A reversible watermark algorithm with large capacity has been developed by applying the difference expansion of a generalized integer transform. In this algorithm, a watermark signal is inserted in the LSB of the difference values among pixels. In this paper, we apply the prediction errors calculated by a predictor in JPEG-LS for embedding watermark, which contributes to increase the amount of embedded information with less degradation. As one of the drawbacks discovered in the above conventional method is the large size of the embedded location map introduced to make it reversible, we decrease the large size of the location map by vectorization, and then modify the composition of the map using the local characteristics. We also exclude the positions such that the modification in the embedding operation cannot increase the capacity but merely degrade the image quality, which can be applicable to the conventional methods.

In this letter, we propose a simple reversible watermarking method for JPEG images using the characteristics of JPEG compression. The method embeds a watermark into a JPEG image, and it extracts the watermark from the watermarked JPEG image and at the same time can recover the watermarked JPEG image to an original unwatermarked JPEG image. Moreover we investigate the number of embeddable blocks, the quality of watermarked images, and the increase of file-size by embedding a watermark.

We present a novel approach to developing Machine Learning (ML) based decoding models for extracting a watermark in the presence of attacks. Statistical characterization of the components of various frequency bands is exploited to allow blind extraction of the watermark. Experimental results show that the proposed ML based decoding scheme can adapt to suit the watermark application by learning the alterations in the feature space incurred by the attack employed.

We present a robust object-based watermarking algorithm using the scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) in conjunction with a data embedding method based on Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT). The message is embedded in the DCT domain of randomly generated blocks in the selected object region. To recognize the object region after being distorted, its SIFT features are registered in advance. In the detection scheme, we extract SIFT features from the distorted image and match them with the registered ones. Then we recover the distorted object region based on the transformation parameters obtained from the matching result using SIFT, and the watermarked message can be detected. Experimental results demonstrated that our proposed algorithm is very robust to distortions such as JPEG compression, scaling, rotation, shearing, aspect ratio change, and image filtering.

In this study, we propose a complete architecture based on digital watermarking techniques to solve the issue of copyright protection and authentication for digital contents. We apply visible and semi-fragile watermarks as dual watermarks where visible watermarking is used to establish the copyright protection and semi-fragile watermarking authenticates and verifies the integrity of the watermarked image. In order to get the best tradeoff between the embedding energy of watermark and the perceptual translucence for visible watermark, the composite coefficients using global and local characteristics of the host and watermark images in the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) domain is considered with Human Vision System (HVS) models. To achieve the optimum noise reduction of the visibility thresholds for HVS in DWT domain, the contrast-sensitive function (CSF) and noise visible function (NVF) of perceptual model is applied which characterizes the global and local image properties and identifies texture and edge regions to determine the optimal watermark locations and strength at the watermark embedding stage. In addition, the perceptual weights according to the basis function amplitudes of DWT coefficients is fine tuned for the best quality of perceptual translucence in the design of the proposed watermarking algorithm. Furthermore, the semi-fragile watermark can detect and localize malicious attack effectively yet tolerate mild modifications such as JPEG compression and channel additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). From the experimental results, our proposed technique not only improves the PSNR values and visual quality than other algorithms but also preserves the visibility of the watermark visible under various signal processing and advanced image recovery attacks.

This paper presents an algorithm for the robust watermarking of 3D polygonal mesh models. The proposed algorithm embeds the watermark into a 2D image extracted from the 3D model, rather than directly embedding it into 3D geometry. The proposed embedding domain, i.e., the 2D image, is devised to be robust against the attacks like mesh simplification which severely modifies the vertices and connectivity while preserving the appearance of the model. The watermark-embedded model is obtained by using a simple vertex perturbation algorithm without iterative optimization. Two exemplary watermark applications using the proposed methods are also presented: one is to embed several bits into 3D models and the other is to detect only the existence of a watermark. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is robust against similarity transform, mesh simplification, additive Gaussian noise, quantization of vertex coordinates and mesh smoothing, and that its computational complexity is lower than that of the conventional methods.

Commercial markets employ digital right management (DRM) systems to protect valuable high-definition (HD) quality videos. DRM system uses watermarking to provide copyright protection and ownership authentication of multimedia contents. We propose a real-time video watermarking scheme for HD video in the uncompressed domain. Especially, our approach is in aspect of practical perspectives to satisfy perceptual quality, real-time processing, and robustness requirements. We simplify and optimize human visual system mask for real-time performance and also apply dithering technique for invisibility. Extensive experiments are performed to prove that the proposed scheme satisfies the invisibility, real-time processing, and robustness requirements against video processing attacks. We concentrate upon video processing attacks that commonly occur in HD quality videos to display on portable devices. These attacks include not only scaling and low bit-rate encoding, but also malicious attacks such as format conversion and frame rate change.

A new method of multi-bit embedding based on a protocol of secure asymmetric digital watermarking detection is proposed. Secure watermark detection has been achieved by means of allowing watermark verifier to detect a message without any secret information exposed in extraction process. Our methodology is based on an asymmetric property of a watermark algorithm which hybridizes a statistical watermark algorithm and a public-key algorithm. In 2004, Furukawa proposed a secure watermark detection scheme using patchwork watermarking and Paillier encryption, but the feasibility had not tested in his work. We have examined it and have shown that it has a drawback in heavy overhead in processing time. We overcome the issue by replacing the cryptosystem with the modified El Gamal encryption and improve performance in processing time. We have developed software implementation for both methods and have measured effective performance. The obtained result shows that the performance of our method is better than Frukawa's method under most of practical conditions. In our method, multiple bits can be embedded by assigning distinct generators in each bit, while the embedding algorithm of Frukawa's method assumes a single-bit message. This strongly enhances capability of multi-bit information embedding, and also improves communication and computation cost.

