IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD, AND STORAGE MEDIUM

• US 20070098214A1
• Filed: 11/14/2006
• Published: 05/03/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: IWAMURA, Keiichi
• Application Number:
  US11/559,586
• Publication Number:
  US 20070098214A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/005 Robust watermarking, e.g. average attack or collusion attack resistant
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0052 Embedding of the watermark in the frequency domain
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0063 in relation to collusion attacks, e.g. collusion attack resistant
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/63 using sub-band based transform, e.g. wavelets
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8358 involving watermark protecting executable software by watermarking G06F21/16; image watermarking in general G06T1/0021; watermarks inserted in still images for transmission purposes H04N1/32144; inserting watermarks during video coding H04N19/467

Abstract

A digital watermark mark which is robust against alliance and average value attacks is embedded in data, and original data is protected from being tampered with. Image quality that may be obtained by an attacker by, e.g., an alliance attack is determined. In this case, LL3 is determined to be that image quality. A portion to be modified of high-image quality portions is determined. In this case, HL1 is determined as a high-image quality portion to be modified, and is entirely shifted rightward by 1 bit. Hence, prepared block images undergo wavelet transformation to be decomposed into frequency components, and HL1 as the selected high-image quality portion is modified. Upon completion of the aforementioned modification process, this block undergoes inverse wavelet transformation to reclaim the block image.

Claims

1-5. -5. (canceled)

6. An image processing apparatus for embedding a digital watermark in an image, comprising:

setting means for setting a range of bits to be changed of a plurality of bits which form a multi-valued pixel upon expressing pixels which form the image using multi-valued data; and

change means for changing at least one of bits included in the range of bits to be changed,

wherein the digital watermark is embedded in the image which includes the bit changed by said change means; and

wherein said change means changes for respective users.

8. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein a change process of said change means includes processes of four arithmetic operations.

9. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein a change process of said change means includes bit inversion.

7. (canceled)

10-14. -14. (canceled)

15. An image processing method for embedding a digital watermark in an image, comprising:

the setting step of setting a range of bits to be changed of a plurality of bits which form a multi-valued pixel upon expressing pixels which form the image using multi-valued data; and

the change step of changing at least one of bits included in the range of bits to be changed,

wherein the digital watermark is embedded in the image which includes the bit changed in the change step; and

wherein said change step changes for respective users.

29. The method according to claim 15, wherein a change process of said change step includes processes of four arithmetic operations.

30. The method according to claim 15, wherein a change process of said change step includes bit inversion.

16-18. -18. (canceled)

19. A storage medium that stores a program code which serves as an image processing apparatus for embedding a digital watermark in an image, comprising:

a program code of the setting step of setting a range of bits to be changed of a plurality of bits which form a multi-valued pixel upon expressing pixels which form the image using multi-valued data; and

a program code of the change step of changing at least one of bits included in the range of bits to be changed,

wherein the digital watermark is embedded in the image which includes the bit changed in the change step; and

wherein said change step changes for respective users.

31. The method according to claim 19, wherein a change process of said change step includes processes of four arithmetic operations.

32. The storage medium according to claim 19, wherein a change process of said change step includes bit inversion.

20-28. -28. (canceled)