ArticlePDF Available

An Improved Image Watermarking Method in Frequency Domain

Authors:

Abstract and Figures

Digital watermarking is a technique for resolving copyright law in E-Commerce. In this article a combined watermarking method based on Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) is proposed. For embedding watermark, a cover image is decomposed by a 2-level DWT, and the HL2 subband coefficients are divided into 4 × 4 blocks, then the DCT is performed on each of these blocks. The watermark bits are embedded by predefined pattern_0 or pattern_1 on the middle band coefficients of DCT. After inserting watermark, inverse DCT is applied to each 4 × 4 blocks of HL2 subband coefficients, and inverse DWT is applied to obtain the watermarked image. For watermark extraction, the watermarked image, which may be attacked by various image attacks, is decomposed with 2-level DWT and DCT similarly as watermark embedding process, then correlation between middle band coefficients of block DCT and the predefined pattern (pattern_0 and pattern_1) is calculated to decide whether a 0 bit or a 1 bit is embedded. Genetic algorithm is used to optimize the performance of embedding and extracting parameters. Simulation results show this technique is robust against JPEG attacks and many other strong attacks.
Content may be subject to copyright.
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=wasr20
Download by: [Hacettepe University] Date: 19 April 2017, At: 22:50
Journal of Applied Security Research
ISSN: 1936-1610 (Print) 1936-1629 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wasr20
An Improved Image Watermarking Method in
Frequency Domain
Mahdieh Ghazvini, Elham Mohamadi Hachrood & Mojdeh Mirzadi
To cite this article: Mahdieh Ghazvini, Elham Mohamadi Hachrood & Mojdeh Mirzadi (2017)
An Improved Image Watermarking Method in Frequency Domain, Journal of Applied Security
Research, 12:2, 260-275, DOI: 10.1080/19361610.2017.1277878
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19361610.2017.1277878
Published online: 04 Apr 2017.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 7
View related articles
View Crossmark data
JOURNAL OF APPLIED SECURITY RESEARCH
,VOL.,NO.,
http://dx.doi.org/./..
An Improved Image Watermarking Method in Frequency
Domain
Mahdieh Ghazvinia, Elham Mohamadi Hachroodb,andMojdehMirzadi
a
aDepartment of Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman,
Kerman, Iran; bDepartment of Computer Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Kerman Branch,
Kerman, Iran
KEYWORDS
Digital image watermarking;
discrete wavelet transform;
discrete cosine transform;
genetic algorithm
ABSTRACT
Digital watermarking is a technique for resolving copyright law
in E-Commerce. In this article a combined watermarking method
based on Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and Discrete Cosine
Transform (DCT) is proposed. For embedding watermark, a cover
image is decomposed by a 2-level DWT, and the HL2 subband
coecients are divided into 4 ×4 blocks, then the DCT is per-
formed on each of these blocks. The watermark bits are embed-
ded by predened pattern_0 or pattern_1 on the middle band
coecients of DCT. After inserting watermark, inverse DCT is
applied to each 4 ×4 blocks of HL2 subband coecients, and
inverse DWT is applied to obtain the watermarked image. For
watermark extraction, the watermarked image, which may be
attacked by various image attacks, is decomposed with 2-level
DWT and DCT similarly as watermark embedding process, then
correlation between middle band coecients of block DCT and
the predened pattern (pattern_0 and pattern_1) is calculated to
decide whether a 0 bit or a 1 bit is embedded. Genetic algorithm
is used to optimize the performance of embedding and extract-
ing parameters. Simulation results show this technique is robust
against JPEG attacks and many other strong attacks.
Introduction
Today, with fast progress of digital information technology, digital media is easily
available and distributable for all. This media can be copied and modied by users,
resulting in unauthorized replication. This problem has become a critical issue so
that protecting the copyright of digital media is considered an important task. Digi-
tal watermarking is used to solve the problem of copyright violation. It is a technique
by which any watermark is embedded into a cover document using some known
algorithms to identify the original creator and owner of the document. The water-
mark can include information such as copyright (Narang & Vashisth, 2013).
Digital watermarks have three application elds: copyright protection, data
authentication, and data monitoring (Kaushik & Dua, 2014). Digital watermarking
CONTACT Mahdieh Ghazvini mghazvini@uk.ac.ir Computer Engineering Department, Shahid Bahonar Uni-
versity, Pajoohesh Sq., -, P.O. Box -, Kerman, Iran.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/wasr.
