An image searching tool using wavelet watermarking
Date
2001
Authors
Toaxen, Eugen Solomon
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
New images and videos are added everyday and others are replaced or removed entirely. In order to search the visual information, a highly efficient automated system is needed that regularly traverses the Web detects the information embedded in images and processes it in such a way to allow for efficient and effective search and retrieval.
In this thesis we are trying a new approach: searching for embedded watermarks in the images. The watermark may contain a variety of information, and could serve different goals: for example, some image processing software may have the option to save an invisible watermark together with the image. The web crawler searches for the existence of the watermark, and the vendor of the image composer can get a measure of the usage of his product on the Web.
The watermark insertion is based on a wavelet transform and is realized in the transform domain. This thesis presents an improved technique of image watermarking adapted for Internet image searching. Results of the experiments of this watermarking scheme are also presented.
Also, we propose a framework named VkMark that could be used for generating watermarks, watermarking the images and searching for the images on the web. Instead of searching for image properties, contents, or similarity measures, VkMark searches for the watermark code.