A generic digital watermarking model

Abstract This paper presents a generic model of digital watermarking techniques based on the following principles: steganography, spread spectrum communications technology, and perceptibility restriction and noise theory. Concepts and functional modules are developed in this paper to describe an abstract scheme of digital watermarking methods. This generic model provides a common basis to study many existing watermarking systems and to evaluate their performance and characteristics. A variety of watermarking methods can be derived from this generic model and several of them are discussed in this paper.