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Follow-up funding secured: C4T project on deep fakes selected for BMBF “DATIpilot” funding programme

C4T provides framework for further developing research project on protecting authorship of information on social media

Especially in critical political situations, information on social media is at high risk of manipulation. The project of the CyberSec Research and Transfer Centre (FTZ) at HAW Hamburg under the direction of Professor Volker Skwarek on the “non-repudiation” of authorship of information on social media takes this as its starting point.

Thanks to two successive grants from Calls for Transfer (C4T), the original idea and software could be developed further – an important step on the way for the successful bid for follow-up funding.

Initially, C4T funded the realisation of an open-source application that enables verifiably tamper-proof video recordings to be made with mobile phones. The second grant was subsequently used to develop an application that generates a “non-repudiable” identity for a mobile phone and stores it on a blockchain as a decentralised, public system. Similar to the use of an invisible watermark, this drastically reduces the risk of information being manipulated on social media.

C4T provides the foundation for follow-up funding

The further development of the initial idea facilitated by C4T enabled Professor Skwarek’s research project to reach a level of maturity that made an application for follow-up funding possible. The project’s success in the “DATI Innovation Sprint” is a huge boost given the competition among more than 3,000 submitted bids. Together with its partner Chainstep GmbH, the project “Robust Signature of Audiovisual Media against (deep) Fakes (SaM-fake)” is now authorised to submit an application for funding under the DATIpilot funding guidelines. DATIpilot is a call by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and aims to promote innovation and transfer projects specifically in the areas of technological and social innovation.

HAW Hamburg press release

More on C4T

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C4T PROJECT PAGE

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Contact

Contact person for Calls for Transfer

Mareike Post
Project Manager of the “Calls for Transfer” funding programme
Hamburg Innovation GmbH
Tel: +49 40 76629-3153
Email: post@hamburginnovation.de

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