Visible Watermarking Technique Based on Human Visual System for Single Sensor Digital Cameras

Hector Santoyo-Garcia,Rogelio Reyes-Reyes,Mariko Nakano-Miyatake,Eduardo Fragoso-Navarro,Clara Cruz-Ramos

doi:10.1155/2017/7903198

Hector Santoyo-Garcia, Rogelio Reyes-Reyes + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/7903198

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Abstract

In this paper we propose a visible watermarking algorithm, in which a visible watermark is embedded into the Bayer Colour Filter Array (CFA) domain. The Bayer CFA is the most common raw image representation for images captured by single sensor digital cameras equipped in almost all mobile devices. In proposed scheme, the captured image is watermarked before it is compressed and stored in the storage system. Then this method enforces the rightful ownership of the watermarked image, since there is no other version of the image rather than the watermarked one. We also take into consideration the Human Visual System (HVS) so that the proposed technique provides desired characteristics of a visible watermarking scheme, such that the embedded watermark is sufficiently perceptible and at same time not obtrusive in colour and grey-scale images. Unlike other Bayer CFA domain visible watermarking algorithms, in which only binary watermark pattern is supported, proposed watermarking algorithm allows grey-scale and colour images as watermark patterns. It is suitable for advertisement purpose, such as digital library and e-commerce, besides copyright protection.

Highlights

Nowadays, a large amount of digital images in Internet has been captured by mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, owing to a great facility provided by these mobile devices to share and transmit digital images
Considering the above-mentioned visible watermarking requirements and rightful ownership protection issue, in this paper we propose a visible watermarking algorithm for mobile devices, in which the watermark embedding is performed at the right moment that a device’s camera captures a picture, protecting the captured image before it is saved into the storage system
The proposed visible watermarking algorithm has been implemented and evaluated by using colour images captured by different mobile devices available nowadays and some images generated artificially

Summary

Introduction

A large amount of digital images in Internet has been captured by mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, owing to a great facility provided by these mobile devices to share and transmit digital images. The digital watermarking technique has emerged as an alternative solution for this problem, embedding copyright information into the image in a visible or invisible manner. The digital library, e-commerce and digital press are the main applications of the permanent visible watermarking [3,4,5]. The digital library can offer users some digitalized documents, photograph, and arts with visible watermark pattern, and the users can read or look at them freely; they cannot use these digital materials for other purpose, such as illegal sale, due to the visible watermark. The images of merchandise can attract attention of possible customers; if these images contain translucent visible watermark, an illegal use of these pictures can be avoided.

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