On Fingerprinting Images for Recognition

A central task in multimedia systems is image management (storage and retrieval). As information is disseminated across vast networks, such as the Internet, methods of locating authored media are desirable. Digital watermarks provide a means to embed copyright and other information for identification and tracking. However, many watermarking techniques are vulnerable to distortion. We provide a means to identify images based on salient features within an image; a “fingerprint” that survives affine distortions and can be used to recognize images.