Wong et al.

: Adaptive Water Marking

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ADAPTIVE WATER MARKING

K. K. Wong, C. H. Tse, K. S. Ng, T. H. Lee and L. M. Cheng Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong 83, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong EELCHENGQcityu.edu.hk

Abstract

Watermark is an important protection and identification technique that allows invisible mark to be placed on top of normal information such as bank note, ID card, magnetic card and valuable documents. Watermarking techniques have been developed to protect digital images against illegal reproduction and illegal modifications when visibility to users is required. Here, we will present a new adaptive watermarking algorithm. The adaptive watermark is generated from the image content and can be treated as a digital fingerprint of the image. The proposed watermark is robust enough against any degradation, hacking and attack.

to add text on the images. However, this method will destroy image information permanently and is not suitable for engraving text on a small image. Techniques have to be developed in order to minimize the distortion to the image and at the same time provide protection to the visible images. Recently, watermarking algorithms [4,5] are proposed which are based on dividing an image into sub-blocks and by altering the DCT coefficients using encoded binary information. These transform-domain watermarking techniques suffer some inherited drawbacks related to the transform techniques. For example, the encoded binary information will be concentrated around the first pixel of the image sub-block. Hence, it can be easily removed or modified using filtering techniques in particular using content-based image filters [6]. In order to achieve these goals by adding copyright notice to an image without destroying the image visually and at the same time provide robust protection to the engraved messages in the images, a novel method based on adaptive digital watermark will be described. Such a watermark will embed some special information such as copyright announcement. By that mean, illegal copying and modifications are prohibited.

1. Introduction
Security concerns about digital data have grown to be a popular topic in these few years. As the exponential growth of computer users, huge data flows become a normal event around us. However, as the means and aims of communication method increase, people begin to use digital media to transmit valuable data through public accessible network. In order to protect valuable data against illegal access, various computer security methods based on encryption methods such as symmetric [ 1,2] and asymmetric encryption systems [3] are used. For digital images, encryption methods are less useful because the images must be visible on line and the data associated with them must not be scrambled. Security concern about digital images has grown, as published or web site digital images can be easily copied and are difficult to identify their copyrights and their originators. One simple method is
Contributed Paper

To enhance the robustness of the watermark, we propose to use the entire image content or information to generate the watermark within a sub-block, other than making use of the subblock localized information. The globally determined watermark pattern will resist to any attack since altering any part of the
@

Manuscript received April 30, 1997

0098 3063/97 $10.00 1997 IEEE

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Figure I : Adaptive Watermarking Algorithm

watermark will have little effect on the whole watermark change. Moreover, the watermark is globally determined based on the image content, a unique mark is generated that can be used as an electronic fingerprint. The theories and simulation results of the proposed adaptive scheme are described.

2. The Adaptive Watermark Algorithm

The adaptive watermark algorithm (Figure 1) aims to embed a self generated serial number or signature in an image instead of a predefined binary bi-directional or unidirectional message. The advantage of using a self generated serial number or signature is that the number is associated with the properties of the image and cannot be created otherwise. In our proposed algorithm, the image is first divided into NxN pixel blocks, here 8x8 pixel block is assumed. Each block is Discrete Cosine Transformed (DCT) where the DCT is given by [7,8]:

The resultant DCT coefficients F(u,v) are One of stored according a zigzag format [7]. the easiest ways to represent the image properties is to use the image content whereas the content can be quantified by using the signal variance where the variance o2 is defined as:

where

7 is the mean of the image.

N-IN-I 1=0 r=O

Since the term written as

N-IN-I

C ( f ( i , j ) - f 1 2 can be

? T +

--f

/=o 1=0

If applying a DCT to Equation ( 3 ) , the terms becomes

for u,v = O,l,. . ., N-1, where c(wj = 1/42 for w = O a n d c ( w ) = 1 forw # 1.

and

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(4)

and hence the variance in the Transform domain can be redefined as:

Assume the signal and noise are Gaussian distributed, the SNR can be redefined as ratio of signal variance osto noise variance On, i.e. SNR = 10 loglo (OJGn). Since the content or the AC energy of each image is unique, there will be a unique identification number generated for each image. This identity is embedded into the image block by block. The following steps will defined the selective process of the adaptive watermark algorithm. After ban image is divided into 8x8 blocks and discrete cosine transformed. The variances of all blocks, i.e.Eai, Ea2, ..., EaM, are calculated using the AC energy in Equation 6, where EaM is the AC energy of block M. From the AC Energies, we can calculate the maximum EaH and minimum EaL of image blocks, i.e.

