2024 Visual 1st Spotlights

Re-establishing Trust in Visuals:

Untangling the potential solutions – from image content credentials to digital certificates, forensic watermarks, deepfake detection, and beyond

April 10, 8:00 – 9:30 am Pacific Time.

Confidence in the veracity of photos and videos is at its lowest point ever. How can you trust any image – even, as it turns out, photos shared by British Royalty – when the ever more versatile GenAI tools are at everyone’s fingertips?

As the lack of trust in visuals is a multi-faceted problem, no single solution solves all and a variety of solutions are being developed.  

At this Spotlight we’ll take a deep-dive into the current state of different approaches specifically to:

• Assist content creators to certify that their images are authentic and can be trusted, including with respect to IP. 

• Enable imagery viewers and buyers to ascertain whether the images they’re viewing, or are about to publish under their responsibility, meet the necessary authenticity requirements.

The panel will untangle the confusion on the potential and limitations of today’s trending approaches, including:

• C2PA metadata credentials

• Forensic watermarking

• Deepfake detection

Speakers:

Moderators:

Paul Melcher, Managing Director Melcher System

Paul Melcher is a visionary and influential figure in the visual tech industry, with over 20 years of experience in visual content licensing, technology innovations, and entrepreneurship. As the Managing Director of MelcherSystem, a leading visual tech consulting firm, he has been a precursor and trailblazer in the industry. 

He has held instrumental executive positions at companies such as Corbis, Stipple, Digital Railroad, PictureGroup, and Gamma, and is the founder of Kaptur Magazine. Melcher is also a board member of Plus Coalition, Clippn, and Anthology.

Melcher has been recognized as one of the "100 most influential individuals in American photography" and has received a Digital Media Licensing Association Award.

Melcher System is a Contributor Member of C2PA.

Jeffrey McGregor, CEO Truepic

Jeffrey McGregor is the Chief Executive Officer of Truepic, a company dedicated to advancing authenticity infrastructure for the internet. Truepic builds products and services that establish transparency in digital content, empowering viewers to differentiate human from computer-generated media.

Recognized as one of TIME’s Best Inventions and Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas, consumers, businesses, creators, and publishers trust Truepic’s technologies to make informed decisions. Jeff is a thought leader in media provenance & image authenticity, and has contributed to over 15 approved patents in the field of image forensics, authenticity, and verification.

Jeff has more than a decade of entrepreneurial experience, including operating & angel investing. Notably, Jeff has raised over $50M in venture capital, including the founding & acquisition of Dash, the leading hospitality mobile payments application. Jeff has been featured in numerous global print & broadcast outlets, including the BBC, Bloomberg, The Washington Post, Fast Company, TechCrunch, The Verge, and The New Yorker. His own articles have been published in the WSJ, Forbes, and MIT’s Innovation Journal. He has also spoken at The World Economic Forum in Davos, The Oslo Freedom Forum, and the George W. Bush Presidential Center.

Truepic is a Steering Committee Member of C2PA.

Joseph DeGol, PhD, CTO & Co-Founder, Steg.ai

Joe is the CTO at Steg AI where they train state of the art deep learning algorithms for invisible watermarking. Previously, he was Principal Researcher at Microsoft.

He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where he created computer vision and robotics technologies for progress monitoring on construction sites. This led to the creation of Reconstruct Inc. where he was a founding team member, engineering manager, and lead computer vision engineer.

Joe has a range of publications related to fiducial markers and 3D reconstruction in top tier venues like CVPR, ECCV, and ICCV. He is a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellow, two-time NSF GRFP honorable mention, and 3M Fellow.

He graduated with a B.S. in Computer Engineering and a B.S. in Mathematics from Penn State in 2012. For fun, Joe enjoys mountaineering, skiing, running, board games, and is on a side quest to summit tall mountains around the world.

Steg is a Contributor Member of C2PA.

Michael Matias, CEO, Clarity

Michael is a dynamic entrepreneur and tech enthusiast, with a decade of pioneering in AI and Human Computer Interaction.

A Stanford alum, he's made his mark as a Venture Fellow at Innovation Endeavors and Venture Partner at Secret Chord and J-Ventures. An ex-officer of the IDF's 8200 Unit, Michael's excellence in AI and cybersecurity has been nationally recognized.

Michael is also a respected voice in tech, having published over 100 articles for CTech and hosted the 20MinuteLeaders podcast, featuring insights from 1000+ thought leaders. 

Fostering Cross-Sector Photo Print Partnerships:

When doing it all yourself doesn’t make sense

Previously Held February 28, 8:00 – 9:30 am Pacific Time. Check out our takeaways.

Even more so than anywhere else in the photo & video ecosystem, the photo print production & commerce segment relies on cross-sector partnerships. But how do you select the right partner when you need print output fulfillment, middleware SaaS solutions, white label apps, a print network platform, kiosks, retail commerce, or print consumables?

In this Spotlight we’ll hear from a variety of industry players what they’ve learned from partnering to gain access to solutions they couldn’t – or chose not to – develop themselves.  What works, what doesn’t? How to start a partnership and what’s the right time to consider adding or switching partners? What are the pros and cons of having multiple partners with similar offerings?

Speakers: