Martin Kutter

Bio: Martin Kutter is an academic researcher from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. The author has contributed to research in topics: Digital watermarking & Watermark. The author has an hindex of 18, co-authored 23 publications receiving 4451 citations.

Multimedia watermarking techniques

Abstract: Multimedia watermarking technology has evolved very quickly during the last few years. A digital watermark is information that is imperceptibly and robustly embedded in the host data such that it cannot be removed. A watermark typically contains information about the origin, status, or recipient of the host data. In this tutorial paper, the requirements and applications for watermarking are reviewed. Applications include copyright protection, data monitoring, and data tracking. The basic concepts of watermarking systems are outlined and illustrated with proposed watermarking methods for images, video, audio, text documents, and other media. Robustness and security aspects are discussed in detail. Finally, a few remarks are made about the state of the art and possible future developments in watermarking technology.

Fair benchmark for image watermarking systems

Abstract: Since the early 90s a number of papers on 'robust' digital watermarking systems have been presented but none of them uses the same robustness criteria. This is not practical at all for comparison and slows down progress in this area. To address this issue, we present an evaluation procedure of image watermarking systems. First we identify all necessary parameters for proper benchmarking and investigate how to quantitatively describe the image degradation introduced by the watermarking process. For this, we show the weaknesses of usual image quality measures in the context watermarking and propose a novel measure adapted to the human visual system. Then we show how to efficiently evaluate the watermark performance in such a way that fair comparisons between different methods are possible. The usefulness of three graphs: 'attack vs. visual-quality,' 'bit-error vs. visual quality,' and 'bit-error vs. attack' are investigated. In addition the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) graphs are reviewed and proposed to describe statistical detection behavior of watermarking methods. Finally we review a number of attacks that any system should survive to be really useful and propose a benchmark and a set of different suitable images.

Digital signature of color images using amplitude modulation

Abstract: Watermarking techniques, also referred to as digital signature, sign images by introducing changes that are imperceptible to the human eye but easily recoverable by a computer program. Generally, the signature is a number which identifies the owner of the image. The locations in the image where the signature is embedded are determined by a secret key. Doing so prevents possible pirates from easily removing the signature. Furthermore, it should be possible to retrieve the signature from an altered image. Possible alternations of signed images include blurring, compression and geometrical transformations such as rotation and translation. These alterations are referred to as attacks. A new method based on amplitude modulation is presented. Single signature bits are multiply embedded by modifying pixel values in the blue channel. These modifications are either additive or subtractive, depending on the value of the bit, and proportional to the luminance. This new method has shown to be resistant to both classical attacks, such as filtering, and geometrical attacks. Moreover, the signature can be extracted without the original image.

Towards second generation watermarking schemes

Abstract: The digital watermarking schemes of today use pixels (samples in the case of audio), frequency or other transform coefficients to embed the information. The drawback of such schemes is that the watermark is not embedded in the perceptually significant portions of the data. We refer to such techniques as first generation watermarking schemes. In this paper we introduce the concept of second generation watermarking schemes which, unlike first generation watermarking schemes, employ the notion of data features. We propose a scheme based on point features in images using a scale interaction technique based on 2D continuous wavelets. The features are used to compute a Voronoi partition of the image. The watermark is embedded in each segment using spread spectrum watermarking. In the recovery process the same features are detected, and again used to partition the image. Then the watermark is extracted from each segment separately.

Digital watermarking of color images using amplitude modulation

Abstract: Keywords: LTS1 Reference LTS-ARTICLE-1998-011doi:10.1117/1.482648View record in Web of Science Record created on 2006-06-14, modified on 2016-08-08

Digital Watermarking

Abstract: Digital watermarking is a key ingredient to copyright protection. It provides a solution to illegal copying of digital material and has many other useful applications such as broadcast monitoring and the recording of electronic transactions. Now, for the first time, there is a book that focuses exclusively on this exciting technology. Digital Watermarking covers the crucial research findings in the field: it explains the principles underlying digital watermarking technologies, describes the requirements that have given rise to them, and discusses the diverse ends to which these technologies are being applied. As a result, additional groundwork is laid for future developments in this field, helping the reader understand and anticipate new approaches and applications.

Information hiding-a survey

Abstract: Information-hiding techniques have recently become important in a number of application areas. Digital audio, video, and pictures are increasingly furnished with distinguishing but imperceptible marks, which may contain a hidden copyright notice or serial number or even help to prevent unauthorized copying directly. Military communications systems make increasing use of traffic security techniques which, rather than merely concealing the content of a message using encryption, seek to conceal its sender, its receiver, or its very existence. Similar techniques are used in some mobile phone systems and schemes proposed for digital elections. Criminals try to use whatever traffic security properties are provided intentionally or otherwise in the available communications systems, and police forces try to restrict their use. However, many of the techniques proposed in this young and rapidly evolving field can trace their history back to antiquity, and many of them are surprisingly easy to circumvent. In this article, we try to give an overview of the field, of what we know, what works, what does not, and what are the interesting topics for research.

Quantization index modulation: a class of provably good methods for digital watermarking and information embedding

Abstract: We consider the problem of embedding one signal (e.g., a digital watermark), within another "host" signal to form a third, "composite" signal. The embedding is designed to achieve efficient tradeoffs among the three conflicting goals of maximizing the information-embedding rate, minimizing the distortion between the host signal and composite signal, and maximizing the robustness of the embedding. We introduce new classes of embedding methods, termed quantization index modulation (QIM) and distortion-compensated QIM (DC-QIM), and develop convenient realizations in the form of what we refer to as dither modulation. Using deterministic models to evaluate digital watermarking methods, we show that QIM is "provably good" against arbitrary bounded and fully informed attacks, which arise in several copyright applications, and in particular it achieves provably better rate distortion-robustness tradeoffs than currently popular spread-spectrum and low-bit(s) modulation methods. Furthermore, we show that for some important classes of probabilistic models, DC-QIM is optimal (capacity-achieving) and regular QIM is near-optimal. These include both additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels, which may be good models for hybrid transmission applications such as digital audio broadcasting, and mean-square-error-constrained attack channels that model private-key watermarking applications.

[서평]「Applied Cryptography」

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to give a comprehensive introduction to applied cryptography with an engineer or computer scientist in mind. The emphasis is on the knowledge needed to create practical systems which supports integrity, confidentiality, or authenticity. Topics covered includes an introduction to the concepts in cryptography, attacks against cryptographic systems, key use and handling, random bit generation, encryption modes, and message authentication codes. Recommendations on algorithms and further reading is given in the end of the paper. This paper should make the reader able to build, understand and evaluate system descriptions and designs based on the cryptographic components described in the paper.

Digital Watermarking and Steganography

Abstract: Digital audio, video, images, and documents are flying through cyberspace to their respective owners. Unfortunately, along the way, individuals may choose to intervene and take this content for themselves. Digital watermarking and steganography technology greatly reduces the instances of this by limiting or eliminating the ability of third parties to decipher the content that he has taken. The many techiniques of digital watermarking (embedding a code) and steganography (hiding information) continue to evolve as applications that necessitate them do the same. The authors of this second edition provide an update on the framework for applying these techniques that they provided researchers and professionals in the first well-received edition. Steganography and steganalysis (the art of detecting hidden information) have been added to a robust treatment of digital watermarking, as many in each field research and deal with the other. New material includes watermarking with side information, QIM, and dirty-paper codes. The revision and inclusion of new material by these influential authors has created a must-own book for anyone in this profession. *This new edition now contains essential information on steganalysis and steganography *New concepts and new applications including QIM introduced *Digital watermark embedding is given a complete update with new processes and applications