An H.264/AVC Video Watermarking Scheme in VLC Domain for Content Authentication

A semi-fragile content authentication algorithm is proposed for low bit-rate H.264/AVC video in VLC domain. Utilizing the intra prediction mode and coded block pattern in VLC domain, the proposed algorithm chooses those macro-blocks from which the signature is extracted and constructs content signature at macro-block level according to the relationship among the energies of quantized low-frequency coefficients of sub-macroblocks The signature is embedded by modifying the trailing coefficients. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm performs well in visual quality impact and keep the bit-rate basically unchanged. In addition, the algorithm can embed signatures into I, P, B slices simultaneously and remarkably enhances the watermark capacity. By verifying the extracted signature, the algorithm can detect and locate video tampering efficiently.