Abstract
Embedding multiple watermarks into a digital object enables multiple purposes to be realized. In this paper, we present a multi-party watermark embedding framework based on frequency-hopping sequences (FHSs). In the proposed work, a certain number of FHSs are generated in advance and then randomly assigned to multiple users. Each user uses an assigned FHS to embed his own watermark data into the cover object by slightly modifying the content. In this way, the resulting marked object containing multiple watermarks can be put into use. During the phase of watermark verification, each user can extract his own watermark from the marked object with the corresponding FHS without interacting with other users. Since the used FHSs can result in a very low number of element collisions, the probability of altering the same content within the digital object would be low, meaning that, the error rate of data extraction for each user will be low. Moreover, if the digital object was modified, the embedded information can be still retrieved as the FHSs provide high randomness. Experimental results have shown that, our work enables the multiple users to reliably extract their own watermark information for verification even the marked object was maliciously attacked, which verifies the superiority.
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Acknowledgements
This work was partly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61901096 and 61902235), the High Level Talent Research Starting Project in University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Zhongshan Institute (Grant No. 417YKQ06), the Shanghai “Chen Guang” Project (Grant No. 19CG46), and the Project of Zhongshan Science and Technology Bureau (Grant No. 2018B1122).
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This article belongs to the Topical Collection: Sequences and Their Applications III
Guest Editors: Chunlei Li, Tor Helleseth and Zhengchun Zhou
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Zhou, L., Wu, H. Multi-party watermark embedding with frequency-hopping sequences. Cryptogr. Commun. 14, 307–318 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12095-021-00517-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12095-021-00517-8