©  Taylor & FrancisGroup, LLC
JOURNAL OF APPLIED SECURITY RESEARCH 261
is invented by Emil Hembrook in 1954. In this invention, an invisible ID code was
attached to digital music le in order to prove copyright (Chandramouli & Memon,
2001).
Types of digital watermarking
Digital Watermarking techniques can be classied in a number of ways depend-
ing on dierent parameters like cover medium, resistance, visibility, extraction
method, and embedding domains (Kumar & Malhotra, 2014,asshowninFigure
1). There are four types of watermarking systems in terms of type of the doc-
ument which is watermarked. Watermarking systems of text (Qi & Xin, 2011),
sound (Nagarjuna & Ranjeet, 2013;Yang,Lei,Liu,Zhou,&Luo,2012), image
(Inoue, Miyazaki, & Katsura, 1999; Srivastava, Srivastava, & Srivastava, 2015;Wolf-
gang & Delp, 1996), and video (Checcacci, Barni, Bartolini, & Basagni, 2000;
Wolf g ang , P o di l chuk , & D elp, 1999). Watermarking systems, in terms of their
resistance against dierent attacks, are divided into three groups: robust (Chen,
Chang, & Hwang, 2012;Chen&Zhu,2012;Lee,Chen,Chang,&Tsai,2011;Sri-
vastava et al., 2015;Zhang,Li,&Wei,2012; Zhou, Wang, Xiong, & Yu, 2010),
semifragile (Di Martino & Sessa, 2012;Huo,He,&Chen,2012;Xiao&Shih,
2012), and fragile systems (Hu, Wang, Cao, & Yang, 2011;Qi&Xin,2011;Zhang,
Zhu, Wang, Wang, & Ma, 2012).There are two types of methods in terms of vis-
ibility of watermark within document, methods in which watermark is observ-
able and visible in the watermarked document and methods that include invisi-
ble watermark. There are three methods of watermarking in terms of watermarking
extraction method: blind, semiblind, and nonblind (Hallur, Kuri, Sudi, & Kulkarni,
Figure . Types of digital watermarking.
262 M. GHAZVINI ET AL.
2015). Finally, the most important classication is related to the type of process-
ing methods. In this respect, watermarking methods are classied into two classi-
cations: spatial domain processing and frequency/transform domain processing
(Hallur et al., 2015;Liu&Zhao,2010; Waleed, Jun, Hameed, & Kamil, 2015;Q.
Zhang et al., 2012).
Robust Watermarking: Robust watermarking is a method in which modica-
tion to the watermarked media will not aect the watermark. Fragile watermarking
which is opposed to this, is a method in which the watermark gets destroyed when
the watermarked media is modied or tampered with (Husain, 2012). This type of
watermarking has broad practical applications and many researches have been per-
formed in this area and this type resists intentional and unintentional attacks well.
Supporting copyright is one of the applications of this type of watermarking (Hu,
Wang , Liu , & Gu o, 2011).
Invisible Watermarking: In it, invisible watermark is hidden in the cover media. It
canbedetectedbyanauthorizeduseronly(Kumar&Malhotra,2014). This is a type
ofwatermarkwhichisspecicallyusedtoauthenticateuserorowneranddetecting
unauthorized copier (Kumar & Malhotra, 2014), or even to build the capacity of
adding security information or to confront forging document and securities such
as banknotes and bank checks and so on. The main priority of invisible watermark-
ingisinviolabilityagainstattacksofattackers(Wolfgang&Delp,1996). In Invisible
methods the signal isn’t changed, there are only minor variations in the output sig-
nal. End users don’t know the invisible watermarks, while the addition of watermark
to the signal does not restrict that signal’s use; it provides a mechanism to recognize
the original owner (Kumar & Malhotra, 2014).
Fragile Watermarking: This classication of watermarking does not resist the
broadgroupsofintentionalandunintentionalattacksanddoesnotfeature
extraction.
Nonblind Watermarking: In this method, recipient needs the main image before
embedding for extracting watermark by using intended extraction algorithm.
Semiblind Watermarking: In this method, recipient needs watermark string and
value of some parameters of embedding time for extracting watermark by using
intended extraction algorithm.
Blind Watermarking: In this method, recipient does not need the main image or
watermark string (Husain, 2012) for extracting watermark by using intended extrac-
tion algorithm.
Spatial domain methods
In spatial domain watermarking, during watermark embedding some transforma-
tions are performed directly on the image pixels and no transforms are applied to
the host image. In this method the watermark is embedded by modifying the pixel
value of an image directly (Kumar & Malhotra, 2014).
Although, the information which can be hiding by using spatial domain is
relatively high and distortion caused by this information embedding is very
JOURNAL OF APPLIED SECURITY RESEARCH 263
low, however, existing techniques in this regard are so weak against attacks like
lossy compression and some geometric attacks such as cutting. This watermarking
method is simple but is not robust to common signal processing operations, because
this method does not spread the watermark all over the image and some common
signal processing can easily delete the embedded watermark without damaging
the quality of the watermarked image (Kumar & Malhotra, 2014). So this type of
watermarking is mostly used in fragile watermarking systems. Least Signicant Bit
(LSB) insertion is one of the examples of this category. Although algorithms in this
method have low payload, they can be easily discovered and since pixel strengths
are directly changed in these algorithms, the quality of image after embedding and
extracting the watermark is not acceptable (Sharma & Prashar, 2012).
Frequency domain methods
In frequency (or transform) domain, the watermark is embedded in host image
by modifying the transform coecients, then the image is transformed to the fre-
quency domain, and again transform coecients are modied (Kumar & Malhotra,
2014).
On the other hand, rst by appropriate transform function, the host image is
transferred from spatial domain to frequency domain where watermark informa-
tion is embedded in the image and then is returned to spatial domain. In fact, in
transform domain some frequencies are selected and modied from their original
values according to some rules. For example, in frequency transforms, a watermark
is embedded by frequency components, although this change has eect on illumina-
tion of pixels indirectly. In transform domain, transform operation is usually exerted
on image twice that results in increase of computational complexity and insertion
time of watermark. Because the host image changes are often seen by human vision
system (HVS) in some methods of transform domain, certain characteristics can be
used in embedding watermark. As human eyes cannot understand changes in high
frequency components, a suitable transparency can be created in watermarking by
embedding a watermark in this range. The transform domain methods are more
popular because watermark embedding is more robust in this domain as compared
to spatial domain. Although, by this method some resistance are loosed so that
embedding in higher frequencies means decrease of watermark resistance, the opti-
mal algorithm can be obtained through a compromise between transparency and
resistance. Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT; Bi, Zhang, & Li, 2011;Halluretal.,
2015;Q.Zhangetal.,2012), Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT; Liu & Zhao, 2010)
and Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT; Hallur et al., 2015;Huetal.,2011;Srivas-
tava et al., 2015;Yangetal.,2012), Discrete Hadamard Transform (DHT; Sarker &
Khan, 2013), and wide spectrum-based methods (WST; Nagarjuna & Ranjeet, 2013)
are used in frequency domain watermarking. Figure 2 illustrates frequency domain
methods. In these techniques, a watermark is distributed throughout original data
domain. The DCT-based watermarking systems are robust against attacks such as
lossy compression including JPEG attack and some geometric attacks like cutting. In
264 M. GHAZVINI ET AL.
Figure . Related works in frequency domain watermarking.
