ELECTRONIC WATERMARK EMBEDDING METHOD

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic watermark embedding method taking into account characteristics of the human sight. SOLUTION: When embedding an electronic watermark, a density of image data in a processing region is investigated. In accordance with the density of the image data in the processing region, control is performed as follows. Namely, densities of respective colors of Y (yellow), M (magenta), C (cyan) and K (black) are detected. The electronic watermark is not embedded in low-density and high-density components, among respective components. The color of a medium density is selected and the electronic watermark is embedded therein. According to the control, an image can be produced in which the electronic watermark is embedded in the medium-density component that is hard to detect for the human sight. COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT