Text Watermarking via Unicode Segmentation and Control Characters
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional digital watermarks in text content are easily transformed or removed, making it difficult to track the use or distribution of digital content, as they do not provide robust protection against reformatting or modification.
Innovation Solution
A digital watermarking technique that embeds a sequence of codes, invisible to the human eye, into text content using Unicode encodings, which can be segmented and distributed throughout the content to enhance detection difficulty, and combines with control characters that affect neighboring characters to maintain the text's appearance while providing robust protection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional digital watermarks are embedded into text content, then marking and identification functions are achieved, but the watermarks are easily transformed or removed and do not provide robust protection
Solution Approach 1:
The watermark is divided into multiple segments that are distributed throughout the text content. Each segment is embedded at different locations, and the complete watermark can only be reconstructed when all segments are extracted and combined. This segmentation approach prevents easy removal or transformation of the watermark, as tampering with individual segments does not completely destroy the watermark information.
Solution Approach 2:
The watermark embedding system is nested within the text content structure, where watermark codes are embedded as part of the text data. The watermark information is concealed within the legitimate text content, allowing the text to serve dual purposes: conveying meaningful information and carrying watermark data. This nesting approach maintains text usability while providing robust watermark protection.
2Difficulty of detecting and measuring
If watermark codes are embedded into text content, then identification function is achieved, but detection of the watermark becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The watermark is segmented into multiple distributed codes embedded at different locations within the text content. This segmentation increases detection difficulty because the detector must locate and extract multiple dispersed segments, then reconstruct the complete watermark by combining them. The segmented approach conceals the watermark better while maintaining its identifiability through proper reconstruction algorithms.
3Reliability
If control characters are embedded to affect text appearance, then watermark robustness is improved, but the text content appearance is altered
Solution Approach 1:
Control characters are embedded at specific local positions within the text content where they affect only local character rendering. By strategically placing control characters at targeted locations rather than uniformly throughout the text, the system achieves watermark robustness through localized effects while minimizing overall impact on text readability and appearance.
Data Source
AI summary
Improved watermarking techniques for text content are disclosed. An example methodology implementing the techniques includes selecting a sequence of text characters to form a watermark and representing at least one text character of the sequence of text characters by a code which, when inserted into text content, does not affect the appearance of the text content. The methodology also includes embedding the code which represents the at least one text character of the watermark into text content so that the code enables identification of the at least one text character upon extraction of the code from the text content.