these systems, by using DCT, original image is decomposed into dierent frequency
bands. Then a watermark is embedded in middle frequency bands of the image. A
DCT-basedwatermarkingmethodisproposedin(Q.Zhangetal.,2012)thatitis
robust against JPEG attack. Watermarking in DWT domain has many advantages,
its adaptation to HVS is one of these advantages. This technique increases water-
mark resistance, without any damage in quality of original image (Wang & Lin,
2004). Although, in frequency domain watermarking, there are some methods that
use combinations of previous transform methods, and one of optimization methods
like Genetic Algorithm (GA), Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), Bee Colony
(BC), and so forth. Authors of (Anju, 2013;Deb,Al-Seraj,Hoque,&Sarkar,2012;
Huai-bin, Hong-liang, Chun-dong, & Shao-ming, 2010; Kasmani & Naghsh-Nilchi,
2008) used combination of DWT and DCT, (Sikander, Ishtiaq, Jaar, Tariq, &
Mirza, 2010;Wang,Peng,&Shi,2011) used DCT and GA for optimization and in
(Ramanjaneyulu & Rajarajeswari, 2012) DWT and GA were used. Combinations of
DCT, DWT and GA were used (Dubolia, Singh, Bhadoria, & Gupta, 2011;Mingzhi,
Yan , Yaj i an , & Mi n, 2013), too. In addition researchers (Ansari, Devanalamath,
Manikantan, & Ramachandran, 2012;Gunjal&Mali,2015;Halluretal.,2015;
Jane, Ilk, & Elbasi, 2013; Kansal, Singh, & Kranthi, 2012; Loukhaoukha, Refaey,
Zebbiche, & Nabti, 2015;Sharma&Jain,2014) proposed some SVD-based methods
for optimization. In this paper, a watermarking technique based on a combination
JOURNAL OF APPLIED SECURITY RESEARCH 265
of DWT and DCT is presented. First, in embedding step of watermark, the original
image is decomposed by applying two levels of DWT and then DCT is applied on
itandnallythewatermarkisembeddedonmiddlebandcoecientsofDCT.In
this technique, two random sequences are created to embed binary bits by which
watermark bits are embedded and then inverse DCT and DWT are exerted on the
watermarked image. In extraction operation, also, DWT and DCT are applied as
embedding operations and then correlation between middle band coecients of
DCT and predened watermark design is calculated to determine binary bits. We
use genetic algorithm to nd optimal embedding parameters including Gain factor
and frequency bands of DCT coecients that it improves robustness and quality of
watermarked image.
The basic stages in watermarking
Two basic stages in all watermarking methods are embedding and extracting as
shown in Figure 3. In the embedding stage, watermark is embedded within original
image. Embedding data in original image is performed in terms of required appli-
cation in spatial or transform domain, as robust or fragile, visible or invisible, blind
or semiblind or nonblind and reversible or irreversible.
Extracting stage is reverse of embedding stage. In this stage, the recipient by using
intended extraction algorithm extracts watermark that was embedded in original
image.
The proposed watermarking technique using genetic algorithm
In this paper, an image watermarking technique has been presented that a mul-
tipurpose genetic algorithm is used. In this optimal technique, the values of two
important criteria in watermarking, PSNR and NCC, are considered and by using
genetic algorithm steps and Pareto function, the most desirable and optimal water-
marking place and coecients will be chosen. This will balance between resistance
and imperceptibility of a watermarking system eectively. In genetic algorithm, all
steps and usual procedures have been observed and Find_Pareto_Front has been
Figure . Embedding and extracting watermark in digital watermarking, (A): watermark embedding
stage, (B): watermark extracting stage.
266 M. GHAZVINI ET AL.
used as metric function to nd the best member in the society. In the proposed tech-
nique, DWT and DCT are applied on image. For DWT, there are three frequency
band sets: low band frequency, middle band frequency, and high band frequency.
In this paper, middle band frequency has been used. If, watermark is embedded in
low band frequency, the ability of imperceptibility is very weak. Also, in high band
frequency, because of compression, JPEG attacks and noise, watermark may be
eliminated, so, the best place for watermark is middle band where there is a balance
between parameters of resistance and imperceptibility (Chu, 2003;Deng&Wang,
2003;Lin&Chen,2000;Wu&Hsieh,2000). In this technique, DWT divides image
into four areas: LL1, LH1, HL1, and HH1. LL1 is approximate coecient. HL1,
LH1, and HH1 are detail coecients (vertical, horizontal, and diagonal, respec-
tively). To obtain the second level coecients of DWT, subband LL1 is decom-
posed more and among its coecients, HL2 is selected as a subband to embed
watermark.
Watermark embedding steps
Figure 4 shows watermark embedding steps and explains details step by step.
Figure . Watermark embedding steps.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED SECURITY RESEARCH 267
Figure . Applying the second level of DWT.
Step 1: Applying DWT on the host image and dividing it in four nonoverlapped
subbands LL1, LH1, HL1, and HH1.
Step 2: Applying the second level of DWT on subband LL1 and dividing it into
four smaller subbands LL2, HL2, LH2, and HH2 according to Figure 5.
Step 3: Dividing subband HL2 in 4 ×4blocks.
Step 4: Applying DCT on each block in subband HL2.
