wonder how reliable even the source video is at pixel-
               | scale? If it's encoded with something like MPEG then not
               | every macroblock is updated every frame, and even if it
               | was then there are still compression artifacts created by
               | the discrete cosine tranform.
        
               | ClumsyPilot wrote:
               | "is actually common sense"
               | 
               | Everything is common sence untill it isn't.
               | 
               | Its common sence that you can't take over control of a
               | car over the internet and kill everyone in it, that acess
               | to a website that shows realtime location of half of US
               | polulation would at least be properly protected, that a
               | car's accelerator pedal doesn't cause random and
               | unpredictable effect thanks to spagghetti code, that when
               | Fujistsu charges a postman for theft, they are not just
               | covering up bug in their tracking and accounting
               | software.
        
               | cobbal wrote:
               | Most states use a form of common law, which is completely
               | based on what is common practice and what is common
               | sense. Or at least was in England hundreds of years
               | ago...
        
               | ClumsyPilot wrote:
               | That does not mean we ask Joe Blogs what his common sense
               | tells him about highly technical subjects, whether that's
               | effects of sniffing glue, bank interest accrual or image
               | upscaling algorythms
        
           | willis936 wrote:
           | The issue is the expert who was brought it in was not an
           | expert. They failed to answer even the simplest of questions
           | related to upscaling and did nothing to inform the court of
           | the nature of the upscaling used.
           | 
           | https://www.usnews.com/news/technology/articles/2021-11-11/b.
           | ..
        
         | baryphonic wrote:
         | Some important context I didn't see in the tech press: the
         | previous day, the prosecution violated Rittenhouse's Fifth
         | Amendment rights and various other due process rights while
         | questioning him on the stand. At one point, the prosecution
         | attempted to defend themselves by arguing to the visibly angry
         | judge that they had a "good faith explanation." The judge
         | responded, "I don't believe you."
         | 
         | From what the judge has seen in this trial, the prosecution has
         | shown it will stoop to any low to get prejudicial evidence in
         | front of the jury. I don't blame him at all for not just taking
         | the prosecution's word for the veracity, authenticity and
         | provenance of the photo.
        
           | ufmace wrote:
           | Thanks. This is critical context for this case for why
           | requesting this level of verification of evidence, which
           | might be considered a stretch in normal circumstances, is
           | much more justifiable in this case.
        
           | djsbs wrote:
           | I wouldnt be surprised if he declares a mistrial with
           | prejudice. The 5th amendment stunt they pulled was jaw
           | dropping.
        
         | wongarsu wrote:
         | There's a lot of work being done on deepfake-like video
         | compression (e.g. Nvidia [1]). The judge might be unnecessarily
         | distrustful today, but give it a year or two and his worry will
         | be very warranted.
         | 
         | 1: https://geekologie.com/2020/10/nvidia-creates-ai-video-
         | compr...
        
         | 14 wrote:
         | Look at how easy it is to make a deepfake [0]. How can we
         | effectively fact check in a world where visualization of the
         | facts is the most dominant form of confirmation and now we can
         | fake that? [0] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5uoKvSryN4o
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | thepasswordis wrote:
         | The complaint about that video was completely valid, and it's
         | shocking to me that technically literate people are mocking the
         | judge's [and defense team's] apprehension about it.
         | 
         | The prosecution was arguing about what essentially came down to
         | the location of 1-2 _individual pixels_ that were present
         | _after the image had been interpolated_. Basically: the pixels
         | that the prosecution were trying to argue showed the pointing
         | of a gun were:
         | 
         | 1) Only apparent when the image was "zoomed" (interpolated) in
         | exactly the manner they wanted to use.
         | 
         | 2) Not apparent in any of the videos or photos which were taken
         | closer to the place they were talking about.
         | 
         | The prosecution is depending on the idea that a computer can
         | see more than a human can, and "enhance" a photo in such a way
         | that shows something that nothing else does. It is absolutely
         | ridiculous. Here is the image (linked above) which was itself
         | cropped from a much larger image, and taken from about 150
         | meters away, at night, from the tiny sensor on a drone camera.
        
