CAREER: Signal Processing Approaches for Multimedia Security and Information Protection

认识到信息技术时代的优势，离不开多媒体数据的安全与保护的保障，本项目重点研究通过多媒体加密和数据嵌入两种互补的信号处理技术，对多媒体安全和信息保护进行研究。多媒体加密的主要功能是保护机密性，从而进行访问控制，而数据嵌入或数字水印则是如何将一组难以察觉的数据与主机媒体无缝地关联起来。即使在解密之后，也可以使用嵌入的数据来完成所有权验证或身份验证。这个项目的研究部分包括三个部分。研究者首先通过设计和分析基于信号处理的加密算法，探索了在三种不同级别的威胁下对内容机密性的保护，这些算法计算效率高，易于与有损通信兼容。此外，研究了基于分层算法体系结构的多媒体数据隐藏新难题，并开发了软件测试平台。最后，该项目研究了加密和数据隐藏的联合使用以及它们之间的相互作用，以提供全面的保护。这个计划的教育部分集中于两个主题，即利用多媒体作为一个强大的工具，提高多媒体教育的生产力，以及通过精心设计的项目，为学生提供实践经验，使他们为将来加入资讯科技的技术力量做好准备。除了课程开发之外，研究者还特别努力培养代表性不足的学生，特别是年轻女性，并吸引他们进入EE/CS学科。

Min WuU of MD College Park0133704Having recognized that the advantages offered by the information technology era cannot be fully deployed without the guarantee on the security and protection of multimedia data, this project focuses on the investigation of multimedia security and information protection through two types of complementary signal processing techniques, namely, multimedia encryption and data embedding. The main function of multimedia encryption is to protect the confidentiality and thus performs access control, while data embedding or digital watermarking concerns how to associate a set of imperceptible data with the host media in a seamless way. The embedded data can be used to accomplish ownership verification or authentication evenafter decryption.The research component of this project involves three parts. The investigator first explores the protection of content confidentiality under three different levels of threats by designing and analyzing signal processing based encryption algorithms that are computationally efficient and easily compatible with lossy communications. In addition, new challenging problems of multimedia data hiding are studied based on alayered algorithmatic architecture, and a software testbed is developed. Finally, the project investigates the joint use of encryption and data hiding as well as their interplay for providing comprehensive protection.The educational component of this project focuses on two themes, namely, using multimedia as a powerful tool to enhance the productivity of multimedia education, and using carefully designed projects to providestudents with hands-on experience that will well prepare them for joining the future technical force of information technology. In addition to the curriculum development, the investigator makes special effort to nurture the under-represented students especially young women and to attract them to step into the EE/CS disciplines.