Step 5: Producing two sequences of random numbers called pattern_0 and pat-
tern_1. Inverse pattern_0 bits are used to obtain pattern_1 bit. Lengths
of pattern_0 and pattern_1 equal selected middle band coecients of
DCT, where pattern_0 has been used to embed zero watermark bit and
pattern_1 has been used to embed one watermark bit. It must be noted
that since zero value has not a good result, in this paper, regarding to
the results of previous similar papers, 1 has been used instead of zero,
meaning, in pattern_0 operation, zero has been replaced by 1inorder
to obtaining more desirable results at the time of embedding. In this step,
in fact, watermark bits, rst, are encoded by created sequences which play
the role of keys and then will embed in the suitable coecients of the host
image.
Step 6: We embed pattern_0 and pattern_1 values with some value of gain factor
and middle band coecients of DCT according to the following formula:
X=X+αpatt ern_0if wat er mark bit =−1
X+αpatt ern_1 if wat er mark bit =1
Where αis Gain factor value, X is selected middle band coecients of
DCT before embedding, and Xis selected middle band coecients after
embedding.
Step 7: Applying inverse DCT on each 4 ×4 block after adding pattern_0 and
pattern_1 in the selected middle band coecients.
Step 8: Applying inverse DWT on the watermarked image.
Watermark extraction steps
The scheme of watermark extraction operation is shown in Figure 6 and we explain
its details step by step.
268 M. GHAZVINI ET AL.
Figure . Watermark extraction steps.
Step 1: Applying DWT on cover image and dividing it into four nonoverlapped
subbands: LL1, HL1, LH1, and HH1.
Step 2: Applying the second level of DWT on subband LL1 and dividing it into
smaller subbands: LL2, HL2, LH2, and HH2 according to Figure 5.
Step 3: Dividing subband HL2 in 4 ×4blocks.
Step 4: Applying DCT ON each block of subband HL2.
Step 5: In this step, sequences which were created in embedding step, as keys to
watermark bits, are reused. In fact, this kind of cryptography which has
been used in this technique is symmetric, meaning the same key is used
in the embedding and extraction operation.
Step 6: For each block in subband HL2, Correlation between middle band coef-
cients and the produced random number sequences is calculated. If the
Correlation with pattern_0 is more, then the extracted watermark bit is
considered zero and otherwise, the extracted watermark bit is considered
one.
Step 7: The extracted watermark image is reconstructed according to watermark
bits.
Optimize watermarking using genetic algorithm
One of the problems in watermarking is optimization. In the main concepts
of watermarking, there are three opposite attributes which make watermarking
JOURNAL OF APPLIED SECURITY RESEARCH 269
eective (Swami, 2013): Robustness, imperceptibility, and capacity. By NCC factor,
the level of similarity between the original watermark image and the extracted water-
mark image is calculated. This value indicates watermarking technique robustness.
Imperceptibility is measured by PSNR factor in a watermarking technique. PSNR,
in fact, equals inverse value of the host image distortion. And capacity is value of
bits which can be embedded in the cover image. A good watermarking technique is
a technique in which, all of these attributes together have the best possible states and
results. On the other hand, maximum value of PSNR decreases two other attributes.
Here, to resolve and optimize this technique and have the best state, multipurpose
genetic algorithm is used. In this paper, 1024-bit capacity is considered and 42-db
for PSNR and one for NCC are the best values that are considered, meaning these
two factors should be the best together, we don’t intend one of these parameters.
PSNR is obtained by the following formula (Mingzhi et al., 2013):
PSNR =10log 10 255255
1/(MN)M
x=1N
y=1fi,jgi,j2(1)
Where M and N are height and width, f(i,j) and g(i,j) are pixels value of cover
imageandtheattackedwatermarkedimage.
NCC value is calculated after extracting the attacked watermark. NCC is calcu-
lated by the following formula (Mingzhi et al., 2013):
NCC =m
i=1n
j=1wi,jwmeanvi,jvmean
m
i=1n
j=1wi,jwmean2m
i=1n
j=1vi,jvmean2
(2)
Where m and n are height and width, W(i,j) and v(i,j) are pixels value of the ori-
gin and extracted watermark. In this technique, multipurpose genetic algorithm and
Find-Pareto-Front function have been used. The use characteristic of this technique
is that two or more purposes which were dened as main genetic purposes should
have all purposed values of the best state and one of the two purposes is bigger and
better than the other, meaning we will seek the best members in the dened popula-
tion. Applying program for nding such members might take longer, but the result
and its simulation results are much better than the other techniques, even ones using
single or multipurpose genetic algorithms. After the embedding operation, PSNR
of watermarked image is calculated and this image may be attacked by one or more
attacks including JEPG compression, Gaussian lter, cutting, rotation, and so forth.