where ?=k 6(0,0) and k is a constant and 6 is a delta function. The variance in Equation (2) can then be rewritten as:

u=v#o

where o2is proportional to AC energy Ea given by:

u=v#O

The AC energies Ea's can be used to quantify the image content in the transform domain instead of using variances. Depends on the amount of messages stored and the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the resultant image f' required, a threshold is decided. In practice, the threshold will be set such that the duplicated message or an error correction mechanism can also be included in order to increase its robustness and the resultant image must have the SNR required, where SNR is defined as:

The thresholds are desired based on the following equation:

TN =

(Ea, - Ea, 1N K

where P is the size of the entire image. The Coding Process is based on adding a signed integer E to all non-zero coefficients in the transformed image. The integer E is determined by the message content and the SNR required by the watermarking image.

where N=O, 1, ....., K-1 and K is the number of thresholds. Once the thresholds are found, an identity number is generated for each block by comparing the variance of block with the thresholds. If the block variance lies between TN and TN+l,a number N is assigned to that block. To rationalize the identity number, the number E in the range of {-(K-1)/2, -(K-1)/21,...0,...., (K-1)/2-1, K-1/2} with a decrements of (K-1)/2 is mapped into the threshold range so that the identity number is in a signed form. Therefore, the number is now ranged from -W2 to W2 instead of from 0 to K- 1. After the selection and mapping, the number created is used to assign the offset added to the non zero DCT coefficients of that selected block. This form can be used to estimate the bit length for the integer E used. Thus, for a resultant image of SNR equal to 40dB, the E'S is selected in a range of {-3,-2,-

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1,0,1,2,3). Since there are 7 different levels corresponded to a range from 0 to 6, a modulus 6 data can be used, i.e. 6d where d is number of bits in modulo 6 data. For a binary data of the form ASCII characters, the 3 bit length is required to store 7 bit length binary data. In general term, the bit length b required in modulo-m can be calculated using:
b =) int a + ; : ; [ -

Watxmark~d image i

ofigin$ Image
,,
. .

= number embed

Figure2: The extraction of Watermarked Identity number

If there are n blocks to be selected, total n/b characters can be assigned. If the coded transformed image is inversely transformed back to its image domain at this stage. It will suffer the same shortfall inherited in reference [5], i.e. the watermark of the image can be scrambled by filtering [6] as the watermark information is concentrated in the top leftmost corner of the image block, i.e. f(0,O). The watermark removed by filtering without a significant degradation of the image quality. To solve this problem, a randbm relocation of watermarked information is performed. The difference 6 of f(0,O) and f(0,O) is calculated. The new locations f(x,y) is calculated using a hash function and the content of the location f(x,y) is added with the difference 6. Here, a weak hash function similar to that of pseudo random number generator [8] or a strong hash function used by Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA) [2] can be used. A pseudo random number in the form of B,+l = a B, mod p is implemented, where B, are the block number storing the messages, a is the key best to be selected as prime number and p is the period.
To extract the watermark of the image (Figure 2), we carry out the first step with the

3. Simulations and Results

Here we used standard black and white images namely, Lenna, Pepper and Airplane of size 256 x 256 pixels with 256 gray level used for testing. So, 1024 subblock are created for each image. Figures 3) to 5 ) show the watermarked images of Lenna, Pepper and Airplane. Figures 3a), 4a) and 5a) show the original. Figures 3b), 4b) and 5b) show watermarked images with serial number range from -3 to +3. Figure 3c), 4c) and 5c) show watermarked images with serial number range from -6 to +6. Figure 3d), 4d) and 5d) show watermarked images with serial number range from -12 to +12. The Signal to Noise Ratios (SNRs) for the resultant images are shown in Table 1. The corresponding unique serial numbers coded with IS0 7818 U T A format are shown in Table 2.

watermarked image and subtract each DCT matrix from the corresponding block in the original. From the coefficients of the resulting matrix, we can find out the identification number in that block. Therefore, we can extract the embedded serial numbers easily.

