AnnoWaNO: An annotation watermarking framework

In this paper we visit annotation watermarking as a tool to embed information about a cover or parts thereof in the cover. We describe a framework for image annotation watermarking, especially Nested Object Annotation Watermarking. This was introduced in earlier works to embed not only textual and/or semantic descriptions as annotations but also their relationships with each other. The framework describes in a formalized manner how to deal with annotations, overlapping multiple watermarks, and how to express semantic relationships between the annotations. Based on this, our watermarking algorithm is presented, extended by support of image hashing and cover pre-conditioning. Further, we present three application scenarios: annotations for technical manuals, digital long-term preservation and medical images. For these parameter recommendations are derived.