
New, Higher-Resolution Image of Boston Marathon Suspect - mhb
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/new-higher-resolution-image-of-boston-marathon-suspect-emerges/?hp
======
danso
Saw this on reddit
([http://www.reddit.com/r/findbostonbombers/comments/1cn4wh/ne...](http://www.reddit.com/r/findbostonbombers/comments/1cn4wh/new_picture_of_suspect_2_white_hat/))
and posted a cropped/comparison version of it to my twitter...and immediately
was told by people that it must be a fake. I guess people today are overly
skeptical, but photoshop fakery of this quality is not trivial, especially
just a couple hours after the official photos were released. The JPEG
artifacting on the suspect is perfectly consistent with every other object on
the same plane. More importantly, this is a new angle of the suspect's face
not yet published, which means the faker would've had to find someone who
looked like the suspect with the same clothes, or created a convincing
composite even before placing it in the scene.

And perhaps most importantly...why? If it was a hoax it is surely one of the
most boring hoaxes of all time, showing the suspect vaguely with no new
interesting details except that he has no bag in the photo.

Edit: I just saw this Tweet from a digital manager at the New York Times. He's
since admitted his mistake but this should be preserved for posterity as an
example of how NOT to do digital forensics...it's as if he's never zoomed into
a JPG before in his entire life
[https://mobile.twitter.com/jeremyzilar/status/32504129646716...](https://mobile.twitter.com/jeremyzilar/status/325041296467169282)

~~~
aqme28
He also posted the photo to his Facebook
([https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10200411483522036...](https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10200411483522036&set=pb.1604384014.-2207520000.1366347205.&type=3&theater))
the day of the bombing, before the image of this suspect was released. It's
definitely not a fake.

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peripetylabs
I've interpolated the image linked in the article (suspect-number-2.JPG) to
twice its size, if that helps at all (only in grayscale for now):

[http://www.eliteraspberries.com/images/suspect-
number-2-749....](http://www.eliteraspberries.com/images/suspect-
number-2-749.png) (17MB)

~~~
iso8859-1
Why not just do the interpolation client-side?

~~~
coldtea
What would be the reason? To hog our browser?

Besides, server side he has access to powerful smart resizing programs and
algorithms. Client size, not so much.

~~~
iso8859-1
I wasn't considering "smart" interpolation methods, I was assuming the best
available interpolation was already implemented in Chrome. I think it would
load faster with client-side interpolation actually, 17 MB takes a long time
on most connections.

But I don't see why client-side can't do "powerful resizing". Not since
<canvas> appeared, anyway.

~~~
coldtea
> _I think it would load faster with client-side interpolation actually, 17 MB
> takes a long time on most connections._

You'd still have to move the 5-6 MB original, and then it would hog a lot of
people's browsers to work on the image in the canvas (depending on client
CPU/memory).

> _But I don't see why client-side can't do "powerful resizing". Not since
> <canvas> appeared, anyway._

Who said it cannot do? I said the options aren't available. The guy did a
simple resize. Should he also spend hours coding smart interpolation on
javascript instead of just putting the image up?

For most connections, a 17MB download is eaten for breakfast, anyway.

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DigitalSea
It's looking highly likely this guy in the white hat could be the culprit. He
was seen with a backpack earlier and in the newer high resolution image he
does not appear to have his backpack any more. There could be a perfectly
legitimate explanation for this: in the heat of the moment, his instinct was
to run and leave his bag behind. Much like your instinct in a bad building or
house fire is to run and save yourself. But then that would mean his bag would
have been left behind and someone would have found it or reported it as being
lost/authorities discovered it.

It's not looking good for whoever this guy is and if he's innocent, it would
be in his best interests now we have a high resolution photo to turn himself
in before a member of the public or worse members of the public find this guy
and potentially harm an innocent person out of irrational anger. Another
incriminating fact is Jeff Bauman the guy who lost both legs in the blast woke
up heavily drugged in the hospital and said he had looked into the eyes of a
bomber (which is no doubt what helped the feds narrow down the search). Lets
keep level-headed about this and assist the authorities the best we can and
let them do the investigating. If we all start jumping to conclusions and
taking the law into our own hands we could do more harm than good. They'll
find the culprit, it's only a matter of time.

~~~
jonknee
... Well that and after thousands of hours of study by highly skilled experts
combing thousands of sources he was one of two people deemed suspects. For all
we know they have video of him dropping the bag, they only released a small
portion of what they had to help gather tips from the public.

~~~
cbgb
In the press conference earlier today, the chief investigator said they have
footage of this suspect (suspect #2) dropping a bag near the bomb site and
leaving it.

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w-ll
Actual High Res:
[http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/thelede/posts/susp...](http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/thelede/posts/suspect-
number-2.JPG)

Bottom left corner.

Edit: Higher Res

~~~
ars
The image linked at the bottom of the article has a higher resolution version
of the photo that what you linked.

~~~
jonknee
Along with full EXIF information (such as taken at Apr 15, 2013 2:50:15 PM).

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petegrif
That's good enough for someone who knows him.

~~~
Devilboy
Someone on Reddit has already recognized the two men, they stayed at a motel
where the Redditor works

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NatW
Would this enhancement technique work since there is movement in the
photograph and metadata may be available?:

[http://robertgawron.blogspot.com/2011/01/super-resolution-
al...](http://robertgawron.blogspot.com/2011/01/super-resolution-algorithm-
implemented.html) More details on it here:
<https://github.com/RobertGawron/supper-resolution/wiki>

~~~
ygra
This technique needs several input images with either the camera or the
subject having moved in a known way.

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NatW
The photo puts the suspect running down Fairfield street from Boylston Street
running away from the second explosion scene:
[http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/04/15/us/site-of-
the...](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/04/15/us/site-of-the-boston-
marathon-explosion.html)

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mynameishere
Why did this guy wear a distinct-looking hat backwards? It's really easy to
pick him out of a crowd. Any witness will say, "Guy with backward white hat".
Seems obviously stupid. Either they're innocent or they had a foolproof escape
plan.

~~~
danso
Why do you think criminals are masterminds? The perpetrator of the truck
bombing of the World Trade Center -- a plot far more complicated and would
have been more destructive than 9/11 had they parked the truck differently --
was captured when he attempted to get the deposit back for the truck used in
the bombing:
[http://gothamist.com/2013/02/26/today_is_the_20th_anniversar...](http://gothamist.com/2013/02/26/today_is_the_20th_anniversary_of_19.php#photo-1)

Just because someone's willing to be a indiscrimate murderer doesn't mean that
they're geniuses or well put-together

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scarmig
Tech-related question:

How far are we from having sufficient facial recognition technology that we
could clip a photo like this, drop it into Facebook image search (or
whatever), and the person would come up? Is that feasible with today's
technology?

~~~
throwaway_21
This is possible now. You need a database of faces. You could store and search
them without compression in like clouds. Or you can compress them. 7 billion
isn't that many pictures.

One problem is the databases of tagged faces typically have passport style
photos and not sides. It would be easier with 3d type data of faces, like when
we start using depth cameras at the DMV too. Or, we will develop sufficient
methodology to figure it out well enough from the existing photos... depth
from a single image.

It sounds sort of disturbing to me. Google reverse image search for faces...
that team has done it or could do it easily. But privacy.

~~~
eru
What makes you think we need to check 7 billion pictures?

You have lots of other information, so you don't need to check every human on
the planet.

~~~
vidarh
Post facto for a specific incident, you are right, but you still need to
assemble that database from somewhere. I got the impression he is talking
about the general case, though.

~~~
eru
OK. I'd go with more than one picture per user then, though.

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aimatt
[http://news.yahoo.com/teen-am-not-boston-marathon-
bomber-175...](http://news.yahoo.com/teen-am-not-boston-marathon-
bomber-175755674--abc-news-topstories.html)

~~~
aimatt
P.S. It's not him.

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Tichy
I find it very disturbing that pictures of suspects are being spread around.
What if he turns out to be innocent?

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chasingtheflow
White hat on the left.

~~~
jlujan
Like the where's waldo of "high res suspect photos"...

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zalew
isn't it covered enough by mainstream news?

~~~
scarmig
Not nearly enough! By reposting, we increase the chance of the case being
solved using our expert skills.

HN needn't fear, though. Reddit's on it.

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dbettin
Can anybody determine if he is still wearing his backpack?

~~~
acrooks
I don't think he is.

Ref:
[http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/thelede/posts/susp...](http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/thelede/posts/suspect-
number-2.JPG)

