Lossless and High Robust Watermarking of Electronic Chart for Copyright Protection

Abstract

With the progression of sea exploration and offshore engineering, electronic charts have come to see widespread use in many intelligent applications. Like other digital products, electronic charts are easy to duplicate and distribute. Some watermarking solutions have proven defective to prevent copying of electronic charts because it’s as easy to forge as it is to redistribute. If the problems of copyright infringement cannot be solved, the creation of these electronic charts will be limited. The most important characteristic of electronic charts is the topological relationships among vertices, but few algorithms can control this feature. A new watermarking algorithm is here proposed as a means of copyright protection, in which the watermarks will be hosted in the electronic chart by taking into account the preservation of the topology. Sometimes, additional vertices are inserted into the middle of two adjacent vertices, sometimes not, which are governed by the value of the watermark. Experiments show that the improved algorithm is better than similar algorithms; it was found to resist geometric attacks and format exchange attacks.