User-friendly digital watermark extraction using semi-transparent image

A user-friendly digital watermark extraction method is proposed in this paper. Watermark in analog paper such as paper currency can be extracted by simply transmitting the light through the paper. On the other hand, most existing digital watermarking methods require an extraction program. However, ordinary people cannot verify the validity of an extraction program. Moreover, most of them are black-box in order to protect formerly embedded images which may be analyzed by reverse engineering. The proposed digital watermarking can be extracted by any people with no special skill, knowledge, nor tools. Only a web browser without JavaScript or Flash, and a filtering image are needed. We have evaluated robustness and perceptual evaluation of the proposed method which provide an effective result.