The watermarked image, after applying attacks is extracted and NCC is calculated
from the origin and extracted watermarks.
Experimental results
The original image of Lena and watermark image are shown in Figure 7. The size
of Lena image is 512 ×512. We can use any other picture with this size, like Pep-
pers image, Barbara image, and Cameraman image. And the size of the watermark
image is 32 ×32. Matlab software version 2013 was used for implementation. The
parameters are: population size of 20, the number of repeat 100 times, contact rates
270 M. GHAZVINI ET AL.
Figure . Watermark image—The origin Image of Lena.
0.8, mutation rates 0.0056. Values 42 dB for PSNR and 1 for NCC are parts of pur-
poses of genetic algorithm.
In this paper, the implementation results of four important attacks with more per-
centageofdamageanddestructionwerecalculated.TheattackerinJPEGattackcan
easily convert the format of watermarked image to JPEG and using a lower quality
factor of JPEG compression (J. C. Lee, 2006).Thisattackisverysimpleandanyone
is able to save JPEG image using lower quality factors, so resistance to JPEG com-
pression is very important in this assessment of robustness. Each algorithm tries
to nd the quality factor that the watermark can still be extracted. Image scaling
is commonly available, for example, by a paint program in Microsoft Windows. In
this attack, attacker downscaled the watermarked image and the watermark will be
extracted. When the algorithm requires same size as the original, a resizing process
may be needed. The size which the algorithm can work well will be the grading point
forthatalgorithm.Meanandmedianltersaresimplefunctionsinimageprocessing
that the resistance of a watermarked algorithm against them depends on where the
watermark information is embedded. Embedding the watermark in low frequency
Figure . The results of applying attacks on the lena, cameraman, barbara and peppers images.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED SECURITY RESEARCH 271
will remain relatively resistant to such lter attacks. The results of applying attacks
on the Lena, Cameraman, Barbara and Peppers images are shown in Figure 8.The
mentioned technique were very robust against these attacks, it is surely very robust
against other attacks and give the better results.
Conclusion
In this article, a robust watermarking technique based on combining DWT and
DCT is presented and to optimize it, generic algorithm is used. In this technique,
watermark embedding operation is performed on middle band HL2 which divided
it into 4 ×4 blocks and DWT is applied on it. To embed watermark bits, rst, its bits
are encoded by using two random sequences pattern_0 and pattern_1 and then are
embedded. In extraction operation, also, the same things are done and nally, cor-
relation between predetermined design and middle band coecient in DCT blocks
is calculated; According to this correlation, if the correlation between pattern_0 and
middle band coecients of DCT block is more, the extracted watermark bit is con-
sidered zero and otherwise it is considered one. In this technique, to optimize Gain
Factorvalueandtheselectedmiddleband,geneticalgorithmisusedbywhichthe
best and most suitable place for embedding watermark is determined. Optimized
values of gain factor and selected-middle-band in comparison with the other tech-
niques are given in Tab l e 1. Multipurpose genetic algorithm and Find_ Pareto_ Front
function are used to obtain the best results. PSNR and NCC values are measured in
the represented technique on Lena image and binary watermark image 32 ×32 and
eventually were compared with the other techniques and its superiority to them is
approved. Comparison of NCC value after applying attacks in the mentioned tech-
niques in comparison with the other techniques are shown in Tab l e 2 and Table 3 .
Tab le . Optimized values of gain factor and selected-middle-band on Lena image.
Technique Gain Factor Selected-Middle-Band
(Mingzhi et al., )  [,,,]
The proposed method . [,,,]
Tab le . NCC comparison on the Lena image.
Attacks (Mingzhi et al., ) The proposed method
JPEG Q = .
JPEG Q = .
JPEG Q = . .
JPEG Q = . .
JPEG Q = . .
NOISE ATTACK . .
MEAN FILTERING . .
272 M. GHAZVINI ET AL.
Tab le . Comparison of NCC value after applying attacks in the mentioned techniques.
Type of attacks
(Yuan,Huang, & Liu,
)(PSNR=. dB)
(S.-H. Wang & Lin, )
(PSNR =. dB)
(Mingzhi et al., )
(PSNR =.dB)
The proposed
method
(PSNR = dB)
Median filter ( ×) . . . .
Median filter ( ×) . . . .
JPEG, QF = . . . .
