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Image Authentication: A Few Approaches Using
DigitalWatermarking
A digital Watermark is a digital signal or pattern
inserted into a digital image. Since this signal or pattern is present in
each unaltered copy of the original image, the digital Watermark may also
serve as a digital signature for the copies. The desirable characteristics
of a Watermark are
Watermark should be resilient to standard manipulations
of any nature.
It should be statistically irremovable
Every Watermarking system consists at least two
different parts:
1. Watermark Embedding Unit
2. Watermark Detection and Extraction Unit
Watermark in a still image. A robust, secure, invisible
Watermark is imprinted on the image I, and the Watermarked image WI, is
distributed. The author keeps the original image I. To prove that an image
WI' or a portion of it has been pirated, the author shows that W' contains
his Watermark (to this purpose, he could but does not have to use his
original image I). The best a pirate can do is to try to remove the
original Watermark (which is impossible if the Watermark is secure).
There can be another way out for the pirate, as to embed his signature in
the image. But this does not help him too much because both his
"original" and his Watermarked Image will contain the author's
Watermark (due to robustness property), while the author can present an
image without pirate's Watermark. Thus, the ownership of the image can be
resolved in the court of law.
We have done the implementation in MATLAB and doing the simulation in
C++..
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