Digital Watermarking

DIGITAL WATERMARKING
INTRODUCTION
DIGITAL WATERMARKING is the process of embedding information into a
digital signal which may be used to verify its authenticity or the identity of its owners, in
the same manner as paper bearing awatermark for visible identification. In digital
watermarking, the signal may be audio, pictures, or video. If the signal is copied, then the
information also is carried in the copy. A signal may carry several different watermarks at
the same time.
In visible digital watermarking, the information is visible in the picture or video.

Typically, the information is text or a logo, which identifies the owner of the media. The
image on the right has a visible watermark. When a television broadcaster adds its logo to
the corner of transmitted video, this also is a visible watermark.
In invisible digital watermarking, information is added as digital data to audio,

picture, or video, but it cannot be perceived as such (although it may be possible
to detect that some amount of information is hidden in the signal). The watermark may
be intended for widespread use and thus, is made easy to retrieve or, it may be a form
of Steganography, where a party communicates a secret message embedded in the digital
signal. In either case, as in visible watermarking, the objective is to attach ownership or
other descriptive information to the signal in a way that is difficult to remove. It also is
possible to use hidden embedded information as a means of covert communication
between individuals.
One application of watermarking is in copyright protection systems, which are

intended to prevent or deter unauthorized copying of digital media. In this use, a copy
device retrieves the watermark from the signal before making a copy; the device makes a
decision whether to copy or not, depending on the contents of the watermark. Another
application is in source tracing. A watermark is embedded into a digital signal at each
point of distribution. If a copy of the work is found later, then the watermark may be
retrieved from the copy and the source of the distribution is known. This technique
reportedly has been used to detect the source of illegally copied movies.
Annotation of digital photographs with descriptive information is another

application of invisible watermarking.
While some file formats for digital media may contain additional information
called metadata, digital watermarking is distinctive in that the data is carried right in the
signal.
CATEGORIES
(i)visible watermark,
(ii) Invisible robust,
(iii) invisible-fragile and
(iv) dual watermark
IP watermarking can be classiﬁed into
1.static watermarking
2.dynamic watermarking
APPLICATIONS
Digital watermarking may be used for a wide range of applications, such as:
 Copyright protection
 Source tracking (different recipients get differently watermarked content)
 Broadcast monitoring (television news often contains watermarked video from
international agencies)
 Covert communication
Digital watermarking life-cycle phases
The information to be embedded in a signal is called a digital watermark, although in

some contexts the phrase digital watermark means the difference between the
watermarked signal and the cover signal. The signal where the watermark is to be
embedded is called the hostsignal. A watermarking system is usually divided into
three distinct steps, embedding, attack, and detection. In embedding, an algorithm
accepts the host and the data to be embedded, and produces a watermarked signal.
Then the watermarked digital signal is transmitted or stored, usually transmitted to

another person. If this person makes a modification, this is called an attack. While
the modification may not be malicious, the term attack arises from copyright
protection application, where piratesattempt to remove the digital watermark through
modification. There are many possible modifications, for example, lossy compression
of the data (in which resolution is diminished), cropping an image or video, or
intentionally adding noise.
Detection (often called extraction) is an algorithm which is applied to the attacked

signal to attempt to extract the watermark from it. If the signal was unmodified during
transmission, then the watermark still is present and it may be extracted.
In robust digital watermarking applications, the extraction algorithm should be able to
produce the watermark correctly, even if the modifications were strong.
In fragiledigital watermarking, the extraction algorithm should fail if any change is
made to the signal.
Classification
A digital watermark is called robust with respect to transformations if the
embedded information may be detected reliably from the marked signal, even if
degraded by any number of transformations. Typical image degradations are JPEG
compression, rotation, cropping, additive noise, and quantization. For video content,
temporal modifications and MPEG compression often are added to this list. A digital
watermark is called imperceptible if the watermarked content is perceptually
equivalent to the original, unwatermarked content. In general, it is easy to create
robust watermarks—or—imperceptible watermarks, but the creation of robust—and
—imperceptible watermarks has proven to be quite challenging.Robust imperceptible
watermarks have been proposed as tool for the protection of digital content, for
example as an embeddedno-copy-allowed flag in professional video content.
Digital watermarking techniques may be classified in several ways.
Robustness
A digital watermark is called fragile if it fails to be detectable after the slightest
modification. Fragile watermarks are commonly used for tamper detection (integrity
proof). Modifications to an original work that clearly are noticeable, commonly are not
referred to as watermarks, but as generalized barcodes.
A digital watermark is called semi-fragile if it resists benign transformations, but fails

detection after malignant transformations. Semi-fragile watermarks commonly are
used to detect malignant transformations.
A digital watermark is called robust if it resists a designated class of transformations.

