Semi-automatic registration of videos for improved watermark detection

Virtually every video watermarking technology can benefit from comparison with the original content. For non-blind schemes it is fundamental; for others it is an improvement to increase the watermark's signal-to-noise ratio by subtracting the content that is often noise to the detector. A direct frame-by-frame comparison of the videos is not possible due to the fact that illegal copies of videos usually differ significantly from their originals caused by different spatial resolution or frame rates, geometric distortions from capturing, or targeted attacks. In this paper, we present a software tool that enables the semi-automatic temporal and spatial synchronization of frames and pixels of two similar videos. This process is called registration. We put our focus on utilizing human capabilities with the smallest possible effort, to allow a high overall performance and precision of the registration. An efficient graphical user interface supports the users and visualizes the results of all steps. In addition, we specifically distinguish digitally reproduced copies from analog (camcorded) copies in which two or more frames are blended into a new frame.

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