177 research outputs found
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
High capacity data embedding schemes for digital media
High capacity image data hiding methods and robust high capacity digital audio watermarking algorithms are studied in this thesis. The main results of this work are the development of novel algorithms with state-of-the-art performance, high capacity and transparency for image data hiding and robustness, high capacity and low distortion for audio watermarking.En esta tesis se estudian y proponen diversos métodos de data hiding de imágenes y watermarking de audio de alta capacidad. Los principales resultados de este trabajo consisten en la publicación de varios algoritmos novedosos con rendimiento a la altura de los mejores métodos del estado del arte, alta capacidad y transparencia, en el caso de data hiding de imágenes, y robustez, alta capacidad y baja distorsión para el watermarking de audio.En aquesta tesi s'estudien i es proposen diversos mètodes de data hiding d'imatges i watermarking d'àudio d'alta capacitat. Els resultats principals d'aquest treball consisteixen en la publicació de diversos algorismes nous amb rendiment a l'alçada dels millors mètodes de l'estat de l'art, alta capacitat i transparència, en el cas de data hiding d'imatges, i robustesa, alta capacitat i baixa distorsió per al watermarking d'àudio.Societat de la informació i el coneixemen
Video Watermarking Based on Interactive Detection of Feature Regions
International audienceVideo watermarking is very important in many areas of activity and especially in multimedia applications. Therefore, security of video stream has recently become a major concern and has attracted more and more attention in both the research and industrial domains. In this perspective, several video watermarking approaches are proposed but, based on our knowledge, there is no method which verified the compromise between invisibility and robustness against all usual attacks. In our previous work, we proposed a new video watermarking approach based on feature region generated from mosaic frame and multi-frequential embedding. This approach allowed obtaining a good invisibility and robustness against the maximum of usual attacks. In our future work, we propose to optimize the choice of the region of interest by using crowdsourcing technique. This last one is an emerging field of knowledge management that involves analyzing the behavior of users when the
Digital watermark technology in security applications
With the rising emphasis on security and the number of fraud related crimes
around the world, authorities are looking for new technologies to tighten
security of identity. Among many modern electronic technologies, digital
watermarking has unique advantages to enhance the document authenticity.
At the current status of the development, digital watermarking technologies
are not as matured as other competing technologies to support identity authentication
systems. This work presents improvements in performance of
two classes of digital watermarking techniques and investigates the issue of
watermark synchronisation.
Optimal performance can be obtained if the spreading sequences are designed
to be orthogonal to the cover vector. In this thesis, two classes of
orthogonalisation methods that generate binary sequences quasi-orthogonal
to the cover vector are presented. One method, namely "Sorting and Cancelling"
generates sequences that have a high level of orthogonality to the
cover vector. The Hadamard Matrix based orthogonalisation method, namely
"Hadamard Matrix Search" is able to realise overlapped embedding, thus the
watermarking capacity and image fidelity can be improved compared to using
short watermark sequences. The results are compared with traditional
pseudo-randomly generated binary sequences. The advantages of both classes
of orthogonalisation inethods are significant.
Another watermarking method that is introduced in the thesis is based
on writing-on-dirty-paper theory. The method is presented with biorthogonal
codes that have the best robustness. The advantage and trade-offs of
using biorthogonal codes with this watermark coding methods are analysed
comprehensively. The comparisons between orthogonal and non-orthogonal
codes that are used in this watermarking method are also made. It is found
that fidelity and robustness are contradictory and it is not possible to optimise
them simultaneously.
Comparisons are also made between all proposed methods. The comparisons
are focused on three major performance criteria, fidelity, capacity and
robustness. aom two different viewpoints, conclusions are not the same. For
fidelity-centric viewpoint, the dirty-paper coding methods using biorthogonal
codes has very strong advantage to preserve image fidelity and the advantage
of capacity performance is also significant. However, from the power
ratio point of view, the orthogonalisation methods demonstrate significant
advantage on capacity and robustness. The conclusions are contradictory
but together, they summarise the performance generated by different design
considerations.
The synchronisation of watermark is firstly provided by high contrast
frames around the watermarked image. The edge detection filters are used
to detect the high contrast borders of the captured image. By scanning
the pixels from the border to the centre, the locations of detected edges
are stored. The optimal linear regression algorithm is used to estimate the
watermarked image frames. Estimation of the regression function provides
rotation angle as the slope of the rotated frames. The scaling is corrected by
re-sampling the upright image to the original size. A theoretically studied
method that is able to synchronise captured image to sub-pixel level accuracy
is also presented. By using invariant transforms and the "symmetric
phase only matched filter" the captured image can be corrected accurately
to original geometric size. The method uses repeating watermarks to form an
array in the spatial domain of the watermarked image and the the array that
the locations of its elements can reveal information of rotation, translation
and scaling with two filtering processes
HDR Image Watermarking
In this Chapter we survey available solutions for HDR image watermarking. First, we briefly discuss watermarking in general terms, with particular emphasis on its requirements that primarily include security, robustness, imperceptibility, capacity and the availability of the original image during recovery. However, with respect to traditional image watermarking, HDR images possess a unique set of features such as an extended range of luminance values to work with and tone-mapping operators against whom it is essential to be robust. These clearly affect the HDR watermarking algorithms proposed in the literature, which we extensively review next, including a thorough analysis of the reported experimental results. As a working example, we also describe the HDR watermarking system that we recently proposed and that focuses on combining imperceptibility, security and robustness to TM operators at the expense of capacity. We conclude the chapter with a critical analysis of the current state and future directions of the watermarking applications in the HDR domain
Contextual biometric watermarking of fingerprint images
This research presents contextual digital watermarking techniques using face and demographic text data as multiple watermarks for protecting the evidentiary integrity of fingerprint image. The proposed techniques embed the watermarks into selected regions of fingerprint image in MDCT and DWT domains. A general image watermarking algorithm is developed to investigate the application of MDCT in the elimination of blocking artifacts. The application of MDCT has improved the performance of the watermarking technique compared to DCT. Experimental results show that modifications to fingerprint image are visually imperceptible and maintain the minutiae detail. The integrity of the fingerprint image is verified through high matching score obtained from the AFIS system. There is also a high degree of correlation between the embedded and extracted watermarks. The degree of similarity is computed using pixel-based metrics and human visual system metrics. It is useful for personal identification and establishing digital chain of custody. The results also show that the proposed watermarking technique is resilient to common image modifications that occur during electronic fingerprint transmission
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
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