Digital Watermarking Tutorial

Digital Watermarking is the process of inserting a distinct pattern of bits into intellectual property in a digital format in an effort to prevent it from being copied or stolen.  Whether it be audio, video, or even an image, watermarking allows the media to be copyrighted. In this day-and-age with the growth of the Internet, and everything turning towards digital formatting, it has become much easier for file sharing to occur.  Therefore, in an effort to protect peoples creations and rights to their own original works, the ability to be able to copyright has grown evermore prevalent. If you are interested in learning how to watermark and of your pictures, I have copied a YouTube Video below that will serve as a helpful tutorial. 

Watermark Tutorial

The first application of digital marketing is in copyright protection systems which is intended to prevent unauthorized copying of digital media.  In this use the watermark is scanned and depending on the information in the watermark it is either allowed to be copied or not.  A second application is in source tracing.  Source tracing allows a watermark to be embedded into a work at each point of distribution which allows the journey of the particular medium to be traced.  Each copy that is made and distributed is recorded and therefore any illegal copies made can be detected.  Often times, bootleg movies are detected this way.

The first kind of watermarking, the one that has become more and more popular within the online forum today, is known as invisible digital watermarking. In invisible, the copyright is added to the media but it is unable to be seen, or in the case of audio, unable to be heard.  In order to remain unperceived, the watermark bits must be scattered throughout the file in such a way that they cannot be identified and manipulated.  Another thing that is important in invisible watermarking is that the bits must be resistant enough to withstand lossy compressions.  If they were able to be deleted in a simple manipulation of the file, the copyright would be no longer and the work would not be protected.

The image is watermarked but cannot be seen by the naked eye

           

              The second kind of watermarking is known as visible digital watermarking.  This is rather self-explanatory as it is when the actual watermark information appears in or on the work itself.  A good example of this is seen below.

The font on the bottom right hand corner is the visible watermark.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope that this blog post has been helpful and has taught you a little bit more about the process of digital watermarking!!

Excel Project

   When I first read through the instructions for this project, my first thoughts were "I'm going to fail."   Considering the fact that I knew very little about Microsoft Excel, the pages of instructions and tasks that I needed to complete seemed extremely daunting.  However, as I watched the lectures that featured the Excel tutorials, and experimented with the program on my own, I slowly began to realize that I could in fact complete the project and do a satisfactory job doing so.

   The basic functions that were the beginning steps of the project such as adding rows and columns, formatting the font, and manipulating the data were things that I could figure out on my own and were relatively self-explanatory.  However, as I approached the part of the project where we had to create formulas, I realized that it was all uncharted territory.  The very basic formulas were not very challenging to make, and it got easier to do it quickly with practice, but it was the complex ones that took me a long time to figure out and do correctly.  The formula that was most frustrating for me to create was the "Target Achieved" column.  After a few failed attempts at trying it on my own, I finally had to refer back to the lectures and then even had to Google the information.  After watching the part of the lecture three straight times, I finally understood how to do it and was able to enter the information into my worksheet.  I felt accomplished and will know how to do this formula from now on!

   Pivot tables were another challenge but relatively easy to manage.  I found putting the information into the pivot tables to be relatively simple, however, formatting the pivot tables was challenging and I had to refer back to the lectures quite a bit to get all of the necessary steps done.  Overall, I think that this project was very useful and taught me a lot about Excel.  The fact that I had to refer back to lectures to get specific information about how to do something and even look up on the internet at points made the information stick.  I am confident that I will be able to complete similar Excel procedures in my future endeavors all thanks to this activity.  This particular project was a great learning experience that will be very useful in time to come.