       | zoomablemind wrote:
       | Quite disturbing to learn about such "artifacts" from a big-name
       | mfgr. More so, that this was a known to them issue at the release
       | time to be mentioned in user manual!
       | 
       | By the way, reading the blog post I stumbled on quite a few minor
       | typos (like "arrors" for "errors" etc.). Should be easy to fix,
       | but in a way this adds more emphasis and mood to the content...
        
       | hanniabu wrote:
       | I foresee many legal cases being reopened due to this
        
         | czechdeveloper wrote:
         | This article is about 8 years old, so I don't think it's going
         | to happen.
        
       | MiddleEndian wrote:
       | So many software problems can be summarized with "All you had to
       | do was nothing!"
        
         | josefx wrote:
         | Or implement the specification instead of just skimming it. As
         | far as I remember they skipped several safeguards that would
         | have prevented this problem when they implemented the
         | compression algorithm.
        
           | DonHopkins wrote:
           | Yah, I've used some lame-assed JSON parsers whose authors
           | thought they knew it well enough in their head that they
           | didn't bother looking at the nice spec that laid it all out
           | for them in black and while.
        
             | megous wrote:
             | Originally, many years ago, JSON didn't have a complete and
             | unambiguous spec. It was just some webpage on some random
             | website.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | OneTimePetes wrote:
       | And destroyed the legal viability of several scanned document
       | archives in the progress. If you have any contracts/legal binding
       | documents that were archived with this technology, you may appeal
       | them at any time.
        
         | Arwill wrote:
         | In retrospect, this gives me validation of why i always
         | disliked to scan documents to PDF instead of to just JPEG.
         | 
         | But large document archives are traditionally done with TIFF,
         | and should still be done like that.
        
           | OneTimePetes wrote:
           | So true, should store the unaltered raw-data-picture as
           | scanned.
           | 
           | Its actually nightmarish.
           | 
           | A silent corruption of court-documents, stored plans and
           | land-records, patent-filings with the originals often
           | permanently gone.
           | 
           | Contracts that can be nulled and voided by a hostile party on
           | this basis by simply challenging the document on basis of the
           | archiving process.
           | 
           | A error so deep and systematic, it even mangled the birth
           | certificate of the us-president when it was scanned. The
           | whole affair is a huge advertisement for keeping written
           | records and avoid digitization, same as voting machines.
        
           | mindslight wrote:
           | A raster image in a PDF uses the same exact JPEG compression,
           | most likely.
           | 
           | I didn't like any of the existing Linux scanning solutions,
           | so I built my own paperless management tool. I was evaluating
           | different compression algorithms for keeping authoritative
           | masters and was eyeing JPEG2000 (I hate JPEG artifacts). But
           | in the end I decided to go with FLIF, which is lossless.
           | Despite its lower amount of battle testing, being lossless
           | allows me to run a sha256 on the decompressed image and know
           | that it is exactly what I had scanned in.
        
         | mindslight wrote:
         | I believe I have actually been bitten by this bug, or something
         | very similar. I had an IRA transfer go completely awry because
         | the check was sent to the wrong PO Box. I typed out the
         | transfer form with an address with the digit "5" (xournal is
         | awesome). When I was tracking down the problem, the rep said
         | that the digit on the transfer form was unquestionably a "6".
         | Despite how farfetched it seems, it seems like their document
         | management system perfectly changed that digit in this manner.
        
       | dredmorbius wrote:
       | Previous discussion:
       | 
       | 8 years ago / 112 comments:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6156238
       | 
       | 6 years ago / 22 comments:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9584172
        
         | lixtra wrote:
         | Also 2 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29206833
        
           | djsbs wrote:
           | I posted another one 2 days ago, vis a vis the Rittenhouse
           | trial. I was in a rush but I wanted to post something
           | demonstrating how the fidelity of digital tech can be
           | misleading.
           | 
           | In my post I just picked the first main stream media outlet
           | (CBC in my post). today's post is much better.
        
