Watermarking of Data Invariant to Distortion

• US 20100254566A1
• Filed: 10/06/2009
• Published: 10/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Tian, Juan, Stach, John, Alattar, Adnan M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,098,883 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0028 Adaptive watermarking, e.g. Human Visual System [HVS]-based watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0051 Embedding of the watermark in the spatial domain
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0083 whereby only watermarked image required at decoder, e.g. source-based, blind, oblivious
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0202 whereby the quality of watermarked images is measured; Measuring quality or performance of watermarking methods; Balancing between quality and robustness
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0203 whereby the image with embedded watermark is reverted to the original condition before embedding, e.g. lossless, distortion-free or invertible watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/018 Audio watermarking, i.e. embedding inaudible data in the audio signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32149 Methods relating to embedding, encoding, decoding, detection or retrieval operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32187 with selective or adaptive application of the additional information, e.g. in selected frequency coefficients
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32229 with selective or adaptive application of the additional information, e.g. in selected regions of the image H04N1/32213 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32283 Hashing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32347 Reversible embedding, i.e. lossless, invertible, erasable, removable or distorsion-free embedding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32352 Controlling detectability or arrangements to facilitate detection or retrieval of the embedded information, e.g. using markers for decoding, detection or retrieval operations H04N1/32149 and subgroups take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3233 of authentication information, e.g. digital signature, watermark
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/327 which are undetectable to the naked eye, e.g. embedded codes

Abstract

A data set is transformed to a domain in which values are robust to distortion. The values are then expanded to carry auxiliary data. To recover the data, the data set is transformed into the domain, further transformed to get a set of possibly expanded data, and then processed to extract auxiliary data from the expanded values.

Claims

1. A method for watermarking a data set comprising:

using a programmed computer to perform the acts of;

transforming the data set to a first domain in which data values are more invariant to distortion;

transforming the data set from the first domain to a second domain that includes a set of expandable values;

modifying expandable values to include auxiliary data.

2. A computer readable medium on which is stored instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the modifying includes modifying the expandable values across spectral components.

4. The method of claim 1 where the transforming to the first data set comprises quantizing the data set.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the transforming to the first data set comprises transforming the data set to plural different resolutions, and applying the transforming to a second domain at least two different resolutions.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the transforming the data set from the first domain to a second domain is applied iteratively to produce different sets of expandable values, which are then modified to include auxiliary data.

8. A computer readable medium on which is stored instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

7. A method for reading watermark data from a data set comprising:

using a programmed computer to perform the acts of;

transforming the data set to a first domain in which data values are more invariant to distortion;

transforming the data set from the first domain to a second domain that includes a set of values;

identifying locations within the set of values that have attributes indicative of carrying auxiliary data through expansion; and

extracting auxiliary data from the set of values.