Watermarking For Copyright Protection Research Articles

Screen‐shooting resistant robust document watermarking in the Discrete Fourier Transform domain

AbstractMetaverse's augmented reality (AR) function allows virtual information to be seamlessly superimposed onto real scenes through the camera of a head‐mounted device. However, this raises concerns about privacy protection and copyright authentication when transmitting cross‐media information. Additionally, there is a risk of secret information leakage due to screen candid shooting in the real world. Ensuring information security and copyright authentication in case of unauthorized screen capturing is crucial. To prevent information loss and interference from cross‐media transfer between screens and cameras, we implement digital watermarking for copyright protection. We have proposed an innovative framework for automatic document watermarking that can resist screen‐shooting. Our approach involves embedding a ring watermark in the document underlay. On the extraction side, the watermark extraction process is divided into three key steps: automatic location, automatic correction, and automatic extraction. First, the document image is located in the covert photography. Then, perspective correction is performed based on the text line features of the document. Finally, the watermark information is extracted by combining the ring watermark features. Our method is capable of automatically extracting watermarks from covert photography while considering aspects such as concealment, robustness, and visual quality. The watermark is embedded in the document underlay, which ensures good visual quality and does not affect the normal reading and editing. We also propose various embedding strength schemes that can adapt to different usage scenarios, providing resistance to screen‐shooting or screenshot attacks, as well as various noise attacks. Through extensive experiments, we have demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed automated framework and the robustness of the watermarking algorithm, as well as the superiority and broad application prospects of our method.

GAN-based watermarking for encrypted images in healthcare scenarios

Nowadays, it is very common for healthcare professionals or staff to transmit digital data in the form of images over public channels or store it on hard drives or third-party clouds. However, unauthorised users and cloud-service providers may view or abuse these sensitive images. This research proposes a generative adversarial network (GAN)-based watermarking for encrypted images to prevent data leakage in healthcare scenarios. The technique uses a combination of a chaotic map and randomised singular value decomposition (RSVD) to encrypt the image first. Subsequently, a GAN model is developed for watermark generation by hiding multiple marks within an image. Later, the encrypted image is marked by embedding the generated watermark for copyright protection and authentication. This fundamentally solves the problem of copyright violation and privacy leakage of medical data. Experimental results have demonstrated that the proposed method is imperceptible and successfully resists various attacks. The obtained results confirmed the superiority of this method over other techniques, which makes it more suitable for healthcare applications.

Blind Dual Image Watermarking for Copyright Protection, Tamper Proofing and Self-Recovery

Blind Dual Image Watermarking for Copyright Protection, Tamper Proofing and Self-Recovery

A secure gray-scale image watermarking technique in fractional DCT domain using zig-zag scrambling

Security of watermark is a huge concern when dealing with imperceptible watermarking for copyright protection and owner identification. A novel watermarking technique that is intrinsically secure against unauthorized extraction of watermark and robust against a variety of attacks has been proposed in this paper. Semi-blind in nature, the technique employs fractional discrete cosine transform (FDCT) and zig-zag scrambling to add a layer of security while embedding watermark bits in the cover image. Transformation through multiple fractional value pairs yields robust results against attacks for every cover image. A pair out of these is chosen while embedding the watermark. The same pair is needed at the time of extraction of original watermark from a signed image. This pair of unique values adds a layer of security in the proposed technique. After dividing the cover image into sub-blocks that are non-overlapping, fuzzy entropy is used to make the selection of appropriate sub-blocks in which watermark bits are to be embedded. These blocks are first mapped in a zig-zag fashion and then, after selection of half sub-blocks, FDCT is applied on each of them. FDCT coefficients serve as training data for Kernel extreme learning machine (KELM). Used as a non-linear regression model, KELM predicts the value of a particular coefficient with the help of neighboring transform domain coefficients. Multiple scaling factors are used to control the extent to which the watermark bit modifies the predicted coefficient. Strength of these scaling factors is determined and controlled with the help of standard deviation of every selected sub-block. The technique shows perfect extraction of watermarks (Normalized correlation=1.0, Bit error ratio=0.0) against attacks like median filtering (3 × 3), Gaussian filtering, Weiner filtering, JPEG compression (Quality factor 40) and gamma correction. Even for other attacks, the extracted watermarks are not too bad in quality that they are beyond recognition.

