Haptic Digital Watermarking

Usage of 3D data and models is receiving a growing interest for several applications, like training, museum displays, multimodal interfaces, aid for impaired people. In such a framework the need will soon raise to protect 3D data from misuse. Among the technologies that can be used to this aim, digital watermarking has a prominent role, due to its versatility and non-obtrusiveness. A basic requirement of any watermarking scheme is that the embedded code is invisible, or non-perceivable, by the end user of the data. This requirement also holds for 3D objects, it is then necessary that the human ability of perceiving a signal hidden in a 3D object is studied. Preliminary analyses aimed at comparing the perceptibility of the hidden signal when the 3D model is sensed through different senses, namely vision (through common rendering techniques and subsequent display on a monitor) and touch (through a haptic interface). Specifically our investigation aimed at assessing whether ensuring watermark invisibility is sufficient to ensure that the watermark presence can not be felt haptically. The answer stemming from our preliminary analyses seems to be no, even if further studies are still in progress.

Related publications:

  • A. Formaglio, S. Belloni, G. Menegaz, H.Z. Tan, D. Prattichizzo, M. Barni. Perceptibility of digital watermarking in haptically enabled 3D meshes. In Proceedings of Euro-Haptics Conference 2006, Paris. February 2006. [Bibtex]
  • S.Belloni, A. Formaglio, G. Menegaz, H.Z. Tan, D. Prattichizzo, M. Barni. Is Haptic Watermarking Worth It?. In Proceedings of IS&T/SPIE International Symposium on Electronic Imaging, Genuary, 2006.
  • D. Prattichizzo, M.Barni, H.Z.Tan, G.Menegaz, A. Formaglio, Perceptual Issues in Haptic Digital Watermarking. Submitted to Multimedia Magazine, December, 2005.

Publications by keywords

haptics, watermarking, perception.

Contacts

Acknowledments

We wish to thank the students Sara Belloni and Mario Mattei for their valuable collaboration in the scope of this project.