We present a watermarking scheme that combines data compression and encryption in application to radiological medical images. In this approach we combine the image moment theory and image homogeneity in order to recover the watermark after a geometrical distortion. Image quality is measured with metrics used in image processing, such as PSNR and MSE.

The letter proposes a novel subsampling-based digital image watermarking scheme resisting the permutation attack. The subsampling-based watermarking schemes have drawn great attention for their convenience and effectiveness in recent years, but the traditional subsampling-based watermarking schemes are very vulnerable to the permutation attack. In this letter, the watermark information is embedded in the average values of the 1-level DWT coefficients to resist the permutation attack. The concrete embedding process is achieved by the quantization-based method. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme can resist not only the permutation attack but also some common image processing attacks.

Self embedding watermarking is a technique used for tamper detection, localization and recovery. This letter proposes a novel self embedding scheme, in which the halftone version of the host image is exploited as a watermark, instead of a JPEG-compressed version used in most existing methods. Our scheme employs a pixel-wise permuted and embedded mechanism and thus overcomes some common drawbacks of the previous methods. Experimental results demonstrate our technique is effective and practical.

In this letter, we propose a new digital image watermarking method using interval arithmetic. This is a new application of interval arithmetic. Experimental results show that the proposed method gives a watermarked image of better quality and is robust against some attacks.

In this study, a novel binary image authentication scheme is proposed, which can be used to detect any alteration of the host image. In the proposed scheme, the watermark is embedded into a host image using a Hamming-code-based embedding algorithm. A performance analysis shows that the proposed scheme achieves both smaller distortion and lower false negative rates than the previous schemes.

This paper presents 3D keyframe animation watermarking using orientation interpolators. 3D keyframe animation consists of a number of transform nodes, including a geometrical node from the initial model and several interpolator nodes that represent object movement. Therefore, the proposed algorithm randomly selects transform nodes with orientation interpolator nodes, then resamples the quaternion components to maintain a uniform key time. Thereafter, watermark bits are embedded into quaternion components with large rotation angles. Experimental results verify the robustness of the proposed algorithm to geometrical and timeline attacks, along with the subjective and objective quality of its invisibility.

A reversible data hiding scheme based on the companding technique and the difference expansion (DE) of triplets is proposed in this paper. The companding technique is employed to increase the number of the expandable triplets. The capacity consumed by the location map recording the expanded positions is largely decreased. As a result, the hiding capacity is considerably increased. The experimental results reveal that high hiding capacity can be achieved at low embedding distortion.

This letter presents an improved visible watermarking scheme for halftone images. It incorporates watermark embedding into ordered dither halftoning by threshold modulation. The input images include a continuous-tone host image (e.g. an 8-bit gray level image) and a binary watermark image, and the output is a halftone image with a visible watermark. Our method is content adaptive because it takes local intensity information of the host image into account. Experimental results demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed technique. It can be used in practical applications for halftone images, such as commercial advertisement, content annotation, copyright announcement, etc.

This letter proposes a visible watermarking scheme for halftone images. It exploits HVS filtering to transform the image in binary domain into continuous-tone domain for watermark embedding. Then a codeword search operation converts the watermarked continuous-tone image into binary domain. The scheme is flexible for two weighting factors are involved to adjust the watermark embedding strength and the average intensity of the watermarked image. Moreover, it can be used in some applications where original continuous-tone images are not available and the halftoning method is unknown.

A new quadruple watermarking scheme of digital images against geometrical attacks is proposed in this letter. We treat the center and the four vertexes of the original image as the reference points and embed the same quadruple watermarks by means of polar coordinates, which is geometrically invariant. The center of an image is assumed to not to be removed after rotating, scaling and local distortions according to the general practical image processing. In the watermark extraction process, the vertexes of the image are found by a searching method. Thus watermark synchronization is obtained. Experimental results show that the scheme is robust to the geometrical distortions including rotation, scaling, cropping and local distortions.

This paper describes a semi-fragile watermarking scheme for image authentication and tamper-proofing. Each watermark bit is duplicated and randomly embedded in the original image in the discrete wavelet domain by modifying the corresponding image coefficients through quantization. The modifications are made so that they have little effect on the image and that the watermarking is robust against tampering. The watermark image for authentication is reconstructed by taking a weighted vote on the extracted bits. The bits that lose the vote are treated as having been tampered with, and the locations of the lost bits as indicating tampered positions. Thus, authentication and tamper-proofing can be done by observing the images of watermarks that win and lose votes. Sieving, emphasis, and weighted vote were found to be effectively make the authentication and tamper detection more accurate. The proposed scheme is robust against JPEG compression or acceptable modifications, but sensitive to malicious attacks such as cutting and pasting.

In this letter, we propose a novel subsampling based image watermark sequentially embedding scheme to reduce the risk of common permutation attack. The image is still perceptual after watermarking, and experimental results also show its effectiveness and robustness.