A Multipurpose Public-Key Cryptosystem Based Image Watermarking

This paper presents a new technique for copyright protection and content authentication of satellite images. The novelty in the presented approach consists in designing a hybrid Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) and hash function based digital image watermarking. In this study, two watermarks are embedded in the cover image called robust copyright watermark and fragile authentication watermark. The robust watermark is embedded in hybrid frequency and wavelet domain by applying DWT and DCT respectively. Such two steps embedding allows the proposed approach to provide better imperceptibility in harmony with the human visual system and offers higher robustness against signal processing attacks. Subsequently, the fragile watermark is embedded in a spatial domain using the hash function approach. The proposed hybrid watermarking technique has been tested on DubaiSat-2 images with 1 meter resolution. The experimental results show that the proposed method is robust against JPEG compression, rotation and resizing attacks. In addition, the multi-watermarked image has a good transparency and the fragile watermark is sensitive to any tampering.

A robust associative watermarking technique based on vector quantization

Due to the rise in many industrial environment applications involving distributed networked collaborative intelligent measurement systems, intelligent monitoring and multi-sensor information exchange of private information, digital image information security and hidden image authentication, tampering detection, correction, and automatic intelligent self-recovery have become critical concerns. Towards that end, there is a need for more secure, efficient, and robust-to-unauthorized-tampering digital image watermarking, information hiding and authentication schemes. In our prior work, we introduced non-blind watermarking schemes where the carrier and watermark images are available at the receiver's end. We also proposed a double-blind scheme where both the carrier and the watermark images are not available at the receiver's end, but at the expense of possible lower pixel tampering, authentication and automatic intelligent self-correction ability. This paper proposes a blind wavelet-based, high capacity, secure digital watermarking and information hiding scheme with higher tampering localization and authentication that nullifies the need to have the carrier image available at the receiving end. The proposed scheme also increases robustness to image authentication and automatic self-recovery and correction compared to our prior double-blind scheme. The scheme is high capacity and sustains hiding secret hidden and watermarking images of the same full size as an arbitrary-sized carrier image. One of the benefits of the blind watermarking scheme is that it allows usage of varying and arbitrary carrier images that are unknown and unavailable anywhere, including the receiver's end. This is to prevent hackers' recognition of a familiar carrier image and their potential unauthorized tampering. Here, in this paper, two grayscale images are inserted in a colored carrier image. Here the watermark image is used for authentication and tamper localization. The second image is used as ownership or encoded secret hidden message image. The Arnolds Transform is used to introduce added security to a hidden image. The proposed scheme uses an embedded correction matrices mechanism for the extracted hidden information self-recovery from various tampering and digital attacks by unauthorized hackers.

The ease and extensive use of digital imaging systems raise serious questions about integrity and authenticity of digital images particularly in medical applications. A medical image requires great integrity of content since any change in the image might affect the diagnosis even if it is of small amount. Fragile watermark could be the best technique to provide efficient image authentication tool for medical images, in this paper we present different methods developed in image watermarking used in order to verify integrity and authenticity of images. We will present after that our proposed method and validated the embedding and extracting procedures

In this paper, a blind image watermarking scheme based on discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and singular value decomposition (SVD) is proposed. In this scheme, DWT is applied on ROI (region of interest) of the medical image to get different frequency subbands of its wavelet decomposition. On the low frequency subband LL of the ROI, block-SVD is applied to get different singular matrices. A pair of elements with similar values is identified from the left singular value matrix of these selected blocks. The values of these pairs are modified using certain threshold to embed a bit of watermark content. Appropriate threshold is chosen to achieve the imperceptibility and robustness of medical image and watermark contents respectively. For authentication and identification of original medical image, one watermark image (logo) and other text watermark have been used. The watermark image provides authentication whereas the text data represents electronic patient record (EPR) for identification. At receiving end, blind recovery of both watermark contents is performed by a similar comparison scheme used during the embedding process. The proposed algorithm is applied on various groups of medical images like X-ray, CT scan and mammography. This scheme offers better visibility of watermarked image and recovery of watermark content due to DWT-SVD combination. Moreover, use of Hamming error correcting code (ECC) on EPR text bits reduces the BER and thus provides better recovery of EPR. The performance of proposed algorithm with EPR data coding by Hamming code is compared with the BCH error correcting code and it is found that later one perform better. A result analysis shows that imperceptibility of watermarked image is better as PSNR is above 43 dB and WPSNR is above 52 dB for all set of images. In addition, robustness of the scheme is better than existing scheme for similar set of medical images in terms of normalized correlation coefficient (NCC) and bit-error-rate (BER). An analysis is also carried out to verify the performance of the proposed scheme for different size of watermark contents (image and EPR data). It is observed from analysis that the proposed scheme is also appropriate for watermarking of color image. Using proposed scheme, watermark contents are extracted successfully under various noise attacks like JPEG compression, filtering, Gaussian noise, Salt and pepper noise, cropping, filtering and rotation. Performance comparison of proposed scheme with existing schemes shows proposed scheme has better robustness against different types of attacks. Moreover, the proposed scheme is also robust under set of benchmark attacks known as checkmark attacks.

