Fast compressed domain watermarking of MPEG multiplexed streams

In this paper, a new technique for watermarking of MPEG compressed video streams is proposed. The watermarking scheme operates directly in the domain of MPEG multiplexed streams. Perceptual models are used during the embedding process in order to preserve the quality of the video. The watermark is embedded in the compressed domain and is detected without the use of the original video sequence. Experimental evaluation demonstrates that the proposed scheme is able to withstand a variety of attacks. The resulting watermarking system is very fast and reliable, and is suitable for copyright protection and real-time content authentication applications

Fast watermarking of MPEG-1/2 streams using compressed-domain perceptual embedding and a generalized correlator detector

A novel technique is proposed for watermarking of MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 compressed video streams. The proposed scheme is applied directly in the domain of MPEG-1 system streams and MPEG-2 program streams (multiplexed streams). Perceptual models are used during the embedding process in order to avoid degradation of the video quality. The watermark is detected without the use of the original video sequence. A modified correlation-based detector is introduced that applies nonlinear preprocessing before correlation. Experimental evaluation demonstrates that the proposed scheme is able to withstand several common attacks. The resulting watermarking system is very fast and therefore suitable for copyright protection of compressed video

Spread spectrum-based video watermarking algorithms for copyright protection

Merged with duplicate record 10026.1/2263 on 14.03.2017 by CS (TIS)Digital technologies know an unprecedented expansion in the last years. The consumer can now benefit from hardware and software which was considered state-of-the-art several years ago. The advantages offered by the digital technologies are major but the same digital technology opens the door for unlimited piracy. Copying an analogue VCR tape was certainly possible and relatively easy, in spite of various forms of protection, but due to the analogue environment, the subsequent copies had an inherent loss in quality. This was a natural way of limiting the multiple copying of a video material. With digital technology, this barrier disappears, being possible to make as many copies as desired, without any loss in quality whatsoever. Digital watermarking is one of the best available tools for fighting this threat. The aim of the present work was to develop a digital watermarking system compliant with the recommendations drawn by the EBU, for video broadcast monitoring. Since the watermark can be inserted in either spatial domain or transform domain, this aspect was investigated and led to the conclusion that wavelet transform is one of the best solutions available. Since watermarking is not an easy task, especially considering the robustness under various attacks several techniques were employed in order to increase the capacity/robustness of the system: spread-spectrum and modulation techniques to cast the watermark, powerful error correction to protect the mark, human visual models to insert a robust mark and to ensure its invisibility. The combination of these methods led to a major improvement, but yet the system wasn't robust to several important geometrical attacks. In order to achieve this last milestone, the system uses two distinct watermarks: a spatial domain reference watermark and the main watermark embedded in the wavelet domain. By using this reference watermark and techniques specific to image registration, the system is able to determine the parameters of the attack and revert it. Once the attack was reverted, the main watermark is recovered. The final result is a high capacity, blind DWr-based video watermarking system, robust to a wide range of attacks.BBC Research & Developmen

New Digital Audio Watermarking Algorithms for Copyright Protection

This thesis investigates the development of digital audio watermarking in addressing issues such as copyright protection. Over the past two decades, many digital watermarking algorithms have been developed, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. The main aim of this thesis was to develop a new watermarking algorithm within an existing Fast Fourier Transform framework. This resulted in the development of a Complex Spectrum Phase Evolution based watermarking algorithm. In this new implementation, the embedding positions were generated dynamically thereby rendering it more difficult for an attacker to remove, and watermark information was embedded by manipulation of the spectral components in the time domain thereby reducing any audible distortion. Further improvements were attained when the embedding criteria was based on bin location comparison instead of magnitude, thereby rendering it more robust against those attacks that interfere with the spectral magnitudes. However, it was discovered that this new audio watermarking algorithm has some disadvantages such as a relatively low capacity and a non-consistent robustness for different audio files. Therefore, a further aim of this thesis was to improve the algorithm from a different perspective. Improvements were investigated using an Singular Value Decomposition framework wherein a novel observation was discovered. Furthermore, a psychoacoustic model was incorporated to suppress any audible distortion. This resulted in a watermarking algorithm which achieved a higher capacity and a more consistent robustness. The overall result was that two new digital audio watermarking algorithms were developed which were complementary in their performance thereby opening more opportunities for further research

VANGUARD: A Blockchain-Based Solution to Digital Piracy

Online pirates and Intellectual Property (IP) holders have been in perpetual war over various products like music, movies, software, etc. since the popularity of the Internet. It is estimated that the US entertainment industry loses approximately 29 billion USD every year for pirates. Online piracy has since gone from bad to worse as growing internet users and better broadband connections enable people to share large files freely over the internet. The objective of this research is to investigate the causes and enablers for online piracy in movie industry and to come up with an anti-pirating solution. The primary outcome of the study will consist of a dedicated blockchain based anti-piracy system, 2018;Vanguard2019;. This system will provide all-round piracy protection from a built-in streaming service to a component to actively look through the internet for pirated movies and torrents. This system will greatly deter the piracy of movies since the IP holders can ensure their IP rights through this system and quickly act against illegitimate distribution of their media

Digital audio watermarking with semi-blind detection for in-car music content identification

Recent developments in audio watermarking techniques have gone some way towards promoting an industry-wide acceptance of digital audio watermarking as a process that will eventually be used in all audio (and video) production. The predominant focus of such watermarking research has been in the area of content protection, because the prevention of illegal copying is an area of concern for content owners. However, digital audio watermarking may also be used for other purposes, such as the added-value option of real-time content identification of music. While computer-based users of music enjoy the opportunity to identify unknown audio using online tools, identification of audio in an offline domestic or in-car scenario is not so easily achieved. This paper discusses with an area of digital audio watermarking that would facilitate real-time in-car identification of the artists, title and/or other meta-data relating to music being broadcast by radio

Lime: Data Lineage in the Malicious Environment

Intentional or unintentional leakage of confidential data is undoubtedly one of the most severe security threats that organizations face in the digital era. The threat now extends to our personal lives: a plethora of personal information is available to social networks and smartphone providers and is indirectly transferred to untrustworthy third party and fourth party applications. In this work, we present a generic data lineage framework LIME for data flow across multiple entities that take two characteristic, principal roles (i.e., owner and consumer). We define the exact security guarantees required by such a data lineage mechanism toward identification of a guilty entity, and identify the simplifying non repudiation and honesty assumptions. We then develop and analyze a novel accountable data transfer protocol between two entities within a malicious environment by building upon oblivious transfer, robust watermarking, and signature primitives. Finally, we perform an experimental evaluation to demonstrate the practicality of our protocol