Picture Puzzle Caches

[jdcb]

Hey All,

 

I spent the last while searching for the answer with no luck, if this is a duplicate, my apologies.

 

So, I've got this puzzle cache in my area that I've spent hours and hours trying to do. I can't seem to get the info. The only hint is a photo on the page. I've tried working with the file size, seeing if it had a summary attached to the photo, examined in detail the page source, highlighted all info on the page to look for hidden links, checked it's properties, did all this in IE and Chrome, I flipped the picture, flopped the picture, rotated it to all angles, stretched it, shrunk it, gray-scaled it, color inverted it, played with the contrast/brightness, hue and saturation. Am I just missing something?

 

Are there any tools that could help with these types of caches. The same cacher has two others very similar, another one that is just a picture and one that is a moving gif.

 

Any ideas?

[+bittsen]

Hey All,

 

I spent the last while searching for the answer with no luck, if this is a duplicate, my apologies.

 

So, I've got this puzzle cache in my area that I've spent hours and hours trying to do. I can't seem to get the info. The only hint is a photo on the page. I've tried working with the file size, seeing if it had a summary attached to the photo, examined in detail the page source, highlighted all info on the page to look for hidden links, checked it's properties, did all this in IE and Chrome, I flipped the picture, flopped the picture, rotated it to all angles, stretched it, shrunk it, gray-scaled it, color inverted it, played with the contrast/brightness, hue and saturation. Am I just missing something?

 

Are there any tools that could help with these types of caches. The same cacher has two others very similar, another one that is just a picture and one that is a moving gif.

 

Any ideas?

 

Photos are also embedded with information that is text. It can have the program used to create the picture, the author, and MUCH more. Get a program that reads that info. The info is editable...

[+dfx]

there's a zillion ways of hiding information in a picture. what bittsen descibes is one way, another is embedding information in how the image is digitally encoded and what precisely is encoded. research steganography.

[+Mom-n-Andy]

On Macs and other Unix computers there is a nifty little command line program called strings that displays data in the ascii range that's embedded in a binary file. On Macs you can also open a file with the text editor application and look for ascii text. I'm sure Windows computers have some kind of text editor too. This is a popular steganography method since it is very easy to implement. Sometimes you will see an image file that has embedded encrypted text.

 

Another thing that folks do is to edit an image with photoshop or a similar program and add text (such as coordinates) in a really really small font size and in a color that is subtly different from the colors of the image. You find this by zooming in on the image using whatever image display software you have and scanning the entire image in a systematic manner.

 

There are also programs that people can use to embed a lower resolution image in another image. You would need specialized software to detect this however, and I believe that requiring a cacher to download and install any specific software application is a violation of the guidelines. I am not aware of any picture caches that use this.

[+GeoGeeBee]

It's also possible to create a zip file that contains an image; or rather, a picture that's really a zip file. So for example, if you have a picture called photo1.jpg, you can rename it photo1.zip and then "unzip" it.

[+moose61]

There are hunderds of ways the information can be hidden. It can be in the picture itself, in the internal information of the picture, hidden in the code, or maybe even not in the picture itself. It can also be hidden somewhere else on the page and not in the picture, but not visable. It's sometimes easy to find the solution, other times very hard.

 

Just check this document on Steganography and you will get some idea's. http://ocw.kfupm.edu.sa/user062/CSE55101/stegno2.pdf

[7rxc]

Hey All,

 

I spent the last while searching for the answer with no luck, if this is a duplicate, my apologies.

 

So, I've got this puzzle cache in my area that I've spent hours and hours trying to do. I can't seem to get the info. The only hint is a photo on the page.

 

Any ideas?

 

Care to ID the cache so we can look, I THINK I know which one, but not for sure... and I'd hate to fail.

Meanwhile I'm playing with the one I found.

 

Doug

[+NYPaddleCacher]

On Macs and other Unix computers there is a nifty little command line program called strings that displays data in the ascii range that's embedded in a binary file. On Macs you can also open a file with the text editor application and look for ascii text. I'm sure Windows computers have some kind of text editor too. This is a popular steganography method since it is very easy to implement. Sometimes you will see an image file that has embedded encrypted text.

