Still-image watermarking robust to local geometric distortions

• Published in: IEEE transactions on image processing Vol. 15; no. 9; pp. 2831 - 2842
• Main Authors: Dugelay, J.-L., Roche, S., Rey, C., Doerr, G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.09.2006; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Algorithms; Applied sciences; Approximation; Attacks; Authentication; Computer Graphics; Computer Security; counterattacks; Cryptography; Data mining; Data security; Deformation; Distortion; Exact sciences and technology; geometrical distortions; Geometrical optics; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted - methods; Image motion analysis; Image processing; image watermarking; Information Storage and Retrieval - methods; Information, signal and communications theory; Insertion; Messages; Miscellaneous; Optical distortion; optical flow; Optical modulation; Patents as Topic; Pattern Recognition, Automated - methods; Payloads; Product Labeling - methods; Reproducibility of Results; resynchronization; Robustness; self-similarities; Sensitivity and Specificity; Signal and communications theory; Signal processing; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; stirmark; Telecommunications and information theory; Translations; Watermarking; Motion estimation; Useful information; Image processing; image watermarking; resynchronization; self-similarities; geometrical distortions; Affine transformation; Algorithm; Selfsimilarity; Information protection; stirmark; Fixed image; Signal processing; counterattacks; Robustness; Attacks; Optical flow; Digital watermarking
• ISSN: 1057-7149; 1941-0042
• DOI: 10.1109/TIP.2006.877311

Geometrical distortions are the Achilles heel for many watermarking schemes. Most countermeasures proposed in the literature only address the problem of global affine transforms (e.g., rotation, scaling, and translation). In this paper, we propose an original blind watermarking algorithm robust to local geometrical distortions such as the deformations induced by Stirmark. Our method consists in adding a predefined additional information to the useful message bits at the insertion step. These additional bits are labeled as resynchronization bits or reference bits and they are modulated in the same way as the information bits. During the extraction step, the reference bits are used as anchor points to estimate and compensate for small local and global geometrical distortions. The deformations are approximated using a modified basic optical flow algorithm