Digital Watermarking

Prashant kawale
2008H103034
 Agenda
• Background
• Terminology
• Applications
• Techniques
• Research topics
• References
 Information Hiding
• Information Hiding…..started with

Steganography (art of hidden writing):

The art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that
no one apart from the intended recipient knows of the existence of
.
the message The existence of information is secret.

Stego – Hidden , Graphy – Writing  ‘art of hidden writing’

 Steganography
(dates back to 440 BC)
• Histaeus used his slaves (information tattooed on a slave’s shaved
head )

Initial Applications of information hiding  Passing Secret messages

 Microchip - Application
• Germans used Microchips in World War II

Initial Applications of information hiding  Passing Secret messages

 What is a watermark ?
What is a watermark ? A distinguishing mark
impressed on paper during manufacture; visible
when paper is held up to the light (e.g. $ Bill)

Application for print media  authenticity of print media

 What is a watermark ?
Digital Watermarking: Application of Information
hiding (Hiding Watermarks in digital Media, such
as images)

Digital Watermarking can be ?

- Perceptible (e.g. author information in .doc)
- Imperceptible (e.g. author information in images)
Visibility is application dependent

Invisible watermarks are preferred ?

 Applications
Copyright Protecton:To prove the ownership
of digital media

Eg. Cut paste of images

Hidden Watermarks represent

the copyright information
 Applications
Tamper proofing: To find out if data was
tampered.

Eg. Change meaning of images

Hidden Watermarks track

change in meaning

Issues: Accuracy of detection

 Applications
Quality Assessment: Degradation of Visual
Quality

Loss of Visual Quality

Hidden Watermarks track change in visual quality

 Comparison
• Watermarking Vs Cryptography

Watermark D  Hide information in D

Encrypt D  Change form of D

 Watermarking Process
• Data (D), Watermark (W), Stego Key (K),
Watermarked Data (Dw)

Embed (D, W, K) = Dw

Extract (Dw) = W’ and compare with W

(e.g. find the linear correlation and compare it to a
threshold)

Q. How do we make this system secure ?

A. K is secret (Use cryptography to make information hidden more
secure)
 Watermarking Process
Example – Embedding (Dw = D + W)
• Matrix representation (12 blocks – 3 x 4 matrix)
(Algorithm Used: Random number generator RNG), Seed for
RNG = K, D = Matrix representation, W = Author’s name

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12
 Watermarking Process
Example – Extraction
• The Watermark can be identified by generating the
random numbers using the seed K

6 8

10
 Data Domain Categorization

• Spatial Watermarking
Direct usage of data to embed and extract Watermark
e.g. voltage values for audio data

• Transform Based Watermarking

Conversion of data to another format to embed and
extract.
e.g. Conversion to polar co-ordinate systems of 3D
models, makes it robust against scaling
 Extraction Categorization
• Informed (Private)
Extract using {D, K, W}
• Semi - Blind (Semi-Private)
Extract using {K, W}
• Blind (Public)
Extract using {K}

- Blind (requires less information storage)

- Informed techniques are more robust to tampering
 Robustness Categorization
• Fragile (for tamper proofing e.g. losing
watermark implies tampering)

• Semi-Fragile (robust against user level

operations, e.g. image compression)

• Robust (against adversary based attack,

e.g. noise addition to images)
This categorization is application dependent
 Categorization of Watermark
Eg1. Robust Private Spatial Watermarks

Eg2. Blind Fragile DCT based Watermarks

Eg3. Blind Semi-fragile Spatial Watermarks

 Watermarking Example
Application: Copyright Protection
Design Requirements:
- Imperceptibility
- Capacity
- Robustness
- Security
 Imperceptibility

Watermarking

Stanford Bunny 3D Model Visible Watermarks in

Bunny Model  Distortion

Watermarking

Stanford Bunny 3D Model Invisible Watermarks in Bunny

Model  Minimal Distortion
 Robustness
Adversaries can attack the data set and
remove the watermark.

Attacks are generally data dependent

e.g. Compression that adds noise can be used
as an attack to remove the watermark. Different
data types can have different compression
schemes.
 Robustness
• Value Change Attacks
- Noise addition e.g. lossy compression
- Uniform Affine Transformation e.g. 3D
model being rotated in 3D space OR
image being scaled
If encoding of watermarks are data value dependent 
Watermark is lost  Extraction process fails
 Robustness
• Sample loss Attacks
- Cropping e.g. Cropping in images
- Smoothing e.g. smoothing of audio
signals e.g. Change in Sample rates
in audio data change in sampling rat
results in loss of samples

If watermarks are encoded in parts of data set which are

lost  Watermark is lost  Extraction process fails
 Robustness
• Reorder Attack
- Reversal of sequence of data values e.g.
reverse filter in audio signal reverses the order
of data values in time

0 1 1 1 1 0
Attack
1 2 3 3 2 1

Samples in time Samples in time

If encoding is dependent on an order and the order is changed

 Watermark is lost Extraction process fails
 Capacity
• Multiple Watermarks can be supported.

• More capacity implies more robustness

since watermarks can be replicated.

Spatial Methods are have higher capacity than transform

techniques ?
 Security
• In case the key used during watermark is
lost anyone can read the watermark and
remove it.

• In case the watermark is public, it can be

encoded and copyright information is lost.
 Watermarking Algorithm
Design Requirements
 As much information (watermarks) as possible

 Capacity
 Only be accessible by authorized parties
 Security
 Resistance against hostile/user dependent
changes
 Robustness
 Invisibility
 Imperceptibility
 Tamper proofing
• Robustness against user related
operations – compression, format
conversion

• Accuracy of Detection – Only changes in

meaning should be detected
 References
• Digital Watermarking By R. Chandramouli, Nasir
Memon, Majid Rabbani

THANK YOU !