Video Source Characterization Using Encoding and Encapsulation Characteristics

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel camera-model identification method that combines video encoding and encapsulation features, achieving high accuracy and robustness even with partial data, advancing digital forensics.

Contribution

It introduces a joint metadata representation and hierarchical classification approach, improving identification accuracy over traditional methods and addressing missing metadata scenarios.

Findings

Achieves 91% accuracy on 119 classes, outperforming conventional methods by 6.5%.

Demonstrates 57% accuracy with partial video data and missing metadata.

Validates approach on over 20,000 videos from multiple datasets.

Abstract

We introduce a new method for camera-model identification. Our approach combines two independent aspects of video file generation corresponding to video coding and media data encapsulation. To this end, a joint representation of the overall file metadata is developed and used in conjunction with a two-level hierarchical classification method. At the first level, our method groups videos into metaclasses considering several abstractions that represent high-level structural properties of file metadata. This is followed by a more nuanced classification of classes that comprise each metaclass. The method is evaluated on more than 20K videos obtained by combining four public video datasets. Tests show that a balanced accuracy of 91% is achieved in correctly identifying the class of a video among 119 video classes. This corresponds to an improvement of 6.5% over the conventional approach based on video file encapsulation characteristics. Furthermore, we investigate a setting relevant to forensic file recovery operations where file metadata cannot be located or are missing but video data is partially available. By estimating a partial list of encoding parameters from coded video data, we demonstrate that an identification accuracy of 57% can be achieved in camera-model identification in the absence of any other file metadata.