\ Quality assessment of watermarked 3D polygonal models

In this paper, we present the design and results of subjective tests for evaluating the perceptibility of digital watermarks in 3D polygonal models. Based on the results we investigate different types of metrics with respect to their usefulness as predictors for the perceived visual quality of models that have been modified using a specific watermarking algorithm. We describe two experiments with models that have been watermarked using controlled free form deformations. The first experiment was conducted in supervised mode with still images of rendered models as stimuli and used the Two Alternative Forced Choice (2AFC) method. The second experiment was based on animated sequences and run in 2AFC mode with additional ratings of the perceived differences, but without assistance by the experimenter. We present a transparency analysis of the results and investigate the ability of image-based and geometry-based metrics to predict the perceived quality of the watermarked models. Our results show that the effectiveness of prediction depends on the type of model and in particular on the feature positions selected by the watermarking algorithm. The results of previous experiments with simplified polygonal models are confirmed, in that geometric measures are good predictors of quality ratings. We found that the symmetric Haussdorf distance is a promising candidate to evaluate the visual impact of the watermarking algorithm used in our experiments.