A novel approach to digital image watermarking based on a generalized secret sharing scheme

Abstract.

In the digital image watermarking community, the problem of joint ownership has not been adequately addressed. This paper proposes a novel algorithm that makes use of a generalized secret sharing scheme in cryptography to address this problem. Given that multiple owners create an image jointly, distinct keys are given to only an authorized group of owners so that only when all the members in the group present their keys can the ownership of the image be verified. Any owner alone cannot verify the image ownership. In addition, experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has the desired properties such as invisibility, reliable detection, and robustness against a wide range of image-processing operations.