Embedding Invisible Watermarks into Digital Images Based on Side-Match Vector Quantization

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Wu, Hsien-Chu | Chang, Chin-Chen

Affiliations: Department of Information Management, National Taichung Institute of Technology 129 Sec. 3, San-min Road, Taichung, Taiwan 404, R.O.C. | Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering National Chung Cheng University Chiayi, Taiwan, 621, R.O.C.

Abstract: This paper proposes an effective digital watermarking scheme to protect the intellectual property rights of digital images. This scheme embeds representative watermarks into images during the process of side-match vector quantization (SMVQ)@compresses and extracts the digital watermark effectively in order to determine the ownership of the image when a dispute over intellectual property rights occurs. The method proposed in this paper embeds a watermark based on the grouping of the codewords in a state codebook, and it stresses the fact that the SMVQ compressed image and the decompressed image both contain watermarks. In addition, the decompressed image has strong resistance against being damaged. Even under JPEG lossy compression, the watermark can still be restored effectively. The proposed method enables the watermark to be embedded directly into a compressed image that is much smaller than the original one. Once applied to the network, the method can save time in image transmission as well as storage space.

Keywords: digital watermarking technique, side-match vector quantization, intellectual property rights

Journal: Fundamenta Informaticae, vol. 63, no. 1, pp. 89-106, 2004