Unblur face

[meetdilip]

I see a lot of images on news media where the face is blurred for various reasons. Wondering whether it is possible to unblur it.

[denzjos]

Some information :
http://yuzhikov.com/articles/BlurredImag...ation1.htm
https://dheera.net/posts/20140725-why-yo...ixelation/
https://positive.security/blog/video-depixelation

[Ofnuts]

(09-29-2022, 04:21 AM)meetdilip Wrote: I see a lot of images on news media where the face is blurred for various reasons. Wondering whether it is possible to unblur it.

Depends how it has been blurred. This guy learned the hard way that some blurs are undoable (actually he didn't use a blur but a distortion).

Most blurs on static images cannot be undone. However, on videos this is not true (at least for pixelization), because you have several pixelizations of the same object, and you can deduce the original pixels by seeing how the pixelization evolves.

[meetdilip]

Thanks @denzjod @Ofnuts

Just wanted to know how safe blurring faces and parts of images is. I see a lot of people do that on support forums too.

[zeuspaul]

I see a lot of blurred faces that are easily recognizable by someone familiar with the individual. I think the degree of blur will affect how safe they are.

[Ofnuts]

(09-29-2022, 06:36 PM)meetdilip Wrote: Thanks @denzjod @Ofnuts

Just wanted to know how safe blurring faces and parts of images is. I see a lot of people do that on support forums too.

They do it because they don't want to be sued by the people in the picture, due to various privacy laws, especially in Europe(*). Why one would want to take an anonymous picture on the net and unblur it is beyond my imagination. The blur is just to show that you took some precaution.

(*) Law often misunderstood, because the "victim" often has to demonstrate some harm done to reputation, tranquility, etc...