The Neural Network Watermarking – Traceability (NNW-NNT) standard specifies methods to evaluate the performance of a Neural Network subjected to Active (watermarking) or Passive (Fingerprinting) traceability technology.

Robustness and Imperceptibility

A practical watermark must balance multiple requirements. NNW-NNT provides methods to evaluate:

  • Robustness, measuring the ability of a watermark to remain detectable after media processing, compression, editing, or other transformations.
  • Imperceptibility, measuring the extent to which embedding affects the quality and user perception of the media.
  • Reliability, measuring the accuracy of watermark detection and extraction under different operating conditions.

These evaluation procedures help developers optimise systems according to application requirements.

Open and Flexible Design

MPAI-NNW is based on simple principles: technology-neutral evaluation, objective performance metrics, reproducible testing procedures, and support for innovation. Developers can adopt different neural network architectures, embedding techniques, and detection methods while relying on a common framework to demonstrate performance and conformance.

Benefits

The NNW-NNT standard helps:

  1. Researchers and Developers to evaluate and compare watermarking technologies using common criteria.
  2. Technology Providers to demonstrate the robustness, efficiency, and quality of their solutions.
  3. Content Owners and Distributors to deploy trustworthy technologies for content identification, protection, and management.
  4. System Integrators to select watermarking solutions based on measurable and standardised performance indicators.
  5. Users and Regulators to rely on transparent evaluation methods and reproducible results.

Ultimately, NNW-NNT promotes a competitive ecosystem of interoperable neural network watermarking technologies by providing a common framework for assessing robustness, imperceptibility, reliability, and computational efficiency. This enables the deployment of trustworthy watermarking solutions across a broad range of digital media applications.