           | eesmith wrote:
           | And another 2 days ago:
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29207278
        
             | GekkePrutser wrote:
             | I wonder what caused so many people to link this 2013
             | article all of a sudden?
        
               | cheschire wrote:
               | There's controversy currently regarding whether pinch-to-
               | zoom alters images for a current ongoing court case.
               | 
               | It's borderline gaslighting at this point. I imagine it's
               | causing some people to do some extra deep digging while
               | they try to reassure themselves that they do actually
               | know a thing or two.
        
             | nefitty wrote:
             | Maybe there should be a tool that shows or aggregates
             | related discussions onto one page...
        
               | kergonath wrote:
               | I am not sure whether you are being sarcastic but there
               | is, in a way. If HN detects that you are posting a
               | duplicate, it just brings you to the previous story. It
               | seems easily confused, though.
               | 
               | Otherwise, if you have a doubt after posting a story, you
               | can click on the website name next to the title to see
               | other stories from the same website, which is another way
               | of seeing duplicates. Of course, this is easier with
               | websites that don't get 20 stories a day.
        
               | dredmorbius wrote:
               | It's fairly hit-or-miss. I happened to see the story in
               | the new queue, thought it sounded familiar, and checked
               | on its age.
        
               | nefitty wrote:
               | I was being sincere. Sarcasm doesn't play well here,
               | beyond even the standard problems of written
               | communication.
               | 
               | I thought maybe post deduplication "expires", and links
               | are let through for discussion again x-weeks later. I
               | also noticed dang posts these "previously discussed"
               | links often, if not preempted by other users. I don't
               | know whether to upvote or downvote those because it
               | contributes to the convo but indirectly and with low-
               | effort. Therefore I figure an automation might be worth
               | the hassle.
        
               | DonHopkins wrote:
               | There are many people who believe that dang is an
               | automated robot AI!
               | 
               | Previously discussed:
               | 
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25227906
               | 
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18865276
               | 
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29024525
               | 
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26308945
               | 
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19157839
               | 
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28355861
               | 
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24278472
               | 
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21897355
               | 
               | Personally, I think of him more like Palmer Eldritch,
               | with three stigmata of a robotic right hand, artificial
               | eyes, and steel teeth, who has returned from an
               | expedition to the Prox system, in possession of a new
               | alien hallucinogen Chew-Z to compete with Can-D.
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Stigmata_of_Palme
               | r_E...
               | 
               | Once you hear Jean-Michel Jarre's and Lauri Anderson's
               | secret lyrics, you can't unhear them:
               | 
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x-v8KamefA
               | 
               | Heed the Android Sisters' dire warning:
               | 
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeerjrFjgT8
        
               | dang wrote:
               | Not a robot and definitely not a cop:
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBE9TZP26FI.
        
               | DonHopkins wrote:
               | Definitely not a cop. Probably just a stripper! ;)
               | 
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gp1qPsM6Os
        
               | effingwewt wrote:
               | Everything about this comment is _too good_! I 'd never
               | heard either song before, but I'd definitely argue Dan is
               | at _least_ half robot. I think one would have to be to
               | keep a cool head while doing such a (mostly,  'cept for
               | all the' thanks dang!'posts- also written by AI, I'm
               | sure) thankless job.
               | 
               | This is how our robot overlords begin the takeover-
               | hiding in plain sight, pretending to be one of us, while
               | secretly gaining more and more power over us.
               | 
               | Do they pay him with silicon upgrades? Does he dream of
               | electric sheep?
               | 
               | Are _we_ the electric sheep?
               | 
               | 'They Live' was a warning...when we put on the google
               | glasses will we see their real metal skin?
        
               | DonHopkins wrote:
               | The Android Sisters answer questions about Androids and
               | Electronic Sheep:
               | 
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP8bOqTAco0
               | 
               | Album: Songs Of Electronic Despair (1984)
               | 
               | THE AWESOME FUTURISTIC KITSCH OF THE ANDROID SISTERS:
               | 
               | https://dangerousminds.net/comments/songs_of_electronic_d
               | esp...
               | 
               | >Since 1982, the ZBS Foundation (ZBS= "Zero Bullshit")
               | has been producing a sci-fi/detective hybrid radio drama
               | called Ruby, the ongoing adventures of Ruby the Galactic
               | Gumshoe. The show is a fun listen, and since its history
               | is documented elsewhere, we shan't dwell on it here, as
               | the series itself doesn't concern us so much as does a
               | pair of its supporting characters: The Android Sisters.
               | 
               | >Exactly like it says on the box, the Android Sisters are
               | robotic "siblings"--conceit and name both lifted from
               | Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?--
               | whose role in the show is to deliver pointedly satiric
               | songs, rendered in a unison speak-sing intonation by
               | actresses Ruth Maleczech (sometimes credited as "Breuer"
               | --married name?) and Valaria Wasilewski. Though it's a
               | pretty one-dimensional schtick, their acutely '80s synth
               | songs were sufficiently listenable to merit an album in
               | 1984. Released on the typically more rootsy Vanguard
               | label (it was the home of Joan Baez and Buddy Guy, among
               | others), Songs of Electronic Despair contained eleven
               | goofy examples of what people in the '80s thought the
               | future sounded like, and many of the songs directly
               | address the themes of mechanization and alienation with
               | which a lot of the synth musicians of the era seemed
               | obsessed. Really, much of this stuff is in the same zone
               | as the work Laurie Anderson was up to back then--and
               | Anderson was once an artist in residence at the ZBS
               | Foundation.
               | 
               | >A second album, Pull No Punches, was issued in 2003, but
               | the most accessible music available from the Android
               | Sisters is their 2004 best-of, which is still in print on
               | CD.
               | 
               | Android Sisters Playlist:
               | 
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab0vApijEBM&list=PLqc7dhQ
               | XRc...
        
               | dredmorbius wrote:
               | Clearly, the DonHopkins bot needs to tune its "dang
               | robot" filter as that list turns up several false
               | positives.
               | 
               | (One of which is by the dang robot itself ;-)
               | 
               | This comment has been a service of the dredmorbious bot,
               | a/k/a Robby.
        
               | dang wrote:
               | It indeed does that, but only if the previous submission
               | got significant attention. Otherwise we allow dupes
               | through. This is on purpose, to give good submissions
               | multiple chances at getting attention and mitigate the
               | randomness of what gets liftoff from /newest.
        
           | dredmorbius wrote:
           | Thanks I'd missed that.
           | 
           | Ony 6 comments, though numerous updoots. I usually consider <
           | 10 comments minor. HN does permit reposts after a seemly
           | interval.
        
       | andrefuchs wrote:
       | He gave a great talk about it at CCC about the issue.
       | https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7FeqF1-Z1g0
        
         | underdeserver wrote:
         | In German, unfortunately.
        
           | MegaThorx wrote:
           | There is a english version of it there https://media.ccc.de/v
           | /froscon2015-1524-lies_damned_lies_and...
        
             | ddtaylor wrote:
             | YT link for anyone who cares
             | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0O6UXrOZJo
        
             | tromp wrote:
             | One thing that bugged me in this otherwise awesome talk, is
             | that the setting with values normal, higher, and high is
             | called Quality, but the speaker keeps calling it
             | Compression. This is very confusing, since quality degrades
             | with increasing compression.
        
           | namibj wrote:
           | The official source [0]'s video file has an en voicover that
           | was captured from the live voicover translation provided by a
           | skilled volunteer at the conference. Use VLC or mpv, if you
           | can't find the audio track selection option in your player.
           | 
           | [0]: https://media.ccc.de/v/31c3_-_6558_-_de_-
           | _saal_g_-_201412282...
        
           | PinguTS wrote:
           | Sorry, but years ago we hadn't such great subtitles team as
           | we have these days. Remind you, that the whole conference is
           | run by volunteers.
        
         | Farbklex wrote:
         | One of my favourite talks. Very entertaining. I've watched it 3
         | times already.
         | 
         | He also has a talk about mining data from German Railway
         | (Deutsche Bahn) which is good.
        
         | PinguTS wrote:
         | Please always use the official CCC source, which is
         | media.ccc.de [1].
         | 
         | The Youtube channel is there only, because people didn't
         | respected the unwritten rules and put the content on Youtube
         | anyway. But we like to distribute the content always from its
         | original source, also with privacy in mind.
         | 
         | [1] https://media.ccc.de/v/31c3_-_6558_-_de_-
         | _saal_g_-_201412282...
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | orf wrote:
           | 4.8 million people viewed the talk on that YouTube video
           | alone, as opposed to 50k on ccc.de.
           | 
           | The "unwritten" rules end up hugely restricting the
           | dissemination of this, and other, awesome content on
           | ideological grounds that not everyone feels as strongly about
           | as you and the CCC.
           | 
           | So do upload it to YouTube and anywhere else, spread the
           | knowledge and link to whatever you please.
        
         | TonyTrapp wrote:
         | YouTube keeps recommending this video to me again... and
         | again... and again... :-) But it's a really great talk! Worth
         | re-watching every once in a while.
        
       | lifeisstillgood wrote:
       | I used to scan documents that I wanted to keep, but frankly now I
       | just take a photo on my phone. It's easier usually (pace
       | dropboxes terrible interface), there are robbaly loads of apps to
       | help, but imo, that's a whole class of hardware that's has been
       | disrupted.
       | 
       | Who else used to use scanners?
        
         | jhoechtl wrote:
         | Scanners have the advantage not to distort the image what a
         | photo inherently does. I do not know if today's phone cameras
         | regard the spherical distortion, but I doubt as this would
         | require to have several distance measures I guess those cameras
         | don't have.
        
           | Sayrus wrote:
           | I used to use CamScanner. The scanning mode will take a
           | distorted document, find the edges and output a "flattened"
           | document. For me, this was usually more than enough to look
           | like a scan.
        
             | ydant wrote:
             | > CamScanner
             | 
             | And then it got bought and malware added.
             | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20818177
             | 
             | These days on Android, Google Drive's scan functionality
             | works just as well as CamScanner used to. I use it for a
             | lot of cases where I'd previously use a proper scanner -
             | it's good enough most of the time.
             | 
             | Or even Google Lens / Google Camera does a decent job of
             | scanning in the special scan document mode, although you
             | have to rely on the software actually recognizing that's
             | what you're trying to do to get the button to show up to
             | start the process.
        
           | watt wrote:
           | It just doesn't matter - the only thing that matters is if
           | the text (information) that's being imaged is readable for
           | person receiving it.
           | 
           | Apps like Office Lens will undistort the pic and it just
           | looks good enough. (App knows you are taking a picture of A4
           | page, so it knows how to make it look straight + white.)
        
             | ClumsyPilot wrote:
             | Sometimes it does matter - a particularly small font, a
             | colour document, watermarks, etc. Can render it unsuitable.
        
         | cameronh90 wrote:
         | I always have issues with lighting and reflections when using a
         | camera. Scanners have the advantage of uniform controlled
         | lighting.
        
           | vidarh wrote:
           | A cheap lightbox with an opening for the camera would be
           | interesting.
        
         | kiryin wrote:
         | I used to use scanners, until I bought a new Brother laser
         | printer and discovered that the scanner feature requires a
         | proprietary driver on the computer end. It's sad as Brother
         | printers tend to work really well with linux, for printing at
         | least.
         | 
         | Since then I've written an ImageMagick script that converts
         | phone photographs of documents into reasonably convincing
         | "scans."
        
         | piquadrat wrote:
         | I have a networked all-in-one HP printer that can scan to a
         | network share on my NAS. On the NAS, I set up a watcher script
         | that runs OCRMyPDF [1] on any incoming PDFs. That gives me a
         | super easy workflow, just feed documents into the scanner and a
         | minute or two later, I have a fully OCRd PDF in my network
         | share.
         | 
         | [1]: https://github.com/jbarlow83/OCRmyPDF
        
           | lifeisstillgood wrote:
           | oh - that sounds interesting - I could do similar for items
           | hitting my dropbox thank you !
        
       | 1970-01-01 wrote:
       | "YOU HAD 1 JOB, XEROX. 8 JOB."
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | skmurphy wrote:
       | Related https://www.dkriesel.com/en/blog/2013/0909_xerox_money He
       | acts with integrity and just wants the problem solved. He takes
       | no money but he does accept non-monetary assistance from a number
       | people interested in or affected by the bug.
        
       | WalterBright wrote:
       | I find compression algorithms to be frustratingly bad.
       | 
       | For example, my scanner has an 8 color compression mode. Great!
       | So I scan in a piece of paper printed in 3 colors - black, white,
       | and, say, green. The green comes out as a dithering of multiple
       | colors. Why can't the compression format figure out what are the
       | dominant 8 colors in the scan, put out a table of the RGB values
       | of those 8 colors, then compress to 8 colors? This would look and
       | work great for an awful lot of scans.
       | 
       | Another problem is b/w photos mixed with text. Setting the
       | scanner to staic level black/white pixesl works great for text,
       | but terrible for photos. Setting it to greyscale works great for
       | photos, but terrible for text. Oh how I wish it would recognize
       | greyscale areas and use greyscale for them, and black on white
       | text areas and use static black/white pixels for them.
        
       | kzrdude wrote:
       | So what was Xerox's response? Was it really nothing, in public?
        
         | PinguTS wrote:
         | They issued a PR [1] after long talks with David acknowledging
         | the problem. Then updated that article over time. The later
         | released a bug fix.
         | 
         | [1]
         | https://web.archive.org/web/20130811004759/http://realbusine...
        
       | svdr wrote:
       | Also from Xerox: an encoding mechanism for a unique number
       | represented by tiny dots spread over the entire print area.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_Identification_Code
        
         | kiryin wrote:
         | I've read about this so much, I wonder if B/W printers have
         | anything similar? Is there a secret yellow cartridge somewhere
         | in my printer that I don't know about?
        
           | oldsecondhand wrote:
           | This is for color printing only to track potential money
           | counterfeiters.
        
             | cromulent wrote:
             | Modern printers refuse to print/copy money anyway, right?
             | At least ours did when we went to print some money for a
             | themed Christmas party.
        
         | hyperman1 wrote:
         | Can you counteract it with adding random yellow dots to a scan?
         | And if you only print black/white, does it still print yellow
         | dots?
        
           | namibj wrote:
           | For the latter: yes. Unless your printer doesn't have a
           | yellow print head.
        
           | FractalParadigm wrote:
           | Given theres been controvery in the past regarding HP (and
           | others, likely) printers refusing to print B/W when the
           | colour ink is empty/missing[0], its highly likely that yes,
           | they're still printing yellow dots on B/W stuff.
           | 
           | [0]: https://support.hp.com/ca-en/document/c04331666
        
             | michaelt wrote:
             | The refusal to print without colour ink could just be the
             | vendors shaking down their customers for cash.
             | 
             | Just like there are printer-scanners that won't _scan_ if
             | the ink is empty.
        
