Any interest in an application to spot verify well-known autographs/forgeries

[isaac2004]

Hello All,

I used to frequent this forum a lot, but life got in the way (married with 2 kids now, time flies). I stepped away from the hobby as well and hope for the day when I can pick it back up and finish some collections.

I am a software developer, and I had an interesting idea, what if there was a service online that you could provide a photo of an autograph and you would be told almost instantly with a level of certainty whether the autograph is real or not. I now there are some things online that give you an "eye test" but this instead of having a person look would use Machine Learning based on a proided sample of real and fakes and make an assessment of the image. This obviously is not foolproof as there is nuance to an autograph that this mechanism would not detect, but I believe a majority of "Hey is this real or fake?" posts would be handled, plus it is something that is just really cool.

I have a proof of concept for this working with Mantle autographs and I am pretty happy with the results, but it can be better. So if anyone wants to contribute to this venture, I could use samples. Do you have real autos around that you can provide photos of? Do you have photos of known fakes? It doesn't have to end with Mantle, so if you have samples for any major players, please let me know.

Also if you want to talk further, feel free to reach out.

[btcarfagno]

Originally Posted by isaac2004

Hello All,

I used to frequent this forum a lot, but life got in the way (married with 2 kids now, time flies). I stepped away from the hobby as well and hope for the day when I can pick it back up and finish some collections.

I am a software developer, and I had an interesting idea, what if there was a service online that you could provide a photo of an autograph and you would be told almost instantly with a level of certainty whether the autograph is real or not. I now there are some things online that give you an "eye test" but this instead of having a person look would use Machine Learning based on a proided sample of real and fakes and make an assessment of the image. This obviously is not foolproof as there is nuance to an autograph that this mechanism would not detect, but I believe a majority of "Hey is this real or fake?" posts would be handled, plus it is something that is just really cool.

I have a proof of concept for this working with Mantle autographs and I am pretty happy with the results, but it can be better. So if anyone wants to contribute to this venture, I could use samples. Do you have real autos around that you can provide photos of? Do you have photos of known fakes? It doesn't have to end with Mantle, so if you have samples for any major players, please let me know.

Also if you want to talk further, feel free to reach out.

Not sure the photo quality you would need, but you could likely go through this forum from the past year and get 500 good Mantle examples and 500 fakes as well.

Tom C

[thetruthisoutthere]

Originally Posted by isaac2004

Hello All,

I used to frequent this forum a lot, but life got in the way (married with 2 kids now, time flies). I stepped away from the hobby as well and hope for the day when I can pick it back up and finish some collections.

I am a software developer, and I had an interesting idea, what if there was a service online that you could provide a photo of an autograph and you would be told almost instantly with a level of certainty whether the autograph is real or not. I now there are some things online that give you an "eye test" but this instead of having a person look would use Machine Learning based on a proided sample of real and fakes and make an assessment of the image. This obviously is not foolproof as there is nuance to an autograph that this mechanism would not detect, but I believe a majority of "Hey is this real or fake?" posts would be handled, plus it is something that is just really cool.

I have a proof of concept for this working with Mantle autographs and I am pretty happy with the results, but it can be better. So if anyone wants to contribute to this venture, I could use samples. Do you have real autos around that you can provide photos of? Do you have photos of known fakes? It doesn't have to end with Mantle, so if you have samples for any major players, please let me know.

Also if you want to talk further, feel free to reach out.

Interesting idea, but I would trust my eye over any machine or software.

[Ryan1125]

Thinking out loud here...

*I'm not particularly sold on the whole "auto detect" software function you are mentioning, but I do think it would be nice if there was some sort of "Autograph 101" app where you could search for a particular athlete, and find tons of 100% authentic exemplars, as well as forgery examples for educational purposes.

*It would even be neat if there was some sort of "submit a photo" option to update a person's exemplar folder (I.e. if you just got a ball signed by Pete Rose, you could upload immediately with a date stamp), OR to get people's opinions (similar to what people ask for here). Members could have certain areas of expertise, and get a notification if someone needs help in their "area". But without automation, you would be relying on knowledgeable opinions which would probably be hard to filter out/verify... Basically this is an app that PSA/DNA, JSA, or BGS should be building right now and they could profit from the "quick opinion/submit a photo" aspect of it! lol



*Part of the fun of this hobby to me is keeping an extensive exemplar archive and "learning" the autographs myself, the problem is the vast majority of people could care less about this. They just want to buy an autograph for their wall. So in that aspect, I'm not so sure tons of people would like the idea of "studying" exemplars through the app...

*It would be cool if each athlete/celeb had a "profile" that you could "follow" to continue getting updated on. I would love to "follow" certain athletes and be updated on their signing schedules/TTM status/appearances/see posts of recent IP autos of them, etc.

*What if athletes had control over their own profile and had the ability to accept signing requests as they please? Similar to an Uber driver opening their app and deciding if they want to take a pick-up or not? Obviously the big names won't have time, but plenty of lower name guys would during the off-season I assume. This would cut out the greedy middle men and let the athletes decide when/where they want to sign, from the comfort of their own homes.


Now you've got me thinking! It's an interesting idea, the possibilities are endless!

[isaac2004]

Originally Posted by thetruthisoutthere

Interesting idea, but I would trust my eye over any machine or software.

Tbh it isn't directed to you, you know the signatures you know very well. This is for people new to the hobby who could find value in getting a "thumbs up or down" for something they see on CL or eBay.

[isaac2004]

Originally Posted by Ryan1125

Thinking out loud here...

*I'm not particularly sold on the whole "auto detect" software function you are mentioning, but I do think it would be nice if there was some sort of "Autograph 101" app where you could search for a particular athlete, and find tons of 100% authentic exemplars, as well as forgery examples for educational purposes.

*It would even be neat if there was some sort of "submit a photo" option to update a person's exemplar folder (I.e. if you just got a ball signed by Pete Rose, you could upload immediately with a date stamp), OR to get people's opinions (similar to what people ask for here). Members could have certain areas of expertise, and get a notification if someone needs help in their "area". But without automation, you would be relying on knowledgeable opinions which would probably be hard to filter out/verify... Basically this is an app that PSA/DNA, JSA, or BGS should be building right now and they could profit from the "quick opinion/submit a photo" aspect of it! lol



*Part of the fun of this hobby to me is keeping an extensive exemplar archive and "learning" the autographs myself, the problem is the vast majority of people could care less about this. They just want to buy an autograph for their wall. So in that aspect, I'm not so sure tons of people would like the idea of "studying" exemplars through the app...

*It would be cool if each athlete/celeb had a "profile" that you could "follow" to continue getting updated on. I would love to "follow" certain athletes and be updated on their signing schedules/TTM status/appearances/see posts of recent IP autos of them, etc.

*What if athletes had control over their own profile and had the ability to accept signing requests as they please? Similar to an Uber driver opening their app and deciding if they want to take a pick-up or not? Obviously the big names won't have time, but plenty of lower name guys would during the off-season I assume. This would cut out the greedy middle men and let the athletes decide when/where they want to sign, from the comfort of their own homes.


Now you've got me thinking! It's an interesting idea, the possibilities are endless!

some of this data is tracked on signings hotline but something more consolidated would be interesting.

[rdwyer]

I would like an app that grades baseball cards. The software can be taught how to detect flaws, etc. It would also compare each card to examples of each grade. Would love to see PSA go outta business.