Transparent robust image watermarking

TLDR

The paper proposes a watermarking scheme to embed copyright information invisibly within images. The scheme uses visual masking and a pseudo‑noise watermark filtered to match human visual frequency characteristics, making the watermark statistically invisible and robust. Experiments demonstrate robustness against white/colored noise, JPEG compression at various qualities, and cropping.

Abstract

We propose a watermarking scheme to hide copyright information in an image. The scheme employs visual masking to guarantee that the embedded watermark is invisible and to maximize the robustness of the hidden data. The watermark is constructed for arbitrary image blocks by filtering a pseudo-noise sequence (author id) with a filter that approximates the frequency masking characteristics of the visual system. The noise-like watermark is statistically invisible to deter unauthorized removal. Experimental results show that the watermark is robust to several distortions including white and colored noises, JPEG coding at different qualities, and cropping.