Digital Watermarking for Multimedia Transaction Tracking

This chapter focuses on the issue of transaction tracking in multimedia distribution applications through digital watermarking terminology. The existing watermarking schemes are summarized and their assumptions as well as the limitations for tracking are analyzed. In particular, an Independent Component Analysis (ICA)-based watermarking scheme is proposed, which can overcome the problems of the existing watermarking schemes. Multiple watermarking technique is exploited—one watermark to identify the rightful owner of the work and the other one to identify the legal user of a copy of the work. In the absence of original data, watermark, embedding locations and strengths, the ICA-based watermarking scheme is introduced for efficient watermark extraction with some side information. The robustness of the proposed scheme against some common signal-processing attacks as well as the related future work are also presented. Finally, some challenging issues in multimedia transaction tracking through digital watermarking are discussed.

Active Watermarking System

In the past decade, the business community has embraced the capabilities of the Internet to provide a multitude of services that involve access to data and information. Of particular concern to these businesses has been the protection and authentication of digital data as they are distributed electronically. We propose a novel approach that combines the reactive rule-based scheme of an active database management system (ADBMS) with the technology of digital watermarking to automatically protect digital data. The ADBMS technology facilitates the establishment of event-condition-action (ECA) rules that define the actions to be triggered by events under certain conditions. These actions are the generation of unique watermarks and the tagging of digital data with unique signatures. Watermarking is a technology that embeds, within the digital data’s context, information identifying its owner. The integration of these two technologies provides a powerful mechanism for protecting digital data in a consistent and formal manner.

Geometric Distortions Correction Using Image Moment in Image Watermarking

This chapter presents a method for detecting and recovering geometrical attacks in digital watermarking by making use of geometric moments of the original images. Digital image watermarking has become a popular technique for authentication and copyright protection. However, many proposed image watermarking techniques are sensitive to geometric distortions, such as rotation, scaling, and translation. In this chapter, we propose a new way of making this estimation by using the geometric moments of original image. The moment information can be used as a private key of extraction process. This method can be used as a preprocess of the extraction watermarking process. We have embedded different watermarks into original images in different domains including discrete wavelet transform (DWT), discrete cosine transfrom (DCT), fast Fourier transform, and spatial domain. The experimental results show that our method has a good robustness to wide geometric distortion parameters ranges and it is robust to Stirmark attacks.

Digital Watermarking Schemes for Multimedia Authentication

As the interconnected networks for instant transaction prevail and the power of digital multimedia processing tools for perfect duplication and manipulation increases, forgery and impersonation become major concerns of the information era. This chapter is intended to disseminate the concept of digital watermarking for multimedia authentication. Issues and challenges, such as security, resolution of tamper localization, and embedding distortion, of this technical area are explained first. Three main categories of watermarking approaches, namely fragile, semi-fragile, and reversible schemes, to the issues and challenges are then presented. Merits and limitations of specific schemes of each category are also reviewed and compared.

Digital Watermarking

In order to solve intellectual property problems of the digital age, two basic procedures are used: “buy and drop,” linked to the destruction of various peer-to-peer solutions and “subpoena and fear,” as the creation of nonnatural social fear by specific legislations. Although customers around the world are willing to buy digital products over networks, the industry is still using conventional procedures to push such a decisive customer impulse back into existing and conventional markets. But digital media, like audio, video, images, and other multimedia documents, can be protected against copyright infringements with invisible, integrated patterns based on steganography and digital watermarking techniques. Digital watermarking is described as a possibility to interface and close the gap between copyright and digital distribution. It is based on steganographic techniques and enables useful rights protection mechanisms. Digital watermarks are mostly inserted as a plain-bit sample or a transformed digital signal into the source data using a key-based embedding algorithm and a pseudo noise pattern. The embedded information is hidden in low-value bits or least significant bits of picture pixels, frequency, or other value domains, and linked inseparably with the source of the data structure. For the optimal application of watermarking technology, a trade-off has to be made between competing criteria such as robustness, nonperceptibility, nondetectability, and security. Most watermarking algorithms are resistant to selected and application-specific attacks. Therefore, even friendly attacks in the form of usual file and data modifications can easily destroy the watermark or falsify it. This paper gives an overview of watermarking technologies, classification, methodology, application, and problems.

MPEG Standards and Watermarking Technologies

This chapter introduces the watermarking technologies of the MPEG standards and gives information about a framework of watermarking technology for intellectual property protection (MPEG IPMP technology). An overview of MPEG-2/4, IPMP standard of MPEG-2/4, and watermarking technologies of MPEG-2/4 IPMP is described, and the concept of IPMP system and required normative technical items is summarized. MPEG-21 and its Part 11, PATs (Persistent Association Technologies) methodologies, PATs requirements, and evaluation methods of PATs are described and future trends of the MPEG-related watermarking technologies are discussed, including technical requirements.

Audio Watermarking

This chapter provides an overview of digital audio watermarking systems, including a description of recently developed watermarking algorithms and insights into effective attack strategies against audio watermarking methods. Audio watermarking algorithms are characterized by a number of defining properties, ranging from robustness requirements to computational complexity and cost of implementation. This chapter provides a comprehensive list of signal modifications that are usually used by adversaries in order to distort the embedded watermark and prevent detection of the hidden data. At the end, application areas that have recently been developed and possible future applications areas are listed.

Time-Variant Watermarks for Digital Videos

Watermarks provide a means of embedding information into digital videos that can be used for a variety of purposes, such as establishing ownership, tracing origin of copies, and so forth. We outline an approach that permits a significant increase in the amount of information that can be accommodated in a watermark, namely time-variant watermarks. The approach is formulated assuming the video is represented in an MPEG format. Implementation issues of time-variant watermarks are discussed, as are their advantages over the usual time-invariant watermarks, with emphasis on defeating attacks using filtering, cropping, resizing, and other standard methods used to defeat watermarks, such as changing existing frames, as well as new attacks, such as removing, repeating, or permuting frames.

A New Public-Key Algorithm for Watermarking of Digital Images

Conventional photographs may easily be used in court as evidence. The complete negative may be inspected. Subsequent numbers are a reliable proof that sequences of pictures have been generated. Modifications are usually quickly detected without major technical efforts. This is not true anymore for digital images, since they may easily be manipulated. This poses a problem, for example, for surveillance cameras of automatic teller machines in financial institutions. Digital watermarking techniques have been proposed to address this problem. In this chapter, a new public-key watermarking system will be presented. In contrast to digital signatures and other public-key watermarking techniques, it is two-dimensional and, hence, especially well-suited for applications involving digital images.