Maximum likelihood estimation of JPEG quantization table in the identification of bitmap compression history

To process previously JPEG coded images the knowledge of the quantization table used in compression is sometimes required. This happens for example in JPEG artifact removal and in JPEG re-compression. However, the quantization table might not be known due to various reasons. A method is presented for the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) of the JPEG quantization tables. An efficient method is also provided to identify if an image has been previously JPEG compressed