Derivation and quantization of robust non-local characteristics for blind watermarking

• US 7,568,103 B2
• Filed: 12/15/2004
• Issued: 07/28/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Mihcak, M. Kivanc, Jakubowski, Mariusz H., Venkatesan, Ramarathnam
• Primary Examiner(s): KIM, JUNG W
• Application Number:
  US11/012,916
• Publication Number:
  US 20050105733A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,686 Days
• Field of Search: 713/176, 380/54, 380/201, 382/251
• US Class Current: 713/176
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/16 Program or content traceability, e.g. by watermarking
• 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 2201/0065 Extraction of an embedded watermark; Reliable detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2201/0083 whereby only watermarked image required at decoder, e.g. source-based, blind, oblivious
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/101 applying security measures for digital rights management data processing systems or methods, specially adapted for commerce, e.g. marketing, shopping, billing, auctions or e-commerce G06Q30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1441 Countermeasures against malicious traffic countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms H04L9/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32144 embedded in the image data, i.e. enclosed or integrated in the image, e.g. watermark, super-imposed logo or stamp
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32149 Methods relating to embedding, encoding, decoding, detection or retrieval operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32154 Transform domain methods H04N1/32309 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/3217 using wavelet transforms
• 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 1/32277 Compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/3232 Robust embedding or watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32341 Blind embedding, i.e. the original image not being known beforehand
• 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
• 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

An implementation of a technology is described herein for deriving robust non-local characteristics and quantizing such characteristics for blind watermarking of a digital good. This technology finds the proper balance between minimizing the probability of false alarms (i.e., detecting a non-existent watermark) and the probability of misses (i.e., failing to detect an existing watermark). The technology, described herein, performs quantization index modulation (QIM) based upon non-local characteristics of the digital good. Non-local characteristics may include statistics (e.g., averages, median) of a group of individual parts (e.g., pixels) of a digital good. This abstract itself is not intended to limit the scope of this patent. The scope of the present invention is pointed out in the appending claims.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for facilitating protection of a digital signal, the method comprising:

obtaining a digital signal, wherein the digital signal comprises multi-dimensional data;

partitioning a digital signal into segments, wherein the partitioning comprises pseudorandomly segmenting the signal, wherein the plurality of segments are pseudorandomly positioned, such that said segments have the ability to overlap;

quantizing statistics associated with each said segment to watermark the signal using quantization index modulation (QIM), wherein the statistics associated with at least one said segment are determined using the non-local characteristics of at least two said segments, and wherein the at least two segments of the signal are pseudorandomly dimensioned;

generating a marked signal equivalent to a combination of the digital signal and the combination of the quantized statistics of the one or more segments.

2. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 1 wherein the plurality of segments are generated using a secret key.

3. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 1 further comprising determining a delta-sequence that is representative of the combination of the quantized statistics of the one or more segments.

4. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 1 further comprising determining a pseudorandom delta-sequence that, when combined with the digital signal, approximate a combination of the digital signal and the quantized statistics of the one or more segments.

5. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of segments are positioned using a secret key.

6. A computer comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having computer executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed, direct a computer to perform the method as recited in claim 1.

14. A computer implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein:

using QIM comprises applying multi-level quantization on an output of a segment-statistics calculator to obtain quantized data; and

a segment comprises a group of individual elements, and the non-local characteristics are representative of the group as a whole.

7. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-executable instructions that, when executed, direct a computer to perform acts facilitating protection of a digital signal, the acts comprising:

obtaining a digital signal, wherein the digital signal comprises multi-dimensional data;

partitioning the digital signal into a plurality of segments, wherein the partitioning comprises pseudorandomly segmenting the digital signal, wherein the plurality of segments are pseudorandomly positioned, such that said segments have the ability to overlap;

quantizing statistics associated with each said segment to watermark the digital signal using quantization index modulation (QIM), wherein the statistics associated with at least one said segment are determined using non-local characteristics of at least two said segments, and wherein the at least two segments of the digital signal are pseudorandomly dimensioned;

generating a marked signal equivalent to a combination of the digital signal and a combination of quantized statistics of the one or more segments.

8. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 7 wherein the plurality of segments are generated using a secret key.

9. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 7, the acts further comprising determining a delta-sequence that is representative of the combination of the quantized statistics of the one or more segments.

10. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 7, the acts further comprising determining a pseudorandom delta-sequence that when combined with the digital signal, approximates a combination of the digital signal and the quantized statistics of the one or more segments.

11. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 7, wherein the plurality of segments are positioned using a secret key.

15. One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 7, wherein the acts further comprise:

using QIM comprises applying multi-level quantization on an output of a segment-statistics calculator to obtain quantized data; and

a segment comprises a group of individual elements, and the non-local characteristics are representative of the group as a whole.

12. A method for facilitating protection of digital signals, the method comprising:

one or more steps for obtaining a digital signal, wherein the digital signal comprises multidimensional data;

one or more steps for partitioning the digital signal into a plurality of segments by pseudorandomly segmenting the digital signal, wherein the plurality of segments are pseudorandomly positioned, such that said segments have the ability to overlap;

one or more steps for quantizing statistics associated with each said segment to watermark the signal using quantization index modulation (QIM), wherein the statistics associated with at least one said segment are determined using the non-local characteristics of at least two said segments, and wherein the at least two segments of the signal are pseudorandomly dimensioned;

one or more steps for generating a marked signal equivalent to a combination of the digital signal and the combination of the quantized statistics of the one or more segments.

13. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein the plurality of segments are generated using a secret key.

16. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein:

using QIM comprises applying multi-level quantization on an output of a segment-statistics calculator to obtain quantized data; and

a segment comprises a group of individual elements, and the non-local characteristics are representative of the group as a whole.

17. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein:

the digital signal is selected from a group consisting of a digital video signal, a digital image signal, and a digital multimedia signal;

the non-local characteristics are representative characteristics of more than a single element of the digital signal, elements of the digital signal comprising;

color;

motion;

time;

space;

frequency; and

amplitude;

using QIM comprises applying multi-level quantization on an output of a segment-statistics calculator to obtain quantized data;

a segment comprises a group of individual elements, and the non-local characteristics are representative of the group as a whole;

the QIM is performed on statistics calculated for each segment; and

the statistics for at least one segment are based upon non-local characteristics of at least one other segment.

18. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed, direct a computer to perform the method as recited in claim 12.