Perceptual watermarking for stereoscopic 3D image based on visual discomfort

Abstract

As 3D content including images and videos has been common and popular, the demand for copyright protection has been increased. To protect the copyright of 3D content, 3D image watermarking schemes have been proposed. Given that visual discomfort can occur in 3D content during the watermark embedding process due to binocular mismatch, unlike in 2D content, 3D watermarking schemes should consider visual discomfort because it can decrease the performance of the human vision system (HVS). In this paper, a perceptual watermarking scheme for stereoscopic 3D images considering the issue of visual discomfort is introduced. The proposed scheme analyses the factors that cause visual discomfort during the watermark embedding process. In order to minimize visual discomfort and prevent quality degradation, perceptual masking using an occluded map and a defocused map is applied. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme offers low visual discomfort while preserving the robustness against attacks.