Re‐shooting Resistant Blind Watermarking Framework Based on Feature Separation With Gaussian Mixture Model

Watermarking is a technology to embed digital data into a digital image. In particular, blind watermarking is expected to ensure the authenticity and/or accountability of digital images without compromising the visual impression of viewing. A re‐shooting resistant blind watermarking method is proposed in this study. This method uses the features of a given image to select regions, which are modified to embed digital data. As the proposed embedding process preserves these image features, no markers are required to extract the embedded data from the watermarked image. Furthermore, based on the estimation of the watermarked image region, the method crops the re‐shot image before the extraction. Therefore, the proposed method works, even if the re‐shot image includes the outer area surrounding the watermarked image region. Moreover, the proposed method compensates for the geometric transformation of the re‐shot image based on the definition of the coordinate system, which is based on the distribution of the image feature points. Therefore, the proposed method works when the re‐shot image is taken diagonally in front of the watermarked image. Experimental results validated that the proposed method can extract the embedded digital data from re‐shot images of a watermarked image under considerable conditions of re‐shooting. © 2021 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.