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Apple Reference Image: A New Approach for Verified Photography

539 points · 352 comments · imwally

  1. tristanj · · focus · HN ↗
    Apple doesn't address the modified photo replay situation, where you take a picture of an already edited image.

    Photoshop / AI-gen an image -> display on a high-resolution monitor -> photograph the monitor with iPhone 18 Pro -> valid Apple Reference image.

    To get valid reference photos, you can go to the actual physical location, put the iPhone/monitor in a cardboard box to block external light, then photograph the monitor. Paint the inside of the box using Vantablack (stopping reflections) and cover the LiDAR projector with tape.

    I can't wait to see Apple Verified™ photos of UFOs flying over the Golden Gate Bridge.

    1. osy · · focus · HN ↗
      It also doesn't prevent you from staging an image or anything that's existed since photography was invented. But that's not the problem they're trying to solve.

      > Today, powerful, widely available AI tools allow users to easily generate or alter photorealistic images to a degree that was difficult to imagine just a few years ago.

      Photoshop has existed for decades and so has fake images. This is a low friction way to attest "this image came from an iPhone sensor and Apple approved it". It will still take the usual image forensics to determine if the scene it depicts is legitimate.

      1. BugsJustFindMe · · focus · HN ↗
        > "But that's not the problem they're trying to solve."

        It is the problem that they say they're trying to solve, though. They specifically say "where the essential role of a photograph is to prove that something actually happened".

        It fails the reasonable person test to say that the "something" in that phrase refers to the act of taking the photo itself.

        Likewise in "distinguish between photographs that depict real events and...".

        1. bawolff · · focus · HN ↗
          No security control is perfect. The point is to increase costs to the point its unfeasible.

          After all, if money is no object, you could just bribe every single apple employee involved in the project.

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