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

• US 7,636,849 B2
• Filed: 11/12/2004
• Issued: 12/22/2009
• 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, Venkatesan, Ramarathnam, Jakubowski, Mariusz H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Jung
• Application Number:
  US10/987,232
• Publication Number:
  US 20050108545A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,866 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.

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 a digital signal into a plurality of segments by pseudorandomly segmenting the signal using a secret key, and wherein such segments have the ability to overlap;

a means for obtaining a watermark;

a means for watermarking the signal with the watermark using quantization index modulation (QIM), wherein such QIM utilizes non-local characteristics of the signal, and wherein the non-local characteristics comprise statistics representative of one or more pseudorandomly dimensioned segments of the signal.

2. A system as recited in claim 1 further comprising a means for normalizing amplitude of a digital signal, wherein such signal is an original, unmarked signal.

3. A system as recited in claim 1 further comprising a means for transforming the signal.

4. A system as recited in claim 1 wherein the statistics comprise one or more finite order moments of a segment.

5. A system as recited in claim 1 further comprising a means for determining a delta-sequence that is representative of the combination of the quantized statistics of the one or more segments.

6. A system as recited in claim 1 further comprising a means for 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.

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

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

a step for partitioning the signal into a plurality of segments by pseudorandomly segmenting the signal using a secret key, and wherein the plurality of segments are pseudorandomly positioned using the secret key, such that said segments have the ability to overlap;

a step for obtaining a watermark;

a step for, using quantization index modulation (QIM), watermarking the signal with the watermark, wherein such QIM utilizes non-local characteristics of the signal, and wherein the non-local characteristics comprise statistics representative of one or more pseudorandomly dimensioned segments of the signal.

8. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein the non-local characteristics are representative characteristics of more than a single element of a signal.

9. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein:

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

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

10. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein the digital signal is selected from a group consisting of a digital music signal, a digital image signal, a digital video signal, and a digital multimedia signal.

11. One or more computer storage media having computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a computer to perform a method as recited in claim 7.

12. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 11, wherein the marked signal generated by the step for watermarking is equivalent to a combination of the digital signal and the combination of the quantized statistics of the plurality segments.

13. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 11, the method further comprising determining a delta-sequence that is representative of the combination of the quantized statistics of the one or more segments.

14. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 11, the method 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.

15. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 11, wherein the non-local characteristics are representative characteristics of more than a single element of a signal.

16. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 11, wherein the digital signal is selected from a group consisting of a digital image signal, a digital video signal, and a digital multimedia signal.

18. A method as recited in claim 7, 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.