Exploiting the Rolling Shutter Read-Out Time for ENF-Based Camera Identification

Abstract

The electric network frequency (ENF) is a signal that varies over time and represents the frequency of the energy supplied by a mains power system. It continually varies around a nominal value of 50/60 Hz as a result of fluctuations over time in the supply and demand of power and has been employed for various forensic applications. Based on these ENF fluctuations, the intensity of illumination of a light source powered by the electrical grid similarly fluctuates. Videos recorded under such light sources may capture the ENF and hence can be analyzed to extract the ENF. Cameras using the rolling shutter sampling mechanism acquire each row of a video frame sequentially at a time, referred to as the read-out time (Tro) which is a camera-specific parameter. This parameter can be exploited for camera forensic applications. In this paper, we present an approach that exploits the ENF and the Tro to identify the source camera of an ENF-containing video of unknown source. The suggested approach considers a practical scenario where a video obtained from the public, including social media, is investigated by law enforcement to ascertain if it originated from a suspect’s camera. Our experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.