UFO CASE REPORT

The Parque Forestal (Chile) Alien Photograph
Date
May 10, 2004 Location
Parque Forestal, Santiago, Chile


Summary: Civil Engineer Germán Pereira was taking photographs of the Carabineros (state police) on horseback in the Parque Forestal of Santiago, Chile. One of the photos, after being downloaded from his digital camera, showed the image of a possible alien being. CIFAE Chile has interviewed the witness and undertaken the analysis of the photograph.

According to expert James Caron, this image has several difficutlites that do not allow for its full restoration:

-Due to poor lighting, a weak signal was obtained with excessive motion blur due to the long exposure time (0.1 seg).
-The object of interest is moving and has a different, more sever motion blur than the static objects in the scene.
-The image is compressed, which truncates the information necessary for its restoration.

In other words, the photo is compressed in the JPG format, which eliminates part of the information contained in the original image in order to reduce the storage size. The lack of lighting brings as a consequence an excessive amount of noise, especially in the restored image. This implies that there isn't a single PSF for the whole photo, which makes restoration difficult. On the other hand, any evidence of motion may be useful in intepreting the image. In our restoration, at least, some details and colors can be distinguished, and from the photo analysis point of view, it is the best that could be done in this case.

Regarding the possibility of fraud in this photo, it would be easy to dot. The figure could have been pasted on the photo and the resulting borders could ahve been erased through motion blur. On the other hand, the photo's EXIF could have been edited in order to simulate an original photo. But the fact that it is easy to forge does not constitute evidence of a hoax, although it could provide good grounds for ignoring this case or not taking it seriously. We have hitherto not received any valid arguments supporting the hoax hypothesis. Some have said that some lines or squares of well-defined borders can be noted, but this is only a defect of the JPG format.

In closing, something should be said about other image processing techniques. Some effects that highlight the image's details are very common, such as contrast and saturation, sharpening, unsharp mask, border detection, emboss, solarizing, etc. But it is obvious that none of these filters would be capable of restoring an image such as the one in Figure 1. many of these filters are deceptive because they alter the image, giving the false impression of having improved it, but they are at times only useful for aesthetic purposes. It is advisable not to employ a filter if the basics of its operation are unknown.

As an example of a poor job, we mention the one created with a fantasy filter at the request of the IIEE in Figure 3 A, which could be interpreted as a dog. The idea is not to argue if the subject is a dog or not; all that is shown here is that this particular work is poorly executed. The diagonal lines that betray the presence of motion blur are highly visible, and one of the legs is unfolded in the same way as in the original photo. Overall, this image has the same geometry as the original, but different coloring. In other words, there is no evidence of restoration in this retouching. The way in which the colors have been altered is also noticeable.

Investigation conducted by physicist Andres Duarte, Scientific Director of CIFAE CHILE.

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A Report from KODAK Chile

The Kodak report, while not certifying the process of "acknowlegement of objects or external elements within a digital photo" by company policy, has been an important source document in this reseach.

Some parts of this report contain the following information:

The information confirms that the photo was indeed taken using a Kodak DX 6490 camera.

Dimension 1656x1242 pixels
Color depth 24 bpp
Density 96x96 dpi
Subsampling 2:1:1
Color space YCbCr
Mode Baseline
Compression JPEG
Exposure time 0.1 sec
F-Number 3.6
Exposure prog Normal program
EXIF ver 2.2
Time original 2004:05:10 17:40:18
Time digitized 2004:05:10 17:40:18
Component conf YCbCr
Shutter speed 197121 s
Aperture 3.6
Exposure bias 3.6
Max aperture 3.6
Metering mode Pattern
Light source Unknown Flash
Focal length 52.6 mm
Maker note KDK0101IDX6490
FlashPix ver 1.0
Colorspace sRGB
XY Dimension 1656x1242 pixels
Exposure index 140
Sensing method One- chip color area sensor
File source DSC
Scene source Directly photographed image

Sincerely,
Kodak Chile

The CIFAE Report

Among some of the conclusions that can be drawn from the CIFAE report, we can say that the procedures applied up to now in analyzing the image of Parque Forestal, and in which some have thought to see a dog, are mistaken. At least in the positions know.

In other words, if this image in fact corresponds to a canine, the superficial analyses performed until now have NOT proved it.

CIFAE shall continue to analyzing the image and we shall continue to keep our readers abreast of further developments.

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Translation © 2004. Scott Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to CIFAE.
INEXPLICATA
The Journal of Hispanic Ufology
July 18, 2004



Article ID: 388