Discrete Fourier Transform in Unmasking Deepfake Images: A Comparative Study of StyleGAN Creations
Vito Nicola Convertini, Donato Impedovo, Ugo Lopez, Giuseppe Pirlo, Gioacchino Sterlicchio
Abstract
This study proposes a novel forgery detection method based on the analysis of frequency components of images using the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT). In recent years, face manipulation technologies, particularly Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), have advanced to such an extent that their misuse, such as creating deepfakes indistinguishable to human observers, has become a significant societal concern. We reviewed two GAN architectures, StyleGAN and StyleGAN2, generating synthetic faces that were compared with real faces from the FFHQ and CelebA-HQ datasets. The key results demonstrate classification accuracies above 99%, with F1 scores of 99.94% for Support Vector Machines and 97.21% for Random Forest classifiers. These findings underline the fact that performing frequency analysis presents a superior approach to deepfake detection compared to traditional spatial detection methods. It provides insight into subtle manipulation cues in digital images and offers a scalable way to enhance security protocols amid rising digital impersonation threats.