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

• US 20050105733A1
• Filed: 12/15/2004
• Published: 05/19/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Venkatesan, Ramarathnam, Jakubowski, Mariusz H., Mihcak, M. Kivanc
• Granted Patent: US 7,568,103 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 380/262
• 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. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computer, perform acts facilitating protection of a digital signal, the acts comprising:

partitioning a digital signal into segments, wherein the partitioning comprises pseudorandomly segmenting the signal;

for one or more segments;

calculating statistics of a segment that are representative of that segment;

quantizing such statistics of a segment;

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

2. One or more media as recited in claim 1 further comprising normalizing amplitude of a digital signal, wherein such signal is an original, unmarked signal.

3. One or more media as recited in claim 1 further comprising transforming the signal.

4. One or more media as recited in claim 1, wherein the statistics of the calculating comprises one or more finite order moments of a segment.

5. One or more media 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.

6. One or more media 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.

7. One or more media as recited in claim 1, wherein the generating comprises embedding a watermark via quantization index modulation (QIM).

8. A computer comprising one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1.

16. A computer comprising one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1.

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

partitioning a digital signal into segments, wherein the partitioning comprises pseudorandomly segmenting the signal, wherein such segments are adjacent and non-contiguous;

for one or more segments;

calculating statistics of a segment that are representative of that segment;

quantizing such statistics of a segment;

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

10. One or more media as recited in claim 9 further comprising normalizing amplitude of a digital signal, wherein such signal is an original, unmarked signal.

11. One or more media as recited in claim 9 further comprising transforming the signal.

12. One or more media as recited in claim 9, wherein the statistics of the calculating comprises one or more finite order moments of a segment.

13. One or more media as recited in claim 9 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 media as recited in claim 9 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.

15. One or more media as recited in claim 9, wherein the generating comprises embedding a watermark via quantization index modulation (QIM).

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

a partitioning means for partitioning a digital signal into segments;

a segment-statistics calculation means for calculating statistics of a segment that are representative of that segment;

a segment-quantization means for quantizing such statistics of a segment a signal-marking means for generating a marked signal approximately equivalent to a combination of the digital signal and the combination of the quantized statistics of the one or more segments.

18. A system as recited in claim 17, wherein partitioning means is also for pseudorandomly segmenting the signal.

19. A system as recited in claim 17, wherein th partitioning means is also for pseudorandomly segmenting the signal, wherein such segments are adjacent and non-contiguous.