The extraction of rotation invariant representation is important for many signal processing tasks such as image analysis, computer vision, pattern recognition and so forth. In this paper, we show that, under certain conditions, the Two-Dimensional Fractional Fourier Transform (2D-FRFT) possesses this attractive property through mathematical analysis and extensive computer simulations. Based on this property, we propose a novel digital image watermarking method which combines 2D chirp signal with the addition and rotation invariant properties of 2D-FRFT in order to improve robustness and security of digital image watermark in 2D-FRFT domain. Experimental results show that the proposed method is robust against numerous watermarking attacks including rotation geometrical transform, JPEG compression, crop, median filtering, histogram equalization, salt & pepper noise, Gaussian lowpass filter, shift, dithering and Gaussian noise, and secures against unauthorized information copying and redistribution.

This letter presents a method for digital image watermarking for copyright protection. This technique produces a watermarked image that closely retains the quality of the original host image while concurrently surviving various image processing operations such as lowpass/highpass filtering, lossy JPEG compression, and cropping. This image watermarking algorithm takes full advantage of permutation and 2-D barcode (PDF417). The actual watermark embedding in spatial domain is followed using permutated image for improving the resistance to image cropping. Much higher watermark robustness is obtainable via a simple forward error correction technique, which is the main feature of PDF417 codes. Additional features of this technique include the easy determination of the existence of the watermark and that the watermark verification procedure does not need the original host image. The experimental results demonstrate its effectiveness.

An algorithm of dynamic watermark based on neural network is presented which is more robust against attack of false authentication and watermark-tampered operations contrasting with one watermark embedded method. (1) Five binary images used as watermarks are coded into a binary array. The total number of 0s and 1s is 5*N, every 0 or 1 is enlarged fivefold by information-enlarged technique. N is the original total number of the watermarks' binary bits. (2) Choose the seed image pixel p_x,y and its 3&times;3 vicinities pixel p _x-1,y-1,p_x-1,y,p_x-1,y+1,p_x,y-1,p_x,y+1,p_x+1,y-1,p_x+1,y,p_x+1,y+1 as one sample space. The p_x,y is used as the neural network target and the other eight pixel values are used as neural network inputs. (3) To make the neural network learn the sample space, 5*N pixel values and their closely relevant pixel values are randomly chosen with a password from a color BMP format image and used to train the neural network.(4) A four-layer neural network is constructed to describe the nonlinear mapped relationship between inputs and outputs. (5) One bit from the array is embedded by adjusting the polarity between a chosen pixel value and the output value of the model. (6) One randomizer generates a number to ascertain the counts of watermarks for retrieving. The randomly ascertained watermarks can be retrieved by using the restored neural network outputs value, the corresponding image pixels value, and the restore function without knowing the original image and watermarks (The restored <i>coded-watermark</i>_bit=1, if <i>ox,y(restored)</i>&gt;p_x,y(<i>reconstructed, else coded-watermark_bit </i>=0). The retrieved watermarks are different when extracting each time. The proposed technique can offer more watermarking proofs than one watermark embedded algorithm. Experimental results show that the proposed technique is very robust against some image processing operations and JPEG lossy compression. Therefore, the algorithm can be used to protect the copyright of one important image.

Image authentication verifies the originality of an image by detecting malicious manipulations. This goal is different from that of image watermarking which embeds into the image a signature surviving most manipulations. Most existing methods for image authentication treat all types of manipulation equally (i.e., as unacceptable). However, some applications demand techniques that can distinguish acceptable manipulations (e.g., compression) from malicious ones. In this paper, we describe an effective technique for image authentication, which can prevent malicious manipulations but allow JPEG lossy compression. The authentication signature is based on the invariance of the relationship between the DCT coefficients at the same position in separate blocks of an image. This relationship will be preserved when these coefficients are quantized in a JPEG compression process. Our proposed method can distinguish malicious manipulations from JPEG lossy compression regardless of how high the compression ratio is. We also show that, in different practical cases, the design of the authenticator depends on the number of recompression times, and whether the image is decoded into integral values in the pixel domain during the recompression process. Theoretical and experimental results indicate that this technique is effective for image authentication.

Modification of images usually originates from channel noise, image processing operations or adversary's efforts. Image authentication mechanisms protect the authenticity of images by differentiating between the effects of malicious and acceptable alterations in the original image. This paper introduces a mechanism for approximate authentication and correction of images (AACI). The proposed scheme is constructed based on two approximate message authentication code (AMAC) frameworks which use standard cryptographic primitives and error-correcting codes as their building blocks. The AACI tolerates acceptable modifications which are not effective in the image recovery process. The malicious modifications can be detected and the damaged parts can be restored by an AACI mechanism up to a certain limit. In this work, the specification of the AACI mechanism is given, proposed settings, performance and security analysis of the AACI are discussed and simulation results are presented.