JPEG, QF = . . . .
JPEG, QF = . . . .
JPEG, QF = . . .
JPEG, QF = . .
Tab le . Comparison of improvement levelof NCC value in the mentioned images in comparison with
technique (Mingzhi et al., ).
Image Lena Barbara Peppers Cameraman
Improvement percentage . . . .
References
Anju, R. (2013). Modied Algorithm for Digital Image Watermarking Using Combined DCT and
DWT. International Journal of Information and Computation Technology,3(7), 691–700.
Ansari, R., Devanalamath, M. M., Manikantan, K., & Ramachandran, S. (2012). Robust digital
image watermarking algorithm in DWT-DFT-SVD domain for color images. Paper presented
at the Communication, Information & Computing Technology (ICCICT), 2012 International
Conference on Communication, Information & Computing Technology (ICCICT), Mumbai,
India.
Bi, H., Zhang, Y., & Li, X. (2011). Video watermarking robust against spatio-temporal attacks.
Journal of Networks,6(6), 932–936.
Chandramouli, R., & Memon, N. (2001). Analysis of LSB based image steganography techniques.
Paper presented at the Image Processing, 2001. Proceedings. 2001 International Conference
on Image Processing, ICIP 2001, Thessaloniki, Greece, 7–10 Oct. 2001, Vol. 3, pp. 1019–1022.
Checcacci, N., Barni, M., Bartolini, F., & Basagni, S. (2000). Robust video watermarking for wireless
multimedia communications. Paper presented at the Wireless Communications and Network-
ing Confernce, 2000. WCNC. (Vol. 3, pp. 1530–1535). IEEE. Chicago, IL, USA, September
23–28.
Chen, H.-C., Chang, Y.-W., & Hwang, R.-C. (2012). A watermarking technique based on the fre-
quency domain. Journal of Multimedia,7(1), 82–89.
Chen, H.-Y., & Zhu, Y.-S. (2012). A robust watermarking algorithm based on QR factorization
and DCT using quantization index modulation technique. Journal of Zhejiang University SCI-
ENCE C,13(8), 573–584.
Chu, W. C. (2003). DCT-based image watermarking using subsampling. IEEE transactions on
multimedia,5(1), 34–38.
Deb, K., Al-Seraj, M. S., Hoque, M. M., & Sarkar, M. I. H. (2012). Combined DWT-DCT based dig-
ital image watermarking technique for copyright protection. Paper presented at the Electrical &
Computer Engineering (ICECE), 2012 7th International Conference on Electrical and Com-
puter Engineering 20–22 Dec. 2012, Pan Pacic Sonargaon Dhaka, Dhaka-1215, Bangladesh.
Deng, F., & Wang, B. (2003). AnoveltechniqueforrobustimagewatermarkingintheDCTdomain.
Paper presented at the Neural Networks and Signal Processing, 2003. Proceedings of the 2003
International Conference on Neural Networks and Signal Processing, 2003, vol. 2, pp. 1525–
1528. Nanjing. China, December 14–17.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED SECURITY RESEARCH 273
Di Martino, F., & Sessa, S. (2012). Fragile watermarking tamper detection with images compressed
by fuzzy transform. Information Sciences,195, 62–90.
Dubolia, R., Singh, R., Bhadoria, S. S., & Gupta, R. (2011). Digital image watermarking by using
discrete wavelet transform and discrete cosine transform and comparison based on PSNR.Paper
presented at the Communication Systems and Network Technologies (CSNT), 2011 Interna-
tional Conference on Communication Systems and Network Technologies, 3–5 June 2011,
(pp. 593–596). IEEE.
Gunjal, B. L., & Mali, S. N. (2015). MEO based secured, robust, high capacity and perceptual
quality image watermarking in DWT-SVD domain. SpringerPlus,4(1), 126.
Hallur, S. R., Kuri, S., Sudi, G. S., & Kulkarni, D. G. (2015). A robust digital watermarking for
gray scale image. International Journal For Technological Research In Engineering,2(10), 2440–
2443.
Hu, Y., Wang, G., Cao, X., & Yang, L. (2011). A robust paper public-key watermarking based on
contourlet algorithm transform and its application. Journal of Software,6(11), 2247–2254.
Hu, Y., Wang, Z., Liu, H., & Guo, G. (2011). A geometric distortion resilient image watermark
algorithm based on DWT-DFT. Journal of Software,6(9), 1805–1812.
