The paper deals with the statistical analysis of the behaviour of a blind c
opyright protection watermarking system based on chaotic watermark signals
generated by n-way Bernoulli shift maps. The analysis involves theoretical
evaluation of the system detection reliability, when a correlator detector
is used. The effect of distortions (lowpass filtering, noise corruption of
the watermarked data) on the detection reliability is also theoretically in
vestigated. The system is modelled in a communication framework considering
the signal as interference and converting the addressed problem to the det
ection of the underlying watermark signal. The aim of the paper is two-fold
: (i) to introduce the n-way Bernoulli shift generated chaotic watermarks a
nd theoretically contemplate their properties with respect to the detection
reliability and (ii) to theoretically establish their potential superiorit
y against the widely used (pseudo-)random watermarks. An important property
of Bernoulli watermarks is their controllable spectral/correlation propert
ies that renders them ideal for a variety of applications. Bernoulli waterm
arks can be generated with lowpass spectral properties to withstand lowpass
attacks. When no distortions are to be inflicted, white spectrum Bernoulli
watermarks can be generated so that their performance converges to that of
the random watermarks. Experimental verification of the theoretical analys
is results has been performed as well. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All r
ights reserved.