Method and apparatus for embedding data, including watermarks, in human perceptible images

A computerized system for hiding input data having a plurality of bits within a host data representing a human-perceptible image comprising:

• a processor;
• a computer-readable medium;
• computer-executable instructions executed by the processor from the computer-readable medium comprising;
• segmenting the host data into a plurality of blocks;
• applying a discrete cosine transform (DCT) to each block of the host data to generate a frequency block corresponding to the block of host data;
• applying a perceptual mask to each frequency block;
• embedding each bit of the input data into a corresponding frequency block;
• and,
• applying and inverse DCT to each frequency block to generate the host data having the put data embedded therein.

A computer-readable medium having a computer program stored thereon to cause a suitably equipped computer to perform the method comprising:

• segmenting host data representing a human-perceptible image into a plurality of blocks;
• spreading each of a plurality of bits of input data by a signature after selecting a plurality of blocks of the host data;
• applying a discrete cosine transform (DCT) to each block of the host data to generate a frequency block corresponding to the block of host data;
• applying a perceptual mask to each frequency block;
• embedding each bit of the input data, as spread by the signature, into a corresponding frequency block;
• applying an inverse DCT to each frequency block to generate the host data having the input data embedded therein;
• and,
• applying a spatial mask to the host data having the input data embedded therein.

A computerized system for embedding a watermark into a host data representing a human-perceptible image comprising:

• a processor;
• a computer-readable medium;
• computer-executable instructions executed by the processor for the computer-readable medium comprising:
• segmenting the host data into a plurality of blocks;
• applying a discrete cosine transform (DCT) to each block of the host data to generate a frequency block corresponding to the block of host data;
• applying a perceptual mask to each frequency block;
• applying the DCT to each bit of a plurality of bits of the watermark;
• scaling each frequency block, as to which the perceptual mask has been applied, by a corresponding bit of the watermark, as to which the DCT has been applied, and by a spatially masked block corresponding to the frequency block, to generate an adder block corresponding to the frequency block;
• adding each frequency block with the adder block corresponding to the frequency block;
• applying an inverse DCT to each frequency block as has been added to with the adder block corresponding to the frequency block to generate a watermarked block of the host data corresponding to the frequency block;
• and,
• applying a spatial mask to each watermarked block to generate the spatially masked block corresponding to the frequency block to which the watermarked block corresponds;
• embedding each bit of the input data into a corresponding frequency block;
• and,
• applying an inverse DCT to each frequency block to generate the host data having the input data embedded therein.

A computer-readable medium having a computer program stored thereon to cause a suitably equipped computer to perform the method comprising:

• segmenting host data representing a human-perceptible image into a plurality of blocks;
• applying a discrete cosine transform (DCT) to each block of the host data to generate a frequency block corresponding to the block of host data;
• applying a preceptual mask to each frequency block;
• applying the DCT to each bit of a plurality of bits of a watermark;
• scaling the each frequency, as to which the perceptual mask has been applied, by a corresponding bit of the watermark, as to which the DCT has been applied, and by a spatially masked block corresponding to the frequency block, to generate an adder block corresponding to the frequency block;
• adding each frequency bock with the adder block corresponding to the frequency block;
• applying an inverse DCT to each frequency block as has been added to with the adder block corresponding to the frequency block to generate a watermarked block of the host data corresponding to the frequency block;
• and,
• applying a spatial mask to each watermarked block to generate the spatially masked block corresponding to the frequency block to which the watermarked block corresponds;
• embedding each bit of the input data into a corresponding frequency block;
• and
• applying an inverse DCT to each frequency block to generate the host data having the input data embedded therein.