Robust watermarks may be used in copy protection applications to carry copy and
no access control information.
Perceptibility
A digital watermark is called imperceptible if the original cover signal and the marked
signal are (close to) perceptually indistinguishable.
A digital watermark is called perceptible if its presence in the marked signal is

noticeable, but non-intrusive.
Capacity
The length of the embedded message determines two different main classes of
digital watermarking schemes:
 The message is conceptually zero-bit long and the system is designed in
order to detect the presence or the absence of the watermark in the marked
object. This kind of watermarking scheme is usually referred to as zero-
bit or presence watermarking schemes. Sometimes, this type of watermarking
scheme is called 1-bit watermark, because a 1 denotes the presence (and a 0
the absence) of a watermark.
 The message is a n-bit-long stream ( , with n =
| m | ) or M = {0,1} and is modulated in the watermark. These kinds of schemes
n
usually are referred to as multiple-bit watermarking or non-zero-bit watermarking

schemes.
Embedding method
A digital watermarking method is referred to as spread-spectrum if the marked signal
is obtained by an additive modification. Spread-spectrum watermarks are known to
be modestly robust, but also to have a low information capacity due to
host interference.
A digital watermarking method is said to be of quantization type if the marked signal

is obtained by quantization. Quantization watermarks suffer from low robustness, but
have a high information capacity due to rejection of host interference.
A digital watermarking method is referred to as amplitude modulation if the marked

signal is embedded by additive modification which is similar to spread spectrum
method, but is particularly embedded in the spatial domain.
Evaluation and benchmarking

The evaluation of digital watermarking schemes may provide detailed information for
a watermark designer or for end-users, therefore, different evaluation strategies
exist. Often used by a watermark designer is the evaluation of single properties to
show, for example, an improvement. Mostly, end-users are not interested in detailed
information. They want to know if a given digital watermarking algorithm may be
used for their application scenario, and if so, which parameter sets seems to be the
best.
Cameras
Epson and Kodak have produced cameras with security features such as the Epson
PhotoPC 3000Z and the Kodak DC-290. Both cameras added irremovable features
to the pictures which distorted the original image, making them unacceptable for
some applications such asforensic evidence in court. According to Blythe and
Fridrich, "[n]either camera can provide an undisputable proof of the image origin or
its author".
A secure digital camera (SDC) was proposed by Mohanty, et al. in 2003 and
published in January 2004. This was not the first time this was proposed.Blythe and
Fridrich also have worked on SDC in 2004[4] for a digital camera that would use
lossless watermarking to embed abiometric identifier together with a cryptographic
hash.
Reversible data hiding

Reversible data hiding is a technique which enables images to be authenticated and
then restored to their original form by removing the digital watermark and replacing
the image data that had been overwritten. This would make the images acceptable
for legal purposes. The U.S. Army also is interested in this technique for
authentication of reconnaissance images.
Watermarking for relational databases

Digital watermarking for relational databases emerged as a candidate solution to
provide copyright protection, tamper detection, traitor tracing, maintaining integrity of
relational data. Many watermarking techniques have been proposed in the literature
to address these purposes. A survey of the current state-of-the-art and a
classification of the different techniques according to their intent, the way they
express the watermark, the cover type, the granularity level, and their verifiability,
can be found in jucs.org.
ADVANTAGES:
• Reduced vulnerability.
• Robust architecture.
DISADVANTAGES:
• Embedding capacity is limited.

Digital Watermarking

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DIGITAL WATERMARKING

In visible digital watermarking, the information is visible in the picture or video.

In invisible digital watermarking, information is added as digital data to audio,

One application of watermarking is in copyright protection systems, which are

Annotation of digital photographs with descriptive information is another

(ii) Invisible robust,

(iii) invisible-fragile and

(iv) dual watermark

IP watermarking can be classiﬁed into

Digital watermarking life-cycle phases

The information to be embedded in a signal is called a digital watermark, although in

Then the watermarked digital signal is transmitted or stored, usually transmitted to

Detection (often called extraction) is an algorithm which is applied to the attacked

Digital watermarking techniques may be classified in several ways.

A digital watermark is called semi-fragile if it resists benign transformations, but fails

A digital watermark is called robust if it resists a designated class of transformations.

A digital watermark is called perceptible if its presence in the marked signal is

usually are referred to as multiple-bit watermarking or non-zero-bit watermarking

A digital watermarking method is said to be of quantization type if the marked signal

A digital watermarking method is referred to as amplitude modulation if the marked

Evaluation and benchmarking

Reversible data hiding

Watermarking for relational databases

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