In the paper, a robust blind watermarking method is introduced for gray-scale images based on wavelet tree quantization with an adaptive threshold in the extraction. Every block of 2×2 coefficients of High-Low subbands of the Wavelet tranform are grouped in a block through the parent-child relationship of the wavelet tree. Every scrambled binary watermark bit is embedded into each block based on the difference value of two largest coefficients. The watermark is recovered by comparing the difference values in each block to an adaptive threshold. The accuracy of an extracted watermark depends on the threshold which is determined by minimizing the sum of weighted within-class variance. The performance of the proposed watermarking method is represented through experimental results under various types of attack such as, Histogram Equalization, Cropping, Low-pass Filtering, Gaussian noise, Salt &amp; Pepper noise and JPEG compression. In additions, the proposed method is also compared to recent methods in the extraction performance.

In this proposed work, a dual image watermarking algorithm is used to protect the data against copyright violations. In this work, the DICOM image is used as a host image. Two watermark images used are the MNNIT logo and the personal data of the patient. This method utilizes the advantages of Schur decomposition, lifting wavelet transform (LWT), discrete cosine transform (DCT) and singular value decomposition (SVD). The scaling factor is a vital parameter of watermarking technique. The firefly optimization technique is used to get the optimized scaling factor. The Speeded-up robust features (SURF) are used for watermarking authentication. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), normalized correlation coefficient (NCC), and structural similarity index measurement (SSIM) are used. The proposed method is tested against various attacks such as Salt and Pepper noise, Gaussian noise, Gaussian low pass filter, Average filter, Median filter, Histogram equalization, Sharpening, Rotation and Region of interest filtering. The proposed algorithm shows a high level of robustness and imperceptibility. It is found that the features of the input host image and the watermarked image are matching correctly on applying the SURF technique.

Underwater images suffer from color cast and low visibility caused by the medium scattering and absorption, which will reduce the use of valuable information from the image. In this paper, we propose a novel method which includes four stages of pixel intensity center regionalization, global equalization of histogram, local equalization of histogram and multi-scale fusion. Additionally, this method uses a pixel intensity center regionalization strategy to perform centralization of the image histogram on the overall image. Global equalization of histogram is employed to correct color of the image according to the characteristics of each channel. Local equalization of dual-interval histogram based on average of peak and mean values is used to improve contrast of the image according to the characteristics of each channel. Dual-image multi-scale fusion to integrate the contrast, saliency and exposure weight maps of the color corrected and contrast enhanced images. Experiments on variety types of degraded underwater images show that the proposed method produces better output results in both qualitative and quantitative analysis, thus, the proposed method outperforms other state-of-the-art methods.

Multimedia contents have received a sharp attention now a day as a result of massive development of cyber crime. Illegal replication, violation of authentication, misappropriation of digital content has achieved an enigmatic growth. In this respect we’ve already proposed different schemes for invisible watermarking for color image authentication in fragile domain. In current communication we are going to propose a chip-based framework for color image authentication in accordance with our prescribed LSB scheme. In this watermarking scheme, a secret key will be given to the user and with the help of a particular hash function the user can authenticate the ownership of an image. With the aforesaid secret key and hash function the secured communication is guaranteed. The original watermark will not be retrieved if any intruder tries to perform watermark extraction with an inappropriate key and a incorrect hash function. We named our proposed chip as BLIND CHIP, because we’ve used blind method for watermark extraction where neither the host image nor the watermark image is needed at the time of watermark extraction.

In communication technologies such as digital watermarking, wireless sensor networks (WSNs), and visual light communication (VLC), error-correcting codes are crucial. The Enhanced Hadamard Error-Correcting Code (EHC), which is based on 2D Hadamard Basis Images, is a novel error correction technique that is presented in this study. This technique is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the video watermarking scheme. Even with highly sophisticated embedding techniques, watermarks usually fail to resist such comprehensive attacks because of the extraordinarily high compression rate of approximately 1:200 that is frequently employed in video dissemination. It can only be used in conjunction with a sufficient error-correcting coding method. This study compares the efficacy of the well-known Reed–Solomon Code with this novel technique, the Enhanced Hadamard Error-Correcting Code (EHC), in maintaining watermarks in embedded videos. The main idea behind this newly created multidimensional Enhanced Hadamard Error-Correcting Code is to use a 1D Hadamard decoding approach on the 2D base pictures after they have been transformed into a collection of one-dimensional rows. Following that, the image is rebuilt, allowing for a more effective 2D decoding procedure. Using this technique, it is possible to exceed the theoretical error-correcting capacity threshold of ⌊⌋ bits, where is the Hamming distance. It may be possible to achieve better results by converting the 2D EHC into a 3D format. The new Enhanced Hadamard Code is used in a video watermarking coding scheme to show its viability and efficacy. The original video is broken down using a multi-level interframe wavelet transform during the video watermarking embedding process. Low-pass filtering is applied to the video stream in order to extract a certain frequency range. The watermark is subsequently incorporated using this filtered section. Either the Reed–Solomon Correcting Code or the Enhanced Hadamard Code is used to protect the watermarks. The experimental results show that EHC far outperforms the RS Code and is very resilient against severe MPEG compression.