UTILIZING EXTENSION CHARACTER ‘KASHIDA’ WITH POINTED LETTERS FOR ARABIC TEXT DIGITAL WATERMARKING

Abstract

This paper exploits the existence of the redundant Arabic extension character, i.e. Kashida. We propose to use pointed letters in Arabic text with a Kashida to hold the secret bit ‘one’ and the un-pointed letters with a Kashida to hold ‘zero’. The method can be classified under secrecy feature coding methods where it hides secret information bits within the letters benefiting from their inherited points. This watermarking technique is found attractive too to other languages having similar texts to Arabic such as Persian and Urdu.