Can we identify a photo in a photo?

Question

I was browsing through some photos uploaded by a friend on Orkut [Orkut has this new feature to tell you how many unnamed people are there in the photo]. There was this particular photo in which there was an advertisement poster with a photo of a person. Orkut displayed that there are two unnamed persons in the photo. Out of curiousity, I just want to know whether it is possible to identify that there is a photo in a photo? If not, can you think of a way that may help an application to identify a photo in a photo?

Answer 1

I would say that this is a difficult problem.

What is the difference between a person in a photo, and a person looking through a window frame?

The software would have to look for differences in lighting and differences in perspective in the photo, but even this could be due to actual dynamics in the photo, such as off-scene lights, or a mirror.

My guess is that any solution would only work some of the time. Just my 2 cents.