 

Another thing that folks do is to edit an image with photoshop or a similar program and add text (such as coordinates) in a really really small font size and in a color that is subtly different from the colors of the image. You find this by zooming in on the image using whatever image display software you have and scanning the entire image in a systematic manner.

 

There are also programs that people can use to embed a lower resolution image in another image. You would need specialized software to detect this however, and I believe that requiring a cacher to download and install any specific software application is a violation of the guidelines. I am not aware of any picture caches that use this.

 

There is also a version of the strings command that runs on windows. I've used it to find strings embedded in images to solve a couple of puzzle caches.

 

If you have a copy of Photoshop I've seen images for puzzle caches in which coordinates were revealed using the threshold tool by stepping through the color range. I've also done it with the IrfanView image viewer.

 

I recently solved a puzzle which used an a jpeg image. Using the strings command I discovered a string with the GC code as a string (i.e. GC12345.jpg) followed by a string consisting of "rar". Turns out, if you rename the image such that it has a .rar extension instead of .jpg, then use WinRar or some other RAR archive tool you find that the image file is also a .rar file which contains another file, in this case and image then then had to be "decoded" to reveal the actual coordinates. I recognized what kind of image the embedded image was right away and had to use another app to reveal the coordinates.

 

There are lots of stenography tools that can hide/reveal strings in images if you search for them.

[+Mom-n-Andy]

On Macs and other Unix computers there is a nifty little command line program called strings that displays data in the ascii range that's embedded in a binary file. On Macs you can also open a file with the text editor application and look for ascii text. I'm sure Windows computers have some kind of text editor too. This is a popular steganography method since it is very easy to implement. Sometimes you will see an image file that has embedded encrypted text.

 

Another thing that folks do is to edit an image with photoshop or a similar program and add text (such as coordinates) in a really really small font size and in a color that is subtly different from the colors of the image. You find this by zooming in on the image using whatever image display software you have and scanning the entire image in a systematic manner.

 

There are also programs that people can use to embed a lower resolution image in another image. You would need specialized software to detect this however, and I believe that requiring a cacher to download and install any specific software application is a violation of the guidelines. I am not aware of any picture caches that use this.

 

There is also a version of the strings command that runs on windows. I've used it to find strings embedded in images to solve a couple of puzzle caches.

 

If you have a copy of Photoshop I've seen images for puzzle caches in which coordinates were revealed using the threshold tool by stepping through the color range. I've also done it with the IrfanView image viewer.

 

I recently solved a puzzle which used an a jpeg image. Using the strings command I discovered a string with the GC code as a string (i.e. GC12345.jpg) followed by a string consisting of "rar". Turns out, if you rename the image such that it has a .rar extension instead of .jpg, then use WinRar or some other RAR archive tool you find that the image file is also a .rar file which contains another file, in this case and image then then had to be "decoded" to reveal the actual coordinates. I recognized what kind of image the embedded image was right away and had to use another app to reveal the coordinates.

 

There are lots of stenography tools that can hide/reveal strings in images if you search for them.

 

And for those of us who can't afford Photoshop, there is Gimp, an open-source image editing program. It is available for Mac and Linux, and I believe Windows too.

[+Mom-n-Andy]

On Macs and other Unix computers there is a nifty little command line program called strings that displays data in the ascii range that's embedded in a binary file. On Macs you can also open a file with the text editor application and look for ascii text. I'm sure Windows computers have some kind of text editor too. This is a popular steganography method since it is very easy to implement. Sometimes you will see an image file that has embedded encrypted text.

 

Another thing that folks do is to edit an image with photoshop or a similar program and add text (such as coordinates) in a really really small font size and in a color that is subtly different from the colors of the image. You find this by zooming in on the image using whatever image display software you have and scanning the entire image in a systematic manner.

 

There are also programs that people can use to embed a lower resolution image in another image. You would need specialized software to detect this however, and I believe that requiring a cacher to download and install any specific software application is a violation of the guidelines. I am not aware of any picture caches that use this.

 

There is also a version of the strings command that runs on windows. I've used it to find strings embedded in images to solve a couple of puzzle caches.

 

If you have a copy of Photoshop I've seen images for puzzle caches in which coordinates were revealed using the threshold tool by stepping through the color range. I've also done it with the IrfanView image viewer.

