A watermark for digital images

TLDR

The growth of networked multimedia systems has increased the need for image copyright protection, and digital watermarks—invisible structures added to images—are one approach to address this problem. The study introduces two techniques for invisibly marking images. The authors analyze the robustness of these watermarks against linear and nonlinear filtering and JPEG compression. The results show that our watermarks detect all but the most minute changes to the image.

Abstract

The growth of networked multimedia systems has magnified the need for image copyright protection. One approach used to address this problem is to add an invisible structure to an image that can be used to seal or mark it. These structures are known as digital watermarks. We describe two techniques for the invisible marking of images. We analyze the robustness of the watermarks with respect to linear and nonlinear filtering, and JPEG compression. The results show that our watermarks detect all but the most minute changes to the image.