Secure digital documents using Steganography and QR Code

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University LondonWith the increasing use of the Internet several problems have arisen regarding the processing of electronic documents. These include content filtering, content retrieval/search. Moreover, document security has taken a centre stage including copyright protection, broadcast monitoring etc. There is an acute need of an effective tool which can find the identity, location and the time when the document was created so that it can be determined whether or not the contents of the document were tampered with after creation. Owing the sensitivity of the large amounts of data which is processed on a daily basis, verifying the authenticity and integrity of a document is more important now than it ever was. Unsurprisingly document authenticity verification has become the centre of attention in the world of research. Consequently, this research is concerned with creating a tool which deals with the above problem. This research proposes the use of a Quick Response Code as a message carrier for Text Key-print. The Text Key-print is a novel method which employs the basic element of the language (i.e. Characters of the alphabet) in order to achieve authenticity of electronic documents through the transformation of its physical structure into a logical structured relationship. The resultant dimensional matrix is then converted into a binary stream and encapsulated with a serial number or URL inside a Quick response Code (QR code) to form a digital fingerprint mark. For hiding a QR code, two image steganography techniques were developed based upon the spatial and the transform domains. In the spatial domain, three methods were proposed and implemented based on the least significant bit insertion technique and the use of pseudorandom number generator to scatter the message into a set of arbitrary pixels. These methods utilise the three colour channels in the images based on the RGB model based in order to embed one, two or three bits per the eight bit channel which results in three different hiding capacities. The second technique is an adaptive approach in transforming domain where a threshold value is calculated under a predefined location for embedding in order to identify the embedding strength of the embedding technique. The quality of the generated stego images was evaluated using both objective (PSNR) and Subjective (DSCQS) methods to ensure the reliability of our proposed methods. The experimental results revealed that PSNR is not a strong indicator of the perceived stego image quality, but not a bad interpreter also of the actual quality of stego images. Since the visual difference between the cover and the stego image must be absolutely imperceptible to the human visual system, it was logically convenient to ask human observers with different qualifications and experience in the field of image processing to evaluate the perceived quality of the cover and the stego image. Thus, the subjective responses were analysed using statistical measurements to describe the distribution of the scores given by the assessors. Thus, the proposed scheme presents an alternative approach to protect digital documents rather than the traditional techniques of digital signature and watermarking

Real-Time Mapping Using Stereoscopic Vision Optimization

This research focuses on efficient methods of generating 2D maps from stereo vision in real-time. Instead of attempting to locate edges between objects, we make the assumption that the representative surfaces of objects in a view provide enough information to generate a map while taking less time to locate during processing. Since all real-time vision processing endeavors are extremely computationally intensive, numerous optimization techniques are applied to allow for a real-time application: horizontal spike smoothing for post-disparity noise, masks to focus on close-proximity objects, melding for object synthesis, and rectangular fitting for object extraction under a planar assumption. Additionally, traditional image transformation mechanisms such as rotation, translation, and scaling are integrated. Results from our research are an encouraging 10Hz with no vision post processing and accuracy up to 11 feet. Finally, vision mapping results are compared to simultaneously collected sonar data in three unique experimental settings

SHINY OBJECTS, HIDING PLACES: EXAMINING COMMUNITY-ENGAGED DATA PRACTICES IN LEXINGTON, KY

As local governments increasingly turn to data-driven solutions to help address some of their most acute challenges, from entrenched poverty to affordable housing, they often call on community-engaged researchers as collaborators, analysts and experts. While critical scholarship has highlighted the problematic logics underpinning this turn to data and digital technologies as the solution for urban issues, university-community partnerships offer a unique opportunity to further explore not only how these discourses materialize, but also how they are being actively negotiated and re-imagined in spaces of local government. In this thesis, I explore one such university-community partnership and its efforts to critically apply data-driven narratives to discussions of gentrification and affordable housing in Lexington, KY. Examining the positioning of academic contributions, the centrality of politics within urban planning processes, and the need to interrogate the securitization of whiteness within data-driven narratives, I ultimately argue that embracing data as inextricably saturated with power and politics creates possibilities to enliven a more progressive praxis that resists the certainty of a stratified, unequal and gentrified city. Importantly, this requires data practices that move beyond simply acknowledging the presence of power and politics, to actively, and indeed critically, embracing their very imbrication with data

Crowdsourcing Linked Data on listening experiences through reuse and enhancement of library data

Research has approached the practice of musical reception in a multitude of ways, such as the analysis of professional critique, sales figures and psychological processes activated by the act of listening. Studies in the Humanities, on the other hand, have been hindered by the lack of structured evidence of actual experiences of listening as reported by the listeners themselves, a concern that was voiced since the early Web era. It was however assumed that such evidence existed, albeit in pure textual form, but could not be leveraged until it was digitised and aggregated. The Listening Experience Database (LED) responds to this research need by providing a centralised hub for evidence of listening in the literature. Not only does LED support search and reuse across nearly 10,000 records, but it also provides machine-readable structured data of the knowledge around the contexts of listening. To take advantage of the mass of formal knowledge that already exists on the Web concerning these contexts, the entire framework adopts Linked Data principles and technologies. This also allows LED to directly reuse open data from the British Library for the source documentation that is already published. Reused data are re-published as open data with enhancements obtained by expanding over the model of the original data, such as the partitioning of published books and collections into individual stand-alone documents. The database was populated through crowdsourcing and seamlessly incorporates data reuse from the very early data entry phases. As the sources of the evidence often contain vague, fragmentary of uncertain information, facilities were put in place to generate structured data out of such fuzziness. Alongside elaborating on these functionalities, this article provides insights into the most recent features of the latest instalment of the dataset and portal, such as the interlinking with the MusicBrainz database, the relaxation of geographical input constraints through text mining, and the plotting of key locations in an interactive geographical browser

Masks: Maintaining Anonymity by Sequestering Key Statistics

High-resolution digital cameras are becoming ever-larger parts of our daily lives, whether as part of closed-circuit surveillance systems or as part of portable digital devices that many of us carry around with us. Combining the broadening reach of these cameras with automatic face recognition technology creates a sensor network that is ripe for abuse: our every action could be recorded and tagged with our identities, the date, and our location as if we each had an investigator tasked only with keeping each of us under constant surveillance. Adding the continually falling cost of data storage to this mix, and we are left with a situation where the privacy abuses don\u27t need to happen today: the stored imagery can be mined and re-mined forever, while the sophistication of automatic analysis continues to grow. The MASKS project takes the first steps toward addressing this problem. If we would like to be able to de-identify faces before the images are shared with others, we cannot do so with ad hoc techniques applied identically to all faces. Since each face is unique, the method of disguising that face must be equally unique. In order to hide or reduce those critical identifying characteristics, we are delivering the following foundational contributions toward characterizing the nature of facial information: - We have created a new pose-controlled, high-resolution database of facial images. - The most prominent anatomical markers on each face have been marked for position and shape, establishing a new gold standard for facial segmentation. - A parameterized model of the diversity of our subject population was built based on statistical analysis of the annotations. The model was validated by comparison with the performance of a standard set of artificial disguises

But Now You Can See Me: Devising Theatre With Youth Artist-Researchers in Search of Revelations and Docutheatricality

abstract: Guided by Clifford Geertz's notion of culture as symbolic stories people tell themselves about themselves, the purpose of this study is to examine how youth in an urban area of Phoenix, AZ experience collectively creating and performing original documentary theatre. I pay attention to the ways youth participants--also known as artist-researchers--construct, perform, and/or perceive their identities as they practice drama techniques including improvisation, physical theatre, and Theatre of the Oppressed for the purposes of making docutheatre for social justice. First the artist-researchers chose the topics for their play. Next, they learned and applied drama and research skills to gather and examine data sources used to construct a script that explores hiding and exposure. In the process of sharing and gathering true stories our unique docutheatre-making culture was created. This multimodal qualitative research case study draws upon the genres of arts-based research and visual ethnography as primary modes of data collection and interpretation. Narrative description and the ethnodramatic mode of representation are used in conjunction with still images and this study's companion website (www.meant2see.com) to report research findings. Primary data sources include participant observation fieldnotes, over twenty hours of recorded video footage, photographs, and the project's original script and performance of To Be What's Not Meant to See . Further data include journal entries, drawings, and social media. All data were coded using In Vivo and Process Coding methods and analyzed through a cultural studies lens. Codes were sorted into phenomenological categories representative of recurring ideas and themes. Assertions were then solidified once specific key linkages were constructed. This study's key assertions are: Key Assertion 1: Participation in devising documentary social justice theatre influences and affects the construction, perception, and/or performance of urban youth identities through profound connections made with interviewees during the interview process and through the collection of true stories that provide new information and rare opportunities for self-reflection and self-realization; Key Assertion 2: Portions of the roles urban youth play in their identity narratives are disguised or hidden--purposefully, reluctantly, and/or subconsciously--in order to appeal to friends, families, or the codes of dominant culture.Dissertation/ThesisPh.D. Theatre 201

Digital rights management for electronic documents

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Reducing and removing barriers to spatial audio : applications of capital as a critical framework to promote inclusion in spatial audio : a thesis submitted to Massey University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy in Music at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

The research within this thesis aims to address the question of whether barriers of capital to the field of spatial audio can be reduced or removed. Spatial audio is the musical utilization of space, where spatialization is the salient feature of the musical work. As a field, it primarily exists within academic and art institutions. Because of this, there are numerous barriers that prohibit people from engaging with the field. These barriers include significant technical requirements, the need for education, the expense of large spatial audio systems, amongst others. These barriers mean that those who are excluded have little to no pathway to engage with the field. This thesis explores the barriers in spatial audio through the lens of capital. Viewed as one’s level of resource, a lack of economic, social, symbolic, cultural, and physical capital can exclude many from engaging with spatial audio. The research within this thesis identifies barriers of capital that exist within the field through qualitative and quantitative survey analysis as well as literature review. The identified barriers are then addressed through practice-led and practice-based research with the creation of new spatial audio works and compositional strategies, alongside user surveys to ascertain the efficacy of the research