 

I recently solved a puzzle which used an a jpeg image. Using the strings command I discovered a string with the GC code as a string (i.e. GC12345.jpg) followed by a string consisting of "rar". Turns out, if you rename the image such that it has a .rar extension instead of .jpg, then use WinRar or some other RAR archive tool you find that the image file is also a .rar file which contains another file, in this case and image then then had to be "decoded" to reveal the actual coordinates. I recognized what kind of image the embedded image was right away and had to use another app to reveal the coordinates.

 

There are lots of stenography tools that can hide/reveal strings in images if you search for them.

 

And for those of us who can't afford Photoshop, there is Gimp, an open-source image editing program. It is available for Mac and Linux, and I believe Windows too.

[+Mom-n-Andy]

On Macs and other Unix computers there is a nifty little command line program called strings that displays data in the ascii range that's embedded in a binary file. On Macs you can also open a file with the text editor application and look for ascii text. I'm sure Windows computers have some kind of text editor too. This is a popular steganography method since it is very easy to implement. Sometimes you will see an image file that has embedded encrypted text.

 

Another thing that folks do is to edit an image with photoshop or a similar program and add text (such as coordinates) in a really really small font size and in a color that is subtly different from the colors of the image. You find this by zooming in on the image using whatever image display software you have and scanning the entire image in a systematic manner.

 

There are also programs that people can use to embed a lower resolution image in another image. You would need specialized software to detect this however, and I believe that requiring a cacher to download and install any specific software application is a violation of the guidelines. I am not aware of any picture caches that use this.

 

There is also a version of the strings command that runs on windows. I've used it to find strings embedded in images to solve a couple of puzzle caches.

 

If you have a copy of Photoshop I've seen images for puzzle caches in which coordinates were revealed using the threshold tool by stepping through the color range. I've also done it with the IrfanView image viewer.

 

I recently solved a puzzle which used an a jpeg image. Using the strings command I discovered a string with the GC code as a string (i.e. GC12345.jpg) followed by a string consisting of "rar". Turns out, if you rename the image such that it has a .rar extension instead of .jpg, then use WinRar or some other RAR archive tool you find that the image file is also a .rar file which contains another file, in this case and image then then had to be "decoded" to reveal the actual coordinates. I recognized what kind of image the embedded image was right away and had to use another app to reveal the coordinates.

 

There are lots of stenography tools that can hide/reveal strings in images if you search for them.

 

And for those of us who can't afford Photoshop, there is Gimp, an open-source image editing program. It is available for Mac and Linux, and I believe Windows too.

[+Mom-n-Andy]

On Macs and other Unix computers there is a nifty little command line program called strings that displays data in the ascii range that's embedded in a binary file. On Macs you can also open a file with the text editor application and look for ascii text. I'm sure Windows computers have some kind of text editor too. This is a popular steganography method since it is very easy to implement. Sometimes you will see an image file that has embedded encrypted text.

 

Another thing that folks do is to edit an image with photoshop or a similar program and add text (such as coordinates) in a really really small font size and in a color that is subtly different from the colors of the image. You find this by zooming in on the image using whatever image display software you have and scanning the entire image in a systematic manner.

 

There are also programs that people can use to embed a lower resolution image in another image. You would need specialized software to detect this however, and I believe that requiring a cacher to download and install any specific software application is a violation of the guidelines. I am not aware of any picture caches that use this.

 

There is also a version of the strings command that runs on windows. I've used it to find strings embedded in images to solve a couple of puzzle caches.

 

If you have a copy of Photoshop I've seen images for puzzle caches in which coordinates were revealed using the threshold tool by stepping through the color range. I've also done it with the IrfanView image viewer.

 

I recently solved a puzzle which used an a jpeg image. Using the strings command I discovered a string with the GC code as a string (i.e. GC12345.jpg) followed by a string consisting of "rar". Turns out, if you rename the image such that it has a .rar extension instead of .jpg, then use WinRar or some other RAR archive tool you find that the image file is also a .rar file which contains another file, in this case and image then then had to be "decoded" to reveal the actual coordinates. I recognized what kind of image the embedded image was right away and had to use another app to reveal the coordinates.

