Visible watermarks, the most common mechanism for protecting the copyrights of photographs, are logos or patterns that are overlaid on digital images. Photo: ReutersLos Angeles: Researchers at Google have created an algorithm that can erase watermarks from photos automatically, warning that pictures are vulnerable copyright violations even with superimposed logos used to protect them. Researchers developed a computer algorithm that can get past this protection and remove watermarks automatically, giving users unobstructed access to the clean images the watermarks are intended to protect. “The vulnerability of current watermarking techniques lies in the consistency in watermarks across image collections,” they added. Introducing random geometric perturbations to the watermark - warping it when embedding it in each image - can counter this vulnerability, researchers said.

Source: Mint August 20, 2017 08:48 UTC