Imperceptible–visible watermarking for copyright protection of digital videos based on temporal codes

Digital watermarking has emerged as an important tool for copyright protection of digital videos. In this paper, we introduce a robust and imperceptible video watermarking method performed in the base-band domain that is not computationally expensive. Two nonoverlapped watermarks are embedded in the host video frames. The first watermark is a grayscale image that represents the ownership of the video. First, this watermark is decomposed into a sequence of binary images called temporal codes by using a spatiotemporal masking model. Then, the temporal codes are embedded in the spatial domain of video frames by using the imperceptible–visible watermarking paradigm. Since it is well known that such a paradigm is computationally expensive, we employ a technique that considers the video scene as the basic processing unit to considerably increase the execution speed. The second watermark works as a supporting media to share data between embedding and exhibition stages and is embedded in the discrete cosine transform (DCT) with a very robust method based on quantization index modulation (QIM) under dither modulation and some spatiotemporal criteria of the human visual system (HVS). Computer simulations were conducted regarding robustness, imperceptibility, and time consumption to determine the feasibility of our proposal. Experimental results confirm that the combination of temporal codes and the imperceptible–visible watermarking paradigm is an innovation in the field that brings advantages such as simplicity, low computational complexity, and improved robustness and imperceptibility.

A Novel Zero Watermarking Based on DT-CWT and Quaternion for HDR Image

This paper presents a high dynamic range (HDR) image zero watermarking method based on dual tree complex wavelet transform (DT-CWT) and quaternion. In order to be against tone mapping (TM), DT-CWT is used to transform the three RGB color channels of the HDR image for obtaining the low-pass sub-bands, respectively, since DT-CWT can extract the contour of the HDR image and the contour change of the HDR image is small after TM. The HDR image provides a wide dynamic range, and thus, three-color channel correlations are higher than inner-relationships and the quaternion is used to consider three color channels as a whole to be transformed. Quaternion fast Fourier transform (QFFT) and quaternion singular value decomposition (QSVD) are utilized to decompose the HDR image for obtaining robust features, which is fused with a binary watermark to generate a zero watermark for copyright protection. Furthermore, the binary watermark is scrambled for the security by using the Arnold transform. Experimental results denote that the proposed zero-watermarking method is robust to TM and other image processing attacks, and can protect the HDR image efficiently.

Novel and Robust Image Watermarking for Copyright Protection and Integrity Control

This paper presents a copyright protection and integrity verification watermarking scheme for color images. It uses the extracted features of the host image to generate a watermark, which is then embedded in the host image to produce a watermarked image. We have inserted the watermark in the frequency domain using discrete cosine transform. The choice of the positions of the watermark bits depends on a preprocessing study on the original and compressed–decompressed image. Then, we have implemented a blind detection algorithm. In order to counter rotation and cropping attacks, our scheme adopts Speeded-Up Robust Feature to locate invariant key points. The latter are extracted from the original image and used as part of the keys of our scheme to resynchronize only watermarked image altered by rotation and cropping. The robustness and integrity of our method are tested by executing Stirmark 3.1 attacks to the watermarked images. The experimental results show that our method affords a high level of imperceptibility and robustness against JPEG compression, unique and double Stirmark attacks.

High Capacity Secured Digital Watermarking for Copyright Protection

Computer Network provides a way to share and distribute files and information to the masses within a short span of time. With the advancement in the networking technology, many new ways to share the information is cropping up like mushrooms. With the growth in technology and ways to share information, security and authentication of the information becomes a major issue. There are many ways to secure the information shared, like Cryptography, which makes the information shared unintelligible and Steganography, which hides the data to be shared inside another digital medium like text, image, video or audio files. We propose a high capacity secured digital watermarking steganography by combining cryptography and steganography thus taking advantage of the merits of both Cryptography and Steganography. We achieve high capacity by compression and security by encryption.

Visual cryptography based on dual image watermarking for copyright protection and security using various transforms

In this paper, a novel dual image watermarking method is proposed to provide the copyright protection to digital images. In this proposed method, the lower and higher frequency subbands of the decomposed original image are modified by inserting the watermark information using different transforms. The implementation of a method that combines the visual cryptography with dual image watermarking to provide the security for the digital images during an exchange in open networks. The Arnold transform is used to encrypt the second watermark to employ the secure communication. Based on the proposed, the perceptibility and robustness of the distributed images can be increased. The original and watermarked images look like same and the PSNR and NCC are calculated for analyzing the system performance. This method is more robust and secure than existing methods.

Video Watermarking for Copyright Protection with Genetic-Based Frame Selection

Recently, video watermarking has received much consideration. Several applications in a variety of domains have been implemented, and many are progressing. This paper intends to formulate a novel video watermarking framework that includes three stages: (i) Optimal video frame prediction, (ii) A watermark embedding process, and (iii) A watermark extraction process. In the proposed model, the optimal frame prediction is carried out using the deep belief network (DBN) framework. Initially, randomly chosen frames from each video are used as the input to a genetic algorithm (GA) model that optimally chooses the frames such that the peak signal-tonoise ratio (PSNR) should be maximal. The frames are assigned with a label of one or zero, where a label of one denotes a frame with better PSNR (can select for embedding process) and a label of zero denotes the frame with reduced PSNR (cannot be used for embedding). Consequently, a data library is formed from the obtained results, where each video frame is determined with their graylevel cooccurrence matrix (GLCM) features and labels (can embed or not), which is then trained in the DBN framework, from which the optimal frames can be predicted efficiently while testing. Furthermore, the watermark embedding process and watermark extraction process are carried out, and thus, the image can be embedded within the optimally selected frames.

