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

• US 7,634,660 B2
• Filed: 12/15/2004
• Issued: 12/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Jakubowski, Mariusz H., Mihcak, M. Kivanc, Venkatesan, Ramarathnam
• Primary Examiner(s): KIM, JUNG W
• Application Number:
  US11/012,922
• Publication Number:
  US 20050125671A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,826 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
• 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 system facilitating protection of digital signals, the system comprising:

a means for processing;

a means for storing coupled to the means for processing;

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

a means for partitioning the digital signal into a plurality of 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;

a means for calculating for one or more segments statistics of a segment that are representative of that segment;

a means for quantizing such statistics of a segment to watermark the 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 signal are pseudorandomly dimensioned;

a means 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, wherein the generating comprises embedding a watermark via quantization index modulation (QIM).

2. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of segments are generated using a secret key.

3. A system 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 system 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 system for facilitating the protection of digital signals, the system comprising:

a processing unit;

a system memory coupled to the processing unit;

an amplitude normalizer configured to obtain a digital signal, wherein the digital signal comprises multi-dimensional data;

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

a segment-statistics calculator configured to calculate statistics of a segment that are representative of that segment;

a segment quantizer configured to quantize such statistics of a segment to watermark the signal, 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 signal are pseudorandomly dimensioned;

a signal marker configured to generate a marked signal equivalent to a combination of the digital signal and the combination of the quantized statistics of the one or more segments, wherein the generating comprises embedding a watermark via quantization index modulation (QIM).