Stalker Found Victim's Home By Looking At Reflection In Her Pupil From High-Res Photo

[Ron Obvious]

The link is to slashdot, but the original story is from boingboing. Like the slashdotters, I too, immediately thought of the movie Blade Runner. Well, here we are in 2019:

Last month a Japanese entertainer named Ena Matsuoka was attacked in front of her home in Tokyo. Her alleged attacker, an obsessed fan, was able to figure out where she lived by zooming in on a high resolution photo and identifying a bus stop reflected in her pupils. According to Asia One, the alleged attacker "even approximated the storey Matsuoka lived on based on the windows and the angle of the sunlight in her eyes."

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/10/11/2319251/stalker-found-victims-home-by-looking-at-reflection-in-her-pupil-from-high-res-photo

ETA: AFAIK, here is the original story link that boingboing links to: https://www.asiaone.com/asia/obsessed-fan-finds-japanese-idols-home-zooming-her-eyes

[flibbitygiblets]

1. It just occurred to me that people could do something like this very easily

Recently I sent a picture of my dog to my mother (who incidentally, has what's known as "low vision" due to macular degeneration; in other words, she can barely see without high-powered magnifying glasses). Anyway, she zoomed in on the dog photo and sent me back a picture of myself that was hidden in the dog's eyeball reflection.

If my functionally blind 70-something mom can figure this out, imagine what others are doing.

[Jake Stern]

2. Holy shit!

[MineralMan]

3. I suspect this story is an invention.

While such a thing might be theoretically possible, practically, it really isn't.

There isn't a link to a real story here, just a discussion on slashdot.org.

Cool story, though...

[Ron Obvious]

4. It could be

boingboing links to this story which has more details. It is, of course, possible that the attacker made the story up.

https://www.asiaone.com/asia/obsessed-fan-finds-japanese-idols-home-zooming-her-eyes

I've added the link to my OP.

[MineralMan]

5. Yes, I followed that link, along with a link from

the story there, which showed a close up of the eye. Still, I doubt very much whether the story is accurate and that the attacker found her in that way. It all reads like sensationalism to me.

While some photos might have enough resolution to do that, the media that posts such photos typically doesn't publish them in such high resolution. The files are just too large. Unless the RAW format image is somehow available from the published photo, it would be very unlikely.

[Ron Obvious]

8. I imagine asiaone.com would be smart enough NOT to show the original hi-res picture in this case.

The slashdot discussion contains a certain amount of victim-blaming that people should be aware of the risks of posting hi-res pictures of oneself these days.

There's a lot metadata included in the jpg, including, if I remember correctly, the location. It's possible cameras strip that out these days, but they definitely used to include it.

[MineralMan]

10. Yes. That EXIF meta data is a much more likely source of the location info.

Especially if it was, as described, a selfie taken by a cell phone camera. which can also include geotagging data. Perhaps someone's imagination is running wild here.

[Drunken Irishman]

14. Yup. This premise sounds like something out of CSI lol

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

6. Well detective, a simple search produced all kinds of results. Including

the name of the suspect, who apparently confessed:

https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-att-us&source=android-browser&ei=oBeiXbOtBYL6-gTnio3AAw&q=Ena+Matsuoka&oq=Ena+Matsuoka&gs_l=mobile-gws-wiz-serp.3..0i324l2.1379930.1381005..1381013...0.0..0.203.203.2-1......0....1j2.......6..41j41i22i30.Z0UWjsu4z1g

[MineralMan]

9. I already did that. I stand by my reasoning.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

11. So you're saying that this is a made up story and no one was

attacked? The woman made up the story? There is no one in custody? Or what? What exactly are you standing by and based on what?

[MineralMan]

12. Don't tell me what I'm saying.

It's far more likely that the location was determined by looking at the EXIF and geotagging data stored with the image. Cell phones are notable for recording that data as part of the image file.

The typical resolutions of selfies are not high enough to zoom in on the reflection from someone's eye, quite frankly.

