Mask Image Watermarking

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hu, Runyi, Zhang, Jie, Zhao, Shiqian, Lukas, Nils, Li, Jiwei, Guo, Qing, Qiu, Han, Zhang, Tianwei
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866917028573478912
author Hu, Runyi
Zhang, Jie
Zhao, Shiqian
Lukas, Nils
Li, Jiwei
Guo, Qing
Qiu, Han
Zhang, Tianwei
author_facet Hu, Runyi
Zhang, Jie
Zhao, Shiqian
Lukas, Nils
Li, Jiwei
Guo, Qing
Qiu, Han
Zhang, Tianwei
contents We present MaskWM, a simple, efficient, and flexible framework for image watermarking. MaskWM has two variants: (1) MaskWM-D, which supports global watermark embedding, watermark localization, and local watermark extraction for applications such as tamper detection; (2) MaskWM-ED, which focuses on local watermark embedding and extraction, offering enhanced robustness in small regions to support fine-grined image protection. MaskWM-D builds on the classical encoder-distortion layer-decoder training paradigm. In MaskWM-D, we introduce a simple masking mechanism during the decoding stage that enables both global and local watermark extraction. During training, the decoder is guided by various types of masks applied to watermarked images before extraction, helping it learn to localize watermarks and extract them from the corresponding local areas. MaskWM-ED extends this design by incorporating the mask into the encoding stage as well, guiding the encoder to embed the watermark in designated local regions, which improves robustness under regional attacks. Extensive experiments show that MaskWM achieves state-of-the-art performance in global and local watermark extraction, watermark localization, and multi-watermark embedding. It outperforms all existing baselines, including the recent leading model WAM for local watermarking, while preserving high visual quality of the watermarked images. In addition, MaskWM is highly efficient and adaptable. It requires only 20 hours of training on a single A6000 GPU, achieving 15x computational efficiency compared to WAM. By simply adjusting the distortion layer, MaskWM can be quickly fine-tuned to meet varying robustness requirements.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_12739
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Mask Image Watermarking
Hu, Runyi
Zhang, Jie
Zhao, Shiqian
Lukas, Nils
Li, Jiwei
Guo, Qing
Qiu, Han
Zhang, Tianwei
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
We present MaskWM, a simple, efficient, and flexible framework for image watermarking. MaskWM has two variants: (1) MaskWM-D, which supports global watermark embedding, watermark localization, and local watermark extraction for applications such as tamper detection; (2) MaskWM-ED, which focuses on local watermark embedding and extraction, offering enhanced robustness in small regions to support fine-grined image protection. MaskWM-D builds on the classical encoder-distortion layer-decoder training paradigm. In MaskWM-D, we introduce a simple masking mechanism during the decoding stage that enables both global and local watermark extraction. During training, the decoder is guided by various types of masks applied to watermarked images before extraction, helping it learn to localize watermarks and extract them from the corresponding local areas. MaskWM-ED extends this design by incorporating the mask into the encoding stage as well, guiding the encoder to embed the watermark in designated local regions, which improves robustness under regional attacks. Extensive experiments show that MaskWM achieves state-of-the-art performance in global and local watermark extraction, watermark localization, and multi-watermark embedding. It outperforms all existing baselines, including the recent leading model WAM for local watermarking, while preserving high visual quality of the watermarked images. In addition, MaskWM is highly efficient and adaptable. It requires only 20 hours of training on a single A6000 GPU, achieving 15x computational efficiency compared to WAM. By simply adjusting the distortion layer, MaskWM can be quickly fine-tuned to meet varying robustness requirements.
title Mask Image Watermarking
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.12739