Intellectual Property and Internet Watermarks

IBM Research is doing some amazing work on protecting the intellectual property of Internet images through watermarks. The purpose of the watermark is to provide a secondary image which is overlaid translucently on the primary image that can be used to protect intellectual property or to provide authentication and validation of images. For example, this top image has embedded within it an invisible watermark (the image below) that identifies its origins. You can also use visible watermarks. For an example of a visible watermark, click here.