Abstract: Systems, methods, devices, and other techniques for detecting, with a predictive model, the presence of a watermarking image in a captured source image. The techniques can involve operations that include obtaining a first image, where the first image is a scaled version of the captured source image. Colors of pixels in the first image are analyzed to determine encoded values of possibly encoded pixels in the first image, and patterns of encoded values of the possibly encoded pixels in the first image are analyzed to determine possibly encoded regions of the first image. Values for features of the possibly encoded regions of the first image are determined, and a predictive model processes the feature values to generate a prediction indicative of whether a watermarking image is encoded in the first image. The prediction is stored and provided to a controller to make a decision regarding invocation of a decoding process.