Table 1: SNR of watermarked images

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a) Original

b) Len3

c) Len6

d) Len 12

Figure 3: Watermarked Image of Lenna

a) Original

b) Pep3

c) Pep6

d) Pep12

Figure 4: Watermarked Image of Pepper

a) Original

b) Air3

c) Air6

d) Air 12

Figure 5: Watermarked Image of Airplane

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I Pictures I The first 20 blocks serial number

I T,en?
Len6 Len12
Pen?

I
I

References NBS FIPs PUB 46, Data Encryption Standard, National Bureau of Standards, US Dept. of Commerce, Jan 1977. DES - Modes of operations, Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS), 81, National Bureau of Standards, US Dept. of Commerce, Jan 1980. IEEE P1363 Working Draft Standards for Public Key Encryption, IEEE Standards, Feb., 1997.

Pep12
Air3

I0024201 1000000000001 10483032100001001003 1 0 6 F 6 0 5 4 2 0 0 0 - 1 1-1-1 1 0 - 1 5 31111454554454435555 1843339A8AAA8A887ABBB G 8 8 87 J M H K L KI L H H F K M M N 53333333333333434333 I95555555555556666655 I IBABBBBBCBBBBDDCDDBB

I Air6
IAir12

Table 2: The first 20 blocks serial number

4. Conclusion

In this paper, we have outlined an algorithm to embed a nearly invisible watermark into an image, which the watermark is robust enough against decoding, hacking, degradation and statistical attack. Although it said to be nearly invisible, it is nearly impossible to find out the watermark visually, although for a careful observer. On the other hand, the watermark is unique to individual image, and will be destroy completely in case of small modification, which is a property to against hacking. Finally, since we are using transform-based algorithm to encode the information in the histogram domain, this information is robust enough against compression and ordinary image processing.
However, since our algorithm is irreversible, so an original copy of the image have to be stored in order to decode the watermark. Moreover , we have to store the signature value encoded, such as the serial number, in order to identify the correctness of the watermark.

R. B. Wolfgang and E. J. Delp, A Watermark for Digital Images, Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Image Processing, September 16-19, 1996, Lausanne, Switzerland.
J.J.K. Z . Ruanaidh, W.J. Dowling, F.M., Boland, Watermarking digital images for copyright protection, IEE Proc. Vis. Image Signal Process. Vol. 143, No. 4, August 1996 , pp.250-256. P.E. Trahanias, A.N. Venetsanopoulos, Vector Directional Filters - A new class of multichannel image processing filters, IEEE Trans. on Image Processing, Vol. 2, NO.4, Oct. 1993, pp 528 -534

K.R Rao, P. Yip, Discrete Cosine Transform - Algorithms, Advantages, Applications, Academic Press, 1990.
W. H. Chen and C. H. Smith, Adaptive

Coding of Monochrome and Color Images, IEEE Trans. Commun., COM25, pp.1285-1292, NOV.1977.

Wong et al.: Adaptive Water Marking Tin Ho Lee was born in Hong Kong in 1973. He obtained the Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in computer Engineering with Second Class Honours (upper division) in City university of Hong Kong in 1996. He is a MPhil student in the

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same institute. Mr. Lees research interests are in noisy speech processing, high-order statistics and Image Processing.

Kam Shing Ng was born in Hong Kong in 1973. He obtained the Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Information Technology with First Class Honours in City University of Hong Kong in 1996. He is currently a MPhil candidate at the same university. Mr. Ngs research interests include image processing, artificial neural network and 2D bar code.

Chi Hang Tse was born in Hong Kong in 1974. He obtained the Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Computer Engineering with Second Class Honours (upper division) in City University of Hong Kong in 1996. He is now studying in a MPhil degree in the same institute. Mr. Tses main research interest is in Computer Vision. He is also interested in Computer Graphics, speech processing and Image Processing.

Kin Kai Wong was born in Hong Kong in 1972. He obtained the Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Electronic Engineering with First Class Honours in City University of Hong Kong in 1996. He is currently a MPhil student in the City University of Hong Kong. Mr. Wongs research interest are Digital Signal Processing, Time-Frequency Analysis and Image Processing.

Dr. L. M. CHENG graduated at Kings College London (University of London) in 1976 with First Class Honours and obtained his PhD in the same university at 1982. He joined ERA technology and Logic Space and Defense Systems Ltd. at 1984 and 1986 respectively working on image processing projects. He joined City University of Hong Kong in 1989 and is now an Associate Professor in Electronic Engineering Department. His research interests are image processing, security and artificial neural network.