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

A constructive and unifying framework for zero-bit watermarking

In the watermark detection scenario, also known as zero-bit watermarking, a watermark, carrying no hidden message, is inserted in content. The watermark detector checks for the presence of this particular weak signal in content. The article looks at this problem from a classical detection theory point of view, but with side information enabled at the embedding side. This means that the watermark signal is a function of the host content. Our study is twofold. The first step is to design the best embedding function for a given detection function, and the best detection function for a given embedding function. This yields two conditions, which are mixed into one `fundamental' partial differential equation. It appears that many famous watermarking schemes are indeed solution to this `fundamental' equation. This study thus gives birth to a constructive framework unifying solutions, so far perceived as very different.Comment: submitted to IEEE Trans. on Information Forensics and Securit

An enhanced method based on intermediate significant bit technique for watermark images

Intermediate Significant Bit digital watermarking technique (ISB) is a new approved technique of embedding a watermark by replacing the original image pixels with new pixels. This is done by ensuring a close connection between the new pixels and the original, and at the same time, the watermark data can be protected against possible damage. One of the most popular methods used in watermarking is the Least Significant Bit (LSB). It uses a spatial domain that includes the insertion of the watermark in the LSB of the image. The problem with this method is it is not resilient to common damage, and there is the possibility of image distortion after embedding a watermark. LSB may be used through replacing one bit, two bits, or three bits; this is done by changing the specific bits without any change in the other bits in the pixel. The objective of this thesis is to formulate new algorithms for digital image watermarking with enhanced image quality and robustness by embedding two bits of watermark data into each pixel of the original image based on ISB technique. However, to understand the opposite relationship between the image quality and robustness, a tradeoff between them has been done to create a balance and to acquire the best position for the two embedding bits. Dual Intermediate Significant Bits (DISB) technique has been proposed to solve the existing LSB problem. Trial results obtained from this technique are better compared with the LSB based on the Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Normalized Cross Correlation (NCC). The work in this study also contributes new mathematical equations that can study the change on the other six bits in the pixel after embedding two bits

Wavelet Based Data-Hiding of DEM in the Context of Real Time 3D Visualization

International audienceThe use of aerial photographs, satellite images, scanned maps and digital elevation models necessitates the setting up of strategies for the storage and visualization of these data in an interactive way. In order to obtain a three dimensional visualization it is necessary to map the images, called textures, onto the terrain geometry computed with Digital Elevation Model (DEM). Practically, all of these informations are stored in three different files: DEM, texture and geo-localization of the data. In this paper we propose to save all this information in a single file for the purpose of synchronization. For this, we have developed a wavelet-based embedding method for hiding the data in a color image. The texture images containing hidden DEM data can then be sent from the server to a client in order to effect 3D visualization of terrains. The embedding method is integrable with the JPEG2000 coder to accommodate compression and multi-resolution visualization

An Adaptive Spread Spectrum (SS) Synchronous Data Hiding Strategy for Scalable 3D Terrain Visualization

International audienceThe diversity of clients in today's network environment compels us to think about solutions that more than satisfy their needs according to their resources. For 3D terrain visualization this translates into two main requirements, namely the scalability and synchronous unification of a disparate data that requires at least two files, the texture image and its corresponding digital elevation model (DEM). In this work the scalability is achieved through the multiresolution discrete wavelet transform (DWT) of the JPEG2000 codec. For the unification of data, a simple DWT-domain spread spectrum (SS) strategy is employed in order to synchronously hide the DEM in the corresponding texture while conserving the JPEG2000 standard file format. Highest possible quality texture is renderable due to the reversible nature of the SS data hiding. As far as DEM quality is concerned, it is ensured through the adaptation of synchronization in embedding that would exclude some highest frequency subbands. To estimate the maximum tolerable error in the DEM according to a given viewpoint, a human visual system (HVS) based psycho-visual analysis is being presented. This analysis is helpful in determining the degree of adaptation in synchronization

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

Study and Implementation of Watermarking Algorithms

Water Making is the process of embedding data called a watermark into a multimedia object such that watermark can be detected or extracted later to make an assertion about the object. The object may be an audio, image or video. A copy of a digital image is identical to the original. This has in many instances, led to the use of digital content with malicious intent. One way to protect multimedia data against illegal recording and retransmission is to embed a signal, called digital signature or copyright label or watermark that authenticates the owner of the data. Data hiding, schemes to embed secondary data in digital media, have made considerable progress in recent years and attracted attention from both academia and industry. Techniques have been proposed for a variety of applications, including ownership protection, authentication and access control. Imperceptibility, robustness against moderate processing such as compression, and the ability to hide many bits are the basic but rat..

A survey of digital image watermarking techniques

Watermarking, which belong to the information hiding field, has seen a lot of research interest recently. There is a lot of work begin conducted in different branches in this field. Steganography is used for secret conmunication, whereas watermarking is used for content protection, copyright management, content authentication and tamper detection. In this paper we present a detailed survey of existing and newly proposed steganographic and watenmarking techniques. We classify the techniques based on different domains in which data is embedded. Here we limit the survey to images only