- Despite the fact that all conversions are performed
with a given accuracy and almost invisible to the
legitimate user, any distortion of the map gives an
attacker the opportunity to detect the presence of the
embedded watermark even without knowing the
watermarking scheme, i.e. by using blind
steganalysis.
- When embedding and extracting the watermark, a
set of map objects must be strictly ordered. Since the
location of objects on the map is quite random, there
is a need to store extra identifiers for objects or
watermark positions.
The embedding approach, we proposed earlier in
(Vybornova and Sergeev, 2019), allows to avoid the
above disadvantages. First, the method does not
imply a change in vertex coordinates: the protective
information is embedded into cartographic data by
cyclically shifting the list of vertices of each
polygon. Secondly, instead of a bit sequence we
consider a raster image superimposed on a vector
map as a digital watermark, so there is no need to fix
the object indexation order when embedding and
extraction procedures. Consequently, this approach
to vector map protection can form the basis for a
whole group of methods, focused on specific tasks,
such as copyright, authenticity and integrity
protection of map data, as well as localization of
unauthorized changes introduced into a vector map.
In this paper, we propose a specific way of using
a noise-like image as a secondary carrier for the
watermark presented in the conventional form of a
bit sequence, and also we explore the issue of the
information capacity of such a carrier.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In
Section 2, the basic approach, which we developed
earlier, is presented. Also, this section describes in
detail a new enhanced approach. Section 3
comprises experimental research of the proposed
method for model and real data. Section 4 provides
general conclusions and the main issues of the future
work.
2 METHODS
2.1 Original Watermarking Method
for Vector Maps
The basic watermarking method for vector
cartographic data, that we proposed in (Vybornova
and Sergeev, 2019), is based on the following
features of polygonal map objects:
a) all polygons are closed shapes;
b) the polygon vertices are numbered
consecutively.
These properties provide the ability to cyclically
shift the indices of all vertices in the polygon vertex
list, without changing the coordinate values, that is,
avoiding the introduction of distortions into the
vector map contents.
The first idea of the method (Vybornova and
Sergeev, 2019) is that the digital watermark is
embedded into data by cyclically shifting the list of
vertices of each polygon. For example, to embed one
watermark bit into each polygon, a polygon vertex
list can be shifted in such a way as to change the
first element in the list to either the uppermost
(north) or the lowermost (south) vertex, depending
on the value of the watermark bit. To embed two
watermark bits into the polygon, the leftmost (west)
and rightmost (east) vertices should be also taken
into consideration. In general, an n-bit binary
number can be embedded into each polygon. It
should be noted that for a fixed first vertex of the
list, there is an opportunity to embed an additional
watermark bit into each polygon by altering the
direction of vertex traversal: clockwise or
counterclockwise, depending on the bit value.
The second idea of the method is to use a raster
image superimposed on a selected fragment of the
vector map as a watermark. Certainly, the vector
map does not provide an opportunity to place raster
data, but its objects (in our case, polygons) can be
mapped to the image in such a way as to
geometrically coincide with some pixels. The set of
pixels, corresponding to polygons, forms an
irregular grid, and thus the entire image can be
approximately restored by using one of the existing
interpolation methods (Vybornova, 2018).
2.2 Proposed Enhancement of Original
Method
In method (Vybornova and Sergeev, 2019), the
raster image itself is used as a robust watermark
providing copyright protection for a digital map.
Accordingly, the map authentication is performed by
visually matching the original watermark with the
image restored (usually with large errors) after
extracting from the vector map. So, this can be
regarded as an obvious limitation on the method
applicability.
Developing the basic method, we propose to use a
noise-like image as a secondary carrier for the
watermark, represented in the form of a bit sequence
(Glumov and Mitekin, 2010). This allows to
automate the map authentication procedure, since
Method for Vector Map Protection based on using of a Watermark Image as a Secondary Carrier
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