Huai-bin, W., Hong-liang, Y., Chun-dong, W., & Shao-ming, W. (2010). Anewwatermarkingalgo-
rithmbasedonDCTandDWTfusion. Paper presented at the Electrical and Control Engineer-
ing (ICECE), 2010 International Conference on Electrical and Control Engineering 25–27
June 2010, Wuhan, China, pp. 2614–2617.
Huo, Y., He, H., & Chen, F. (2012). Alterable-capacity fragile watermarking scheme with restora-
tion capability. Optics Communications,285(7), 1759–1766.
Husain, F. (2012). A survey of digital watermarking techniques for multimedia data.International
Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering,2(1), 37–43.
Inoue, H., Miyazaki, A., & Katsura, T. (1999). An image watermarking method based on the
wavelet transform. Paper presented at the Image Processing, 1999. ICIP 99. Proceedings. 1999
International Conference on Image Processing, ICIP ’99, Kobe, Japan, October 24–28, 1999,
pp. 296–300.
Jane, O., Ilk, H. G., & Elbasi, E. (2013). A robust transform domain watermarking technique by
triangular and diagonal factorization. Paper presented at the Telecommunications and Signal
Processing (TSP), 2013 36th International Conference on Telecommunications and Signal
Processing, TSP 2013, Rome, Italy, 2–4 July, 2013, pp. 867–871.
Kansal, M., Singh, G., & Kranthi, B. (2012). DWT, DCT and SVD based digital image watermark-
ing. Paper presented at the Computing Sciences (ICCS), 2012 International Conference on
Computing Sciences, 14–15 September 2012, Phagwara, Punjab, India, pp. 77–81.
Kasmani, S. A., & Naghsh-Nilchi, A. (2008). A new robust digital image watermarking technique
based on joint DWT-DCT transformation. Paper presented at the Convergence and Hybrid
Information Technology, 2008. ICCIT’08. Third International Conference on Convergence
and Hybrid Information Technology, 11–13 November 2008, Busan, South Korea, vol. 2,
pp. 539–544.
Kaushik, P., & Dua, E. S. (2014). Digital image watermarking using BFO optimized DWT and
DCT & comparison between DWT, DWT+DCT, DWT+DCT+BFO. International Journal
of Recent Research Aspects,1(3), 13–16.
Kumar, M., & Malhotra, M. P. (2014). Digital image watermarking: a review. International Journal
of Recent Research Aspects,2(2), 137–142.
Lee, C. F., Chen, K. N., Chang, C. C., & Tsai, M. C. (2011). A Hierarchical Fragile Watermarking
with VQ Index Recovery. Journal of Multimedia,6(3), 277–284.
Lee, J. C. Analysis of attacks on common watermarking techniques.
Lin, S. D., & Chen, C.-F. (2000). A robust DCT-based watermarking for copyright protection.
IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics,46(3), 415–421.
274 M. GHAZVINI ET AL.
Liu, Y., & Zhao, J. (2010). A new video watermarking algorithm based on 1D DFT and Radon
transform. Signal Processing,90(2), 626–639.
Loukhaoukha, K., Refaey, A., Zebbiche, K., & Nabti, M. (2015). On the Security of Robust Image
Watermarking Algorithm based on Discrete Wavelet Transform, Discrete Cosine Transform
and Singular Value Decomposition. International Journal of Applied Mathematics and Infor-
mation Sciences,9(3), 1159–1166.
Mingzhi, C., Yan, L., Yajian, Z., & Min, L. (2013). A combined DWT and DCT watermarking
scheme optimized using genetic algorithm. Journal of Multimedia,8(3), 299–305.
Nagarjuna, P., & Ranjeet, K. (2013). Robust blind digital image watermarking scheme based on
stationary wavelet transform. Paper presented at the Contemporary Computing (IC3), 2013
Sixth International Conference on Contemporary Computing (IC3), 8–10 Aug, Noida, India,
pp. 451–454.
Narang, M., & Vashisth, S. (2013). Digital watermarking using discrete wavelet transform. Inter-
national Journal of Computer Applications,74(20), 34–38.
Qi, X., & Xin, X. (2011). A quantization-based semi-fragile watermarking scheme for image con-
tent authentication. Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation,22(2), 187–
200.
Ramanjaneyulu, K., & Rajarajeswari, K. (2012). Wavelet