 

There are lots of stenography tools that can hide/reveal strings in images if you search for them.

 

And for those of us who can't afford Photoshop, there is Gimp, an open-source image editing program. It is available for Mac and Linux, and I believe Windows too.

[+hmart316]

I'd be interested in learning which cache this is as well.

 

I recently solved this cache Steganography and the CO touts that it would be higher than a 5 star difficulty if he could. I can tell you that it IS very tough, I told the CO that he should work for the NSA. LOL

 

hmart316

[7rxc]

I'd be interested in learning which cache this is as well.

 

I recently solved this cache Steganography and the CO touts that it would be higher than a 5 star difficulty if he could. I can tell you that it IS very tough, I told the CO that he should work for the NSA. LOL

 

hmart316

While waiting for the OP to check in again, I've engaged your suggestion... all I can say is 'what have I got into this time'... I did email you thru your profile re the original post cache, but no guarantee on that.

 

I've been making progress on Steg, but I suspect that is only the begining.. plus some of it does not seem to work for me... but we'll see. Not sure why!

 

Thanks Doug 7rxc

[+popokiiti]

There was a picture puzzle on one cache we did awhile back - you had to stare at the computer screen, let your eyes go out of focus and the coords came out in 3D. Neither of us could look and write down the info so it was a joint effort........

Puzzles are the bane of my life - probably because I don't do enough of them/haven't had much success!

[7rxc]

There was a picture puzzle on one cache we did awhile back - you had to stare at the computer screen, let your eyes go out of focus and the coords came out in 3D. Neither of us could look and write down the info so it was a joint effort........

Puzzles are the bane of my life - probably because I don't do enough of them/haven't had much success!

I actually have managed to do a few of those ones... which is for me a feat in itself, despite what people say about requiring binocular vision... my bad left eye manages to see just enough to allow for the stereoscopic effect... however I sometimes lose the left side of the image and have to reposition my gaze further in that direction to get all of it... Did take me quite a while to develop the skill required... I saw my first image like that many years ago when they first became popular as posters... never thought I could do it way back then... or now. This puzzle Steganography is bugging me because some of the stuff required doesn't like MY computer system... or something... like maybe I'm not as far along as I thought...

 

Doug

[+Harry Dolphin]

There was a picture puzzle on one cache we did awhile back - you had to stare at the computer screen, let your eyes go out of focus and the coords came out in 3D. Neither of us could look and write down the info so it was a joint effort........

Puzzles are the bane of my life - probably because I don't do enough of them/haven't had much success!

I actually have managed to do a few of those ones... which is for me a feat in itself, despite what people say about requiring binocular vision... my bad left eye manages to see just enough to allow for the stereoscopic effect... however I sometimes lose the left side of the image and have to reposition my gaze further in that direction to get all of it... Did take me quite a while to develop the skill required... I saw my first image like that many years ago when they first became popular as posters... never thought I could do it way back then... or now.

 

After cataract surgery, I cannot solve this type of puzzzle at all! My eyes do not focus. Oh, well.

[7rxc]

I saw my first image like that many years ago when they first became popular as posters... never thought I could do it way back then... or now.

 

After cataract surgery, I cannot solve this type of puzzzle at all! My eyes do not focus. Oh, well.

 

I wouldn't give up on it... you may actually have what you require... DON'T use your reading glasses for looking at the monitor image... the secret is to look through the image, as if you were looking at something further away... try your distance prescription (or intermediate) if you use one...

 

Most of the current imaging for these images requires the reverse of 'going cross eyed'... you need to diverge the eyes, not converge to cross images such as in cross eyed stereoscopic images. To help with that you need the distance vergance. Or you can try one of the softwares that decode the image for you..

there was a thread a way back... don't know where it went right off, but that's another way to do puzzles.

It was what got me into trying it again... and succeeding... good luck.

 

edit: search stereogram in G topics. I see you were there back then as well...

 

Or you can try Steganography... I'm still going crosseyed on that one... a good game in itself..

Doug

Edited April 7, 2010 by 7rxc

[+cx1]

There is software that can take a stereogram image and bring out the 3-d image. I have a terrible time trying to see the hidden images. Google stereogram decoder if you are interested.