               | DonHopkins wrote:
               | The iSmell developers were hoping to make money the same
               | way, by selling big smell combination pack cartridges
               | that you have to entirely replace after any one of the
               | smells ran out.
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISmell
               | 
               | >The iSmell Personal Scent Synthesizer developed by
               | DigiScents Inc. is a small device that can be connected
               | to a computer through a Universal serial bus (USB) port
               | and powered using any ordinary electrical outlet. The
               | appearance of the device is similar to that of a shark's
               | fin, with many holes lining the "fin" to release the
               | various scents. Using a cartridge similar to a printer's,
               | it can synthesize and even create new smells from certain
               | combinations of other scents. These newly created odors
               | can be used to closely replicate common natural and
               | manmade odors. The cartridges used also need to be
               | swapped every so often once the scents inside are used
               | up. Once partnered with websites and interactive media,
               | the scents can be activated either automatically once a
               | website is opened or manually. However, the product is no
               | longer on the market and never generated substantial
               | sales. Digiscent had plans for the iSmell to have several
               | versions but did not progress past the prototype stage.
               | The company did not last long and filed for bankruptcy a
               | short time after.
               | 
               | This Wired Magazine article is a classic Marc Canter
               | interview. I'm surprised they could smell the output of
               | the iSmell USB device over the pungent bouquet from all
               | the joints he was smoking:
               | 
               | You've Got Smell!
               | 
               | https://www.wired.com/1999/11/digiscent/
               | 
               | >DigiScent is here. If this technology takes off, it's
               | gonna launch the next Web revolution. Joel Lloyd
               | Bellenson places a little ceramic bowl in front of me and
               | lifts its lid. "Before we begin," he says, "you need to
               | clear your nasal palate." I peer into the bowl. "Coffee
               | beans," explains Bellenson's partner, Dexster Smith.
               | [...]
               | 
               | >"You know, I don't think the transition from wood smoke
               | to bananas worked very well." -Marc Canter
               | 
               | The failed quest to bring smells to the internet
               | (thehustle.co)
               | 
               | https://thehustle.co/digiscents-ismell-fail
               | 
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17476460
               | 
               | DigiScent had a booth at the 1999 Game Developers
               | Conference, with scantily dressed young women in skunk
               | costumes.
               | 
               | I told them about a game called "The Sims" I had been
               | working on for a long time, and was hoping to finish and
               | release some time soon.
               | 
               | They unsuccessfully tried to convince me to make The Sims
               | support the iSmell, and even gave me a copy of the SDK
               | documentation, because they thought it would enrich the
               | player's experience of all those sweaty unwashed sims,
               | blue puddles of piss on the floor, stopped up toilets in
               | the bathroom, and plates of rotting food with flies
               | buzzing around on the dining room table.
        
       | noisy_boy wrote:
       | > This is not an OCR problem (as we switched off OCR on purpose),
       | it is a lot worse - patches of the pixel data are randomly
       | replaced in a very subtle and dangerous way: The scanned images
       | look correct at first glance, even though numbers may actually be
       | incorrect.
       | 
       | I have a habit of scanning invoices/statements/manuals etc to pdf
       | and found the above quite alarming. Though I don't use Xerox (my
       | scanner is Epson Perfection V39), I never considered the
       | possibility that a scan of a document can result in altered
       | numbers. How do I know if my scanner could also be affected in
       | case it uses similar underlying software/setup?
        
         | abrichr wrote:
         | From the article:
         | 
         | > In the next section, there is a a short manual for you to
         | reproduce the error and see of you are affected.
        
         | dinkelberg wrote:
         | You should be safe if your scanner uses either JPEG, lossless
         | JBIG2 or other lossless compression.
         | 
         | If however it uses lossy JBIG2 compression, it is quite
         | possible that it suffers from the same problem, due to how
         | lossy JBIG2 compression works.
        
           | dreamcompiler wrote:
           | TFA suggests that Xerox was offering the option of lossless
           | JBIG2 compression but they implemented it incorrectly -- they
           | didn't include the delta blocks that described how individual
           | image blocks differed from canonical patterns.
           | 
           | Which brings up another point: How did Xerox's SW development
           | process take place? Was it done in-house with frequent code
           | reviews or was it outsourced to a low bidder and then thrown
           | back over the wall with no real quality assurance process?
        
             | kevinpet wrote:
             | This isn't the kind of issue a code review would catch.
             | Code review will find when the code isn't written to
             | standards or doesn't look maintainable. It isn't going to
             | catch a subtle misuse of a technique that should be valid.
        
               | flatiron wrote:
               | the review should also be reviewing the tests, and you
               | should really have a test if you have a standard.
        
               | tablespoon wrote:
               | > the review should also be reviewing the tests, and you
               | should really have a test if you have a standard.
               | 
               | Codes reviews and unit tests aren't a substitute for QA
               | or acceptance testing. It's great when code reviews do
               | catch stuff like this, but that's not going to catch
               | everything. To me this bug points to deficiencies in
               | another part of the process.
        
         | zoomablemind wrote:
         | I wonder if this may be also a problem with Samsung MFPs, as
         | some Xerox consumer models were apparently OEM'd by Samsung
         | (e.g. Samsung SCX-4200 vs. Xerox 3119, or was it the other way
         | around?). Not sure if there's a list which links the Xerox-
         | Samsung similar models.
         | 
         | I guess, if the scanner offers JBIG2 format option, it may need
         | a test at least.
        
           | TomMasz wrote:
           | Xerox purchased a number of small desktop and larger machines
           | from Samsung, including the one you mention.
        
         | andi999 wrote:
         | Keep the originals.
        
         | superjan wrote:
         | If you scan in color/grayscale, it can't use JBIG2 compression.
         | The machine will likely use JPEG for lossy compression, could
         | result in less crisp scans, but it eliminates this risk.
        
           | askl wrote:
           | Or you could use JBIG2 with reasonable settings.
        
             | colinfinck wrote:
             | From the original post: "numbers seem to be mangled
             | independently from the compression mode, which makes the
             | issue hard to avoid"
        
               | ace2358 wrote:
               | Reasonable settings meaning no compression setting which
               | was mentioned to not have the issue
        
               | texasbigdata wrote:
               | Thanks would love a 45mb one page PDF
        
               | bryanrasmussen wrote:
               | I would love not to send a scanned document with
               | different numbers to my accountant, or to the IRS for
               | that matter.
        
               | dinkelberg wrote:
               | What the author refers to are the three available
               | compression modes on Xerox scanners, which are "normal",
               | "higher", and "highest". It is not clear what that means
               | exactly, but it is possible that all three of those are
               | lossy compression modes.
               | 
               | In my opinion, the only reasonable mode for JBIG2 is
               | lossless, as the lossy mode of JBIG2 is, in general,
               | prone to these character mangling issues. File sizes for
               | lossless JBIG2 compression are already very low, so I
               | would claim that using lossless is almost always worth
               | it, unless character mangling is explicitly not a
               | problem.
        
             | m3at wrote:
             | The author was using default settings, I think it's fair to
             | call the defaults reasonable
        
       | CodesInChaos wrote:
       | These issues will become much prevalent due do AI based image
       | enhancement/upscaling, which can invent details which aren't
       | there in the original.
        
       | aquanext wrote:
       | I'm just absolutely dumbfounded that a bug like this could ever
       | be allowed to ship.
        
       | b8 wrote:
       | I don't purchase Xerox printers due to their not so great
       | history. [1][2]
       | 
       | 1. https://gigazine.net/gsc_news/en/20200720-cia-spies-xerox-
       | ma...
       | 
       | 2. https://arstechnica.com/information-
       | technology/2017/06/how-a...
        
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