# Towards Imperceptible Watermarking Via Environment Illumination for Consumer Cameras

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.17114 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.17114/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 7 of its 34 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 20 Oct 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [ActiveStereoNet: End-to-End Self-Supervised Learning for Active Stereo Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.06009/) (2018)
- [OmniGuard: Hybrid Manipulation Localization via Augmented Versatile Deep Image Watermarking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.01615/) (2024)
- [CCMNet: Leveraging Calibrated Color Correction Matrices for Cross-Camera Color Constancy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.07959/) (2025)
- [Designing Color Filters that Make Cameras MoreColorimetric](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.12645/) (2020)
- [A Dark Flash Normal Camera](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.06125/) (2020)
- [Dispersed Structured Light for Hyperspectral 3D Imaging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.18287/) (2023)
- [Dense Dispersed Structured Light for Hyperspectral 3D Imaging of Dynamic Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.01140/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper introduces a method for using LED-based environmental lighting to produce visually imperceptible watermarks for consumer cameras. Our approach optimizes an LED light source's spectral profile to be minimally visible to the human eye while remaining highly detectable by typical consumer cameras. The method jointly considers the human visual system's sensitivity to visible spectra, modern consumer camera sensors' spectral sensitivity, and narrowband LEDs' ability to generate broadband spectra perceived as "white light" (specifically, D65 illumination). To ensure imperceptibility, we employ spectral modulation rather than intensity modulation. Unlike conventional visible light communication, our approach enables watermark extraction at standard low frame rates (30-60 fps). While the information transfer rate is modest-embedding 128 bits within a 10-second video clip-this capacity is sufficient for essential metadata supporting privacy protection and content verification.