A new Dartmouth study confirms the authenticity of the famous backyard photo of Lee Harvey Oswald holding the same type of rifle used to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. Credit: Warren Commission A new Dartmouth study confirms the authenticity of the famous backyard photo of Lee Harvey Oswald holding the same type of rifle used to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. 
 
 The findings refute continued claims that the photo was faked because Oswald's pose is physically implausible. The study, which uses a new digital image forensics technique and a 3-D model of Oswald developed by the Dartmouth researchers, appears in the Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law. 
 
 "Our detailed analysis of Oswald's pose, the lighting and shadows and the rifle in his hands refutes the argument of photo tampering," says senior author Hany Farid, a professor of computer science and a pioneering researcher in digital forensics whose team develops mathematical and computational techniques to detect tampering in photos, videos, audios and documents. 
 
 Oswald was killed before his trial, so he never gave a full accounting of the assassination, which fueled theories that he was part of a conspiracy. The theories point to purported inconsistencies in the events of Nov. 22, 1963, and in the evidence collected against Oswald. One such example is a photograph of Oswald in his backyard holstering a pistol and holding a rifle in one hand and Marxist newspapers in the other. The photo was particularly damning because it showed Oswald holding the same type of rifle that was used to assassinate Kennedy. 
 
 At the time of his arrest, Oswald claimed the photo was fake. In addition, it has long been argued that the lighting and shadows in the photo are inconsistent; that Oswald's facial features are inconsistent with other photos of him; that the size of the rifle is inconsistent with the known length of that type of rifle; and that Oswald's pose is physically implausible (it appears as if he is standing off balance). 
 
 Dartmouth researchers used new digital image forensics and 3-D modeling techniques to confirm the authenticity of the famous backyard photo of Lee Harvey Oswald holding the same type of rifle used to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. Credit: Hany Farid 
 
 The Warren Commission and the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded claims of photo tampering were unwarranted. Also, Farid's studies in 2009 and 2010 refuted the claim that the lighting and shadows are inconsistent, but these studies did not address claims that Oswald's pose is physically implausible. In the new study, Farid and his team conducted a 3-D stability analysis to determine if this claim is warranted. 
 
 Dartmouth researchers built and posed a physiologically plausible 3-D model of Lee Harvey Oswald to match his appearance in the famous backyard photo. Their analysis of the 3-D model revealed that although Oswald appears off-balance, his pose is stable. Credit: Hany Farid 
 
 Farid teamed with Assistant Professor Emily Whiting, who specializes in architectural geometry, computer-aided design and 3-D fabrication. With the help of graduate student Srivamshi Pittala, they built a physiologically plausible 3-D model of Oswald and posed this model to match his appearance in the backyard photo. By adding the appropriate mass to each part of the 3-D model, they were able to perform a balance analysis on the 3-D model. This analysis revealed that although Oswald appears off-balance, his pose is stable. The analysis also revealed that the lighting and shadows are physically plausible and the length of the rifle is consistent with the length of the rifle used to kill the president. 
 
 "Our analysis refutes purported evidence of manipulation in the Oswald photo, but more generally we believe that the type of detailed 3-D modeling performed here can be a powerful forensic tool in reasoning about the physical plausibility of an image," Farid says. "With a simple adjustment to the height and weight, the 3-D human model that we created can be used to forensically analyze the pose, stability and shadows in any image of people." 
 
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 One of the most controversial photos in history is authentic, according to 3D analysis by Dartmouth College. The seemingly damning photo of Lee Harvey Oswald -- who was arrested and charged for the assassination of US president John F Kennedy, but died before trial -- pictures him holding the same type of rifle that killed JFK, and a couple of Marxist newspapers. 
 
 Dartmouth College 
 
 For over forty-five years the photo's authenticity has been disputed. Oswald said it was fake. And conspiracy theorists -- who believe the assassination was part of a government plot -- cite it as a key piece of evidence in their case. The claim goes that Oswald's pose is physically implausible, and that there are inconsistencies in the lighting, shadows, geometry, and proportions of the image. 
 
 Any evidence of tampering in the photo would naturally be used as evidence for a conspiracy -- as unlikely as that remains. But two separate US inquiries have dismissed such claims. And now a study from Dartmouth College has used digital image forensics and 3D modelling to confirm the inquiries' findings, and prove that Oswald's pose in the picture is indeed plausible. 
 
 Dartmouth College 
 
 "Our detailed analysis of Oswald's pose, the lighting and shadows, and the rifle in his hands refutes the argument of photo tampering," said Henry Farid, senior author of the study. 
 
 The researchers built a realistic 3D model of Oswald and manipulated it to stand in the same pose as the real Oswald in the photo. They added mass to different parts of the model in a "balance analysis" to see if the model remained stable. It did. They also confirmed that the rifle length is consistent with the one used to murder President Kennedy. 
 
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 Farid and his team have previously analysed the lighting and shadows in the image -- and concluded the patterns are realistic. 
 
 "It is highly improbable that anyone could have created such a perfect forgery with the technology available in 1963," said Farid in 2009. "As our digital forensic tools become more sophisticated, we increasingly have the ability to apply them to historic photos in an attempt to resolve some long-standing mysteries." ||||| HANOVER, N.H. - A new Dartmouth study confirms the authenticity of the famous backyard photo of Lee Harvey Oswald holding the same type of rifle used to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. 
 
 The findings refute continued claims that the photo was faked because Oswald's pose is physically implausible. The study, which uses a new digital image forensics technique and a 3-D model of Oswald developed by the Dartmouth researchers, appears in the Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law. A PDF and photos are available on request. 
 
 "Our detailed analysis of Oswald's pose, the lighting and shadows and the rifle in his hands refutes the argument of photo tampering," says senior author Hany Farid, a professor of computer science and a pioneering researcher in digital forensics whose team develops mathematical and computational techniques to detect tampering in photos, videos, audios and documents. 
 
 Oswald was killed before his trial, so he never gave a full accounting of the assassination, which fueled theories that he was part of a conspiracy. The theories point to purported inconsistencies in the events of Nov. 22, 1963, and in the evidence collected against Oswald. One such example is a photograph of Oswald in his backyard holstering a pistol and holding a rifle in one hand and Marxist newspapers in the other. The photo was particularly damning because it showed Oswald holding the same type of rifle that was used to assassinate Kennedy. 
 
 At the time of his arrest, Oswald claimed the photo was fake. In addition, it has long been argued that the lighting and shadows in the photo are inconsistent; that Oswald's facial features are inconsistent with other photos of him; that the size of the rifle is inconsistent with the known length of that type of rifle; and that Oswald's pose is physically implausible (it appears as if he is standing off balance). 
 
 The Warren Commission and the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded claims of photo tampering were unwarranted. Also, Farid's studies in 2009 and 2010 refuted the claim that the lighting and shadows are inconsistent, but these studies did not address claims that Oswald's pose is physically implausible. In the new study, Farid and his team conducted a 3-D stability analysis to determine if this claim is warranted. 
 
 Farid teamed with Assistant Professor Emily Whiting, who specializes in architectural geometry, computer-aided design and 3-D fabrication. With the help of graduate student Srivamshi Pittala, they built a physiologically plausible 3-D model of Oswald and posed this model to match his appearance in the backyard photo. By adding the appropriate mass to each part of the 3-D model, they were able to perform a balance analysis on the 3-D model. This analysis revealed that although Oswald appears off-balance, his pose is stable. The analysis also revealed that the lighting and shadows are physically plausible and the length of the rifle is consistent with the length of the rifle used to kill the president. 
 
 "Our analysis refutes purported evidence of manipulation in the Oswald photo, but more generally we believe that the type of detailed 3-D modeling performed here can be a powerful forensic tool in reasoning about the physical plausibility of an image," Farid says. "With a simple adjustment to the height and weight, the 3-D human model that we created can be used to forensically analyze the pose, stability and shadows in any image of people." 
 
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 Professor Hany Farid is available to comment at farid@cs.dartmouth.edu.
– For decades, conspiracy theorists have claimed the famous "backyard photo" of Lee Harvey Oswald, which shows him holding the same type of rifle used to assassinate JFK, is a fake—a claim that Oswald himself made when he was arrested. But thanks to a scientist who has studied this photo before and stated previously it was "highly improbable that anyone could have created such a perfect forgery with the technology available in 1963," that claim has now been debunked. A new study out of Dartmouth, published in the Journal of Digital Forensics, Security, and Law, used sophisticated 3D imaging technology to analyze key details of the photo, including Oswald's pose, and found that the photo is indeed authentic, a press release notes. "Our detailed analysis of Oswald's pose, the lighting and shadows, and the rifle in his hands refutes the argument of photo tampering," Hany Farid, the study's senior author, says. Both the Warren Commission and a special House committee on assassinations had already found photo tampering hadn't taken place, and Farid had done studies in 2009 and 2010 that determined the photo's lighting and shadows were indeed feasible, per Phys.org. But some said that Oswald's pose in the photo, in which he appears to be standing somewhat off-balance, was a physical impossibility, so this time around Farid and his team put the photo through a rigorous 3D stability analysis. By adding appropriate mass little by little to each section of a 3D model of Oswald, they were able to examine Oswald's balance to show he certainly could have stood that way. The study also found, once again, that the lighting, shadows, and rifle length were also plausible. "With a simple adjustment to the height and weight, the 3D human model that we created can be used to forensically analyze the pose, stability, and shadows in any image of people," Farid says in the release. (The CIA has admitted to covering up JFK's assassination, though.)