Here's a step-by-step process for turning off geotagging on an iPhone. It is on by default, and will store the location of the photo every time you take a photo:

https://www.lifewire.com/remove-geotags-from-pictures-taken-with-your-iphone-2487322

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

15. Not sure if you understand the use of question marks. But I'm asking you

what it is that you're claiming to debunk here. You said the story is an invention. Those are your words, are they not? So I'm asking why you're questioning the story. If you're questioning only the part about the photo fine. Then fucking say that. So that you don't have to act all offended if some find your post confusing and condescending.

[MineralMan]

16. I don't take instructions here.

See my posts. I clearly said that I didn't think the attacker found her by looking at the reflection in her eye in the photo. I explained why. Then, I have also discussed other ways that someone might locate a person from a photo.

I "fucking said" exactly what I meant to say.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

19. You said the story was an invention. Not "part of this story". And the

truth is you don't know either. But since you're coming in like some kind of expert. I wanted to know how you came to that conclusion. You wanna huff and puff over your lack of clarity, be my guest.

[MineralMan]

22. What was an invention was the reflection part of the story.

Obviously there was an attack. How the attacker found her was the story I was talking about, and that's very unlikely.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

24. I see. nt

[Ron Obvious]

13. Possibly the real story of how he found out her address is even more incriminating.

That stuff about the angle of the sunlight being used to approximate which floor she lived on does seem far-fetched to me, but I'm out of my depth here technology-wise.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

17. That's entirely possible that part is bogus. But it seemed Colombo here

was denying the actual story is false or made up. If so, that's possible as well. But I'd like to know how they arrived to their conclusion.

[MineralMan]

18. Another insult? Great.

Never mind. I never said there was no attack. Clearly, there was.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

20. Colombo was the shit. I thought it was a compliment. nt

[MineralMan]

21. I doubt you meant it as a compliment,

but never mind. I'm done with this line of questioning.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

23. I misunderstood your original meaning then. Since you're saying there was an attack. I

took it to mean the whole thing was made up. Or something along those lines. It came across as crass, since it seems this woman was victimized. Again I'm just basing this on the other articles I read. Either way it sucks.

[PJMcK]

7. I've tried this before

It's really tough to do.

Once, I saw a closeup of a pornography model's eyeballs and I wanted to see if I could see the photographer in the reflection of her eyes. I expanded the picture to the point of unclarity and I really couldn't get much more than a shadow. By the way, the original photo was in very high resolution. (wink)

In the James Bond movie, "From Russia With Love," there's a scene where Bond is kissing a woman in Istanbul. In the reflection of her eye, he sees a thug about to attack him. Bond, of course, throws the woman in front of the attacker and then throws the bad guy into a bathtub followed by an electric fan thereby electrocuting the bad guy. As he's leaving the apartment, Bond says, "Shocking. Absolutely shocking."

I've never been able to see a reflection in a woman's eye no matter how hard I've tried.

[TidalWave46]

25. Most if not all is untrue.

That’s my take. Interesting story.

[canetoad]

26. I'm not saying this is untrue

But find it highly unlikely. Social media downsamples images to generally be less than 100 kb. The internet servers would soon be full if everyones selfies were posted at 4 or 5 mb, which is the size they originally were taken at.

This downsizing is carried out be removing information in the photo. Once gone, no matter how much you enlarge it, you just cannot put that information back.

[miyazaki]

27. I've super sleuthed many locations from photos.

And using just the imagery in the pic itself. Mostly a process of deduction/elimination. Every item becomes a potential clue, from sun angle, topography, flora, glass reflection.

Ironically i've sleuthed many locations in Tokyo.

[defacto7]

28. I have read addresses and telephone numbers

in pictures posted of pets many times. It's on their tags. Just zoom in on the tags. Whenever I post a pet pic I blur the tags until they are mush.

[Ron Obvious]

29. Damn!

Something for all of us to keep in mind. Thanks.

[pansypoo53219]

30. more reason not to raise my MP beyond 12 or so.