A Hybrid Transforms-Based Robust Video Zero-Watermarking Algorithm for Resisting High Efficiency Video Coding Compression

With the rampancy of pirated videos, video watermarking for copyright protection has become a widely researched topic. In this paper, zero-watermarking is applied to videos for the first time to resist high efficiency video coding compression, which can improve the robustness of the watermarking algorithm and ensure the videos' quality. A robust video zero-watermarking algorithm based on the discrete wavelet transform, the all phase biorthogonal transform, and singular value decomposition is proposed. Utilizing the properties of hybrid transforms, robust features can be extracted from videos, and robust zero-watermarks can be constructed. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has strong robustness to high efficiency video coding compression attacks with different quantization parameters. In addition, the algorithm can also resist common image processing attacks, geometric attacks, frame-based attacks, and hybrid attacks. Compared with existing video watermarking algorithms, the proposed algorithm can more accurately and completely reconstruct watermark images.

Design of high performance copyright protection watermarking based on lifting wavelet transform and bi empirical mode decomposition

This paper developed new and efficient image watermarking scheme for copyright protection based on Lifting wavelet transform (LWT) and Bi- dimensional Empirical Mode Decomposition (BEMD). A LWT has been selected because it is fast, less computational cost and maintains the integrity of the recovered watermark. The BEMD transform can separate the image from the most robust to the least sensitive or fragile frequency bands. This advantage is utilised in this study for the purpose of embedding the watermark in the robust part of BEMD, i.e. the residue (r). In addition, the embedding process has been performed in the low sub-band of LWT decomposed image as the low sub-band is more robust to image processing such as JPEG compression. The robust watermark which is grey scale image is decomposed using DWT to enhance the security and select only high sub-band as it has less impact on the quality of the watermarked image. As a result, the original image’s visual quality can be preserved and the concealed watermark could be successfully retrieved even if the watermarked images have undergone severe attacks like JPEG, rotation, Gamma correction, filtering, additive noise, translation, shearing, and scaling. Furthermore, the improved scheme offers greater robustness against many image processing operations, in comparison to the current schemes about copyright protection.

Optimal blind watermarking for color images based on the U matrix of quaternion singular value decomposition

In this paper, a new blind watermarking for copyright protection of color images based on the U matrix through Quaternion Singular Value Decomposition (QSVD) is proposed. The proposed method represents the color image with a quaternion matrix, so that it can deal with the multichannel information in a holistic way. Then the array of pure quaternion is divided into non-overlapping blocks and we perform QSVD on each block to get its U matrix. The watermark is inserted into the optimally selected coefficients of the quaternion elements in the first column of the U matrix. Besides, in the procedures of watermark insertion and extraction, ensuring higher fidelity and robustness to several possible image attacks have been considered. The experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms existing schemes in terms of robustness and invisibility.

Novel quantum watermarking algorithm based on improved least significant qubit modification for quantum audio**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61373131, 61303039, 61232016, and 61501247), Sichuan Youth Science and Technique Foundation, China (Grant No. 2017JQ0048), NUIST Research Foundation for Talented Scholars of China (Grant No. 2015r014), and PAPD and CICAEET Funds of China.

As one of essential multimedia in quantum networks, the copyright protection of quantum audio has gradually become an important issue in the domain of quantum information hiding in the decades. In this paper, an improved quantum watermarking algorithm based on quantum audio by using least significant qubit (LSQb) modification is proposed. Compared with the previous achievements, it can effectively improve the robustness and security of watermark for copyright protection of quantum audio. In the new algorithm, the least significant bites and the peripheral least significant bits of the amplitudes are modified in terms of their logical consistency and correlation to enhance watermark robustness of resisting various illegal attacks. Furthermore, the new algorithm can avoid the weak robustness defect of many previous algorithms that directly embedded the watermark into the least significant bits. In order to implement the new algorithm, some specific quantum circuits are designed to obtain better applicability and scalability for embedding and extracting watermark. Finally, the simulation results including the values of audio waveforms and signal to noise ratios (SNR) prove that the new algorithm has good transparency, robustness, and security.

A Novel Scene-Based Video Watermarking Scheme for Copyright Protection

Abstract Many illegal copies of original digital videos are being made, as they can be replicated perfectly through the Internet. Thus, it is extremely necessary to protect the copyrights of the owner and prevent illegal copying. This paper presents a novel approach to digital video watermarking for copyright protection using two different algorithms, whereby successive estimation of a statistical measure was used to detect scene boundaries and watermark was embedded in the detected scenes with discrete wavelet transform. Haar wavelet was used for decomposition. For embedding, the approaches used were (i) the detailed subband (LH subband) and (ii) the approximate subband (LL subband) of the cover video. Imperceptibility, robustness, and channel capacity were measured using both algorithms. The system was tested for robustness in the presence of 15 different attacks of five different categories, and, under multiple attacks, ensured that a wide spectrum of attack analysis has been done. The performance metrics measured included mean square error, peak signal-to-noise ratio, structural similarity index, normalized correlation, and bit error rate. The experimental results demonstrated the better visual imperceptibility and improved performance in terms of normalized correlation and bit error rate with embedding using the LL subband. Comparative analysis with existing schemes proved the improved robustness, better imperceptibility, and reduced computational time of both the proposed schemes.

Aggregation of Discrete Cosine Transform Digital Image Watermarking with Advanced Encryption Standard Technique

Signal is a function of one or more independent variables which contain some information. Signals are of different category depending upon their characteristics. They are classified as noise signal, deterministic signal, random signal, periodic signal, non-periodic signal, physically realizable and non-realizable, energy and power signals, analog and digital signals, etc. The Information carry by these signals are in different formats like text, image, audio, video, etc. Due to advance internet technology, it is very easy to transfer data from source to destination within second. Thus, issue of security and copyright protection of data increases. There are different methods and techniques used for providing security and copyright protection used for data. In this research, aggregation of two techniques i.e. 2D-DCT based digital watermarking for copyright protection and AES technique using 256 bits key for security of digital image against different attacks like as jpeg compression, salt pepper noise, gaussian noise, median filter, cropping, etc.

An Enhanced Watermarking for Copyright Protection using DWT-SVD Approach

With the fast improvement in information technology and multimedia, the need of digital data is enlarging every day while the speed of data over networks has passed over the crossbars. So it becomes important to protect our data from piracy and also it’s very challenging today. There is crucial need to secure the copyright of individual's creation, to overcome from these types of problem. Digital Watermarking is treated as a solution to secure the multimedia data. Digital watermarking is hiding information in any formaudio, video, text, and image in original data without humiliating its perceptual quality. Watermarking is done for data authentication, security, and copyright protection of the original data. Copyright protection concerns the positive identification of content ownership as to protect the rights of the owner. In copyright protection robust watermark can be used because they are persistently combined with an image. Attempts to remove the watermark should result in serious degradation of image’s visual quality. The detection of watermark in an image perhaps used to find the copyright holder. This paper discusses the latest method of watermarking for copyright protection. The performance parameters used to evaluate results are Mean Square Error (MSE) and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR). High values of PSNR are considered as it shows the good imperceptibility of the techniques used.

Hybrid DWT-SVD Based Video Watermarking For Copyright Protection Using Improved Artificial Bee Colony Optimization Algorithm

Watermarking is a component of inserting data into the multimedia, for example, image, audio or video. This study propose a method for video watermarking using hybrid DWT-SVD to protect the copy right of images. In order to improve the efficiency of video watermarking two main processes are used namely 1) watermark embedding process and 2) watermark extraction process. Before embedding process the input video sequence convert into number of frames. Here Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) transforms and DWT is applied in watermark image. The improved artificial bee colony algorithm is proposed for generating random frame for the embedding process. The result obtain from the watermark embedding process is the watermark video sequence. Next watermark extraction process is carried out. It is the reverse process of watermark embedding. In watermark extraction process, it extracts the watermark image from the watermark video sequence. The proposed method is implemented in MATLAB.

An Effective Approach of Digital Image Watermarking for Copyright Protection

An Effective Approach of Digital Image Watermarking for Copyright Protection

Adaptive Digital Watermarking for Copyright Protection of Digital Images in Wavelet Domain

Abstract Digital image watermarking is the process of embedding watermark into a digital image for authentication and thereby protecting the digital image from copyright violation. In this paper, an adaptive invisible watermarking scheme is proposed in wavelet domain. The proposed method is adaptive in the sense that the scaling and embedding factors are calculated using Bhattacharyya distance and the fourth cumulant moment - kurtosis. The proposed method can be easily employed to preserve the ownership rights and in addition for piracy of digital data prevention. The proposed method is robust to all image and signal processing attacks and highly secured for the protection of copyright information as the process is executed in wavelet domain. Experimental results and statistical evaluation of the results shows the efficacy of the proposed method.