Interleaved Watermarking for Video Identification Security
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing interleaved watermarking systems are vulnerable to attacks where attackers can filter out watermark variants without significantly degrading video playback, compromising the security of end-user device identification.
Innovation Solution
The system selects critical video elements and moves them to variant series, including watermark variants and decoys, ensuring that an attacker filtering out variants also loses essential video data, and uses statistical masking to obscure patterns, making it difficult for attackers to distinguish between watermark and critical elements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If watermark variants are embedded in selectable video data at the broadcast headend, then end-user device identification security is improved, but attackers can filter out watermark variants without significantly degrading video playback
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges critical video elements with watermark variants by moving critical elements to the variant series. This combination ensures that watermark variants and critical video elements are transmitted together in the same data stream, so that filtering out watermark variants also filters out essential video data, thereby degrading video playback quality and discouraging attacker actions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces statistical masking as an intermediary mechanism between watermark variants and attackers. By applying statistical masking to the video data, the system obscures patterns that would otherwise reveal the presence or location of watermark variants, making it difficult for attackers to identify and filter them without degrading video quality.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If critical video elements are moved to variant series with watermark variants, then video playback degradation is increased for attackers, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the variant series serve multiple functions simultaneously: they carry watermark variants for identification, contain critical video elements for playback integrity, and implement statistical masking for security. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate systems and components, thereby managing complexity while achieving multiple security and quality objectives.
3Difficulty of detecting and measuring
If statistical masking is applied to obscure patterns, then watermark detection difficulty for attackers is improved, but processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies statistical masking by modifying parameters of the video data, such as adjusting statistical properties like mean, variance, or higher-order moments of pixel values. These parameter changes obscure the patterns containing watermark information while maintaining visual quality, providing security without requiring complex transformations or additional energy-intensive processing.
Data Source
AI summary
In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a processor to receive a primary video, select first sections of the primary video in which to include units of data for use in watermarking, select second sections of the primary video, each second section including a first data item without which at least one video unit of the primary video cannot be rendered or rendered correctly, replace each first section with at least two watermark variants, replace each second section with at least two watermark variant decoys, wherein the apparatus is operative to operate in an environment including an end-user device operative to select one of the watermark variants for each first section and one of the watermark variant decoys for each second section for rendering as part of an interleaved video stream including the primary video in order to embed units of data of an identification in the interleaved video stream.