Hardware Implementations of Image/Video Watermarking Algorithms

Abstract

Digital watermarking is a process in which a secondary pattern or signature, called a watermark, is hidden into a digital media (e.g., image and video) such that it can be detected or extracted later for different intentions. Digital watermarking has many applications including copyright protection, authentication, tamper detection, and embedding of electronic patient records in medical images. Various software implementations of digital watermarking algorithms can be built. While software implementations can address digital watermarking in off-line applications, they cannot meet the requirements of many applications. For example, in consumer electronic devices, a software solution would be very expensive. This has motivated the development of hardware implementations of digital watermarking. In this chapter, the authors present a detailed survey of existing hardware implementations of image and video watermarking algorithms. Fundamental design issues are discussed and special techniques exploited to enhance efficiency are identified. Future outlooks are also presented to address the challenges of hardware architecture design for image and video watermarking.