Watermarking of image data using MPEG/JPEG coefficients

• US 6,069,914 A
• Filed: 09/19/1996
• Issued: 05/30/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Research Institute, Inc. (NEC Corporation)
• Inventors: Cox, Ingemar J.
• Primary Examiner(s): TSE, YOUNG TOI
• Application Number:
  US08/715,953
• Time in Patent Office: 1,349 Days
• Field of Search: 380/5, 375/130, 375/140, 375/141, 375/142, 375/147, 375/150, 375/243, 375/254
• US Class Current: 375/150
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2005/91335 the copy protection signal being a watermark
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/913 for scrambling ; for copy protection

Abstract

A watermark is embedded into video/image/multimedia data using spread spectrum methodology. The watermark is extracted from watermarked data without the use of an original or unwatermarked version of the data by using MPEG/JPEG coefficients. The image to be watermarked is divided into subimages. Each subimage is embedded with a watermark. When extracting the watermark, the result from each subimage is combined to determine the originally embedded watermark.

Claims

1. A method of extracting a watermark from watermarked data comprising the steps of:

receiving watermarked data from subregions of watermarked data;

spectrum normalizing the watermarked data from each subregion to generate normalized signals, where said spectrum normalizing comprises dividing each frequency coefficient in the watermarked data by a local average power of the frequency coefficients;

correlating the normalized signals with predetermined PN sequences corresponding to predetermined symbols to provide correlated signals for each predetermined PN sequence in each subregion;

deciding which correlated signal is most likely a current symbol in each subregion for providing an extracted symbol stream;

error correcting the extracted symbol stream; and

extracting a sequence of most likely current symbols corresponding to the watermark.

3. A method of extracting a watermark from watermarked data comprising the steps of:

receiving watermarked data from subregions of watermarked data;

spectrum normalizing the watermarked data from each subregion to generate different normalized signals in predetermined subregions;

correlating the normalized signals with predetermined PN sequences corresponding to predetermined symbols to provide correlated signals for each predetermined PN sequence in each subregion;

deciding which correlated signal is most likely a current symbol in each subregion for providing an extracted symbol stream;

error correcting the extracted symbol stream; and

extracting a sequence of most likely current symbols corresponding to the watermark.

7. A method of extracting a watermark from watermarked data comprising the steps of:

receiving watermarked data from subregions of watermarked data;

spectrum normalizing the watermarked data from each subregion to generate normalized signals, where there are a plurality of normalized signals in each subregion and where said spectrum normalizing comprises dividing each frequency coefficient in the watermarked data by a local average power of the frequency coefficients;

correlating the normalized signals with predetermined PN sequences corresponding to predetermined symbols to provide correlated signals for each predetermined PN sequence in each subregion;

deciding which correlated signal is most likely a current symbol in each subregion for providing an extracted symbol stream;

error correcting the extracted symbol stream; and

extracting a sequence of most likely current symbols corresponding to the watermark.

2. A method of extracting a watermark from watermarked data as set forth in claim 4, where said subregions are MPEG/JPEG coefficients of the data to be watermarked.

4. A method of extracting a watermark from watermarked data as set forth in claim 6, where said subregions are MPEG/JPEG coefficients of the data to be watermarked.

5. A method of extracting a watermark from watermarked data as set forth in claim 6, where said spectrum normalizing comprises dividing each frequency coefficient in the watermarked data by a local average power of the frequency coefficients.

6. A method of extracting a watermark from watermarked data as set forth in claim 8, where said subregions are MPEG/JPEG coefficients of the data to be watermarked.

8. A method of extracting a watermark from watermarked data as set forth in claim 7, where said subregions are MPEG/JPEG coefficients of the data to be watermarked.

9. A method for inserting symbols into data to be watermarked comprising the steps of:

dividing data to be watermarked into a plurality of subregions;

spread spectrum modulating the symbols by mapping each symbol into a respective PN sequence;

spectral shaping each PN sequence; and

embedding each spectral shaped PN sequence in predetermined coefficients in predetermined subregions of the data.

10. A method of inserting symbols into data to be watermarked as set forth in claim 9, where said subregions are MPEG/JPEG coefficients of the data to be watermarked.

11. A method of extracting a watermark from watermarked data comprising the steps of:

receiving watermarked data from subregions of watermarked data;

spectrum normalizing the watermarked data from each subregion to generate normalized signals, where said spectrum normalizing comprises dividing each frequency coefficient in the watermarked data by a local average power of the frequency coefficients;

correlating the normalized signals with predetermined PN sequences corresponding to predetermined symbols to provide correlated signals for each predetermined PN sequence in each subregion;

combining correlated signals from each subregion to generate correlated signals for the watermarked data;

deciding which correlated signal is most likely a current symbol; and

extracting a sequence of most likely current symbols corresponding to the watermark.

13. A method of extracting a watermark from watermarked data comprising the steps of:

receiving watermarked data from subregions of watermarked data;

spectrum normalizing the watermarked data from each subregion to generate normalized signals, where different normalized signals are in predetermined subregions;

correlating the normalized signals with predetermined PN sequences corresponding to predetermined symbols to provide correlated signals for each predetermined PN sequence in each subregion,

combining correlated signals from each subregion to generate correlated signals for the watermarked data;

deciding which correlated signal is most likely a current symbol; and

extracting a sequence of most likely current symbols corresponding to the watermark.

14. A method of extracting a watermark from watermarked data as set forth in claim 13, where said subregions are MPEG/JPEG coefficients of the data to be watermarked.

15. A method of extracting a watermark from watermarked data as set forth in claim 13, where said spectrum normalizing comprises dividing each frequency coefficient in the watermarked data by a local average power of the frequency coefficients.

16. A method of extracting a watermark from watermarked data as set forth in claim 15, where said subregions are MPEG/JPEG coefficients of the data to be watermarked.

17. A method of extracting a watermark from watermarked data comprising the steps of:

receiving watermarked data from subregions of watermarked data;

spectrum normalizing the watermarked data from each subregion to generate normalized signals, where there are a plurality of normalized signals in each subregion and where said spectrum normalizing comprises dividing each frequency coefficient in the watermarked data by a local average power of the frequency coefficients;

correlating the normalized signals with predetermined PN sequences corresponding to predetermined symbols to provide correlated signals for each predetermined PN sequence in each subregion;

combining correlated signals from each subregion to generate correlated signals for the watermarked data;

deciding which correlated signal is most likely a current symbol; and

extracting a sequence of most likely current symbols corresponding to the watermark.

12. A method of extracting a watermark from watermarked data as set forth in claim 18, where said subregions are MPEG/JPEG coefficients of the data to be watermarked.

18. A method of extracting a watermark from watermarked data as set forth in claim 17, where said subregions are MPEG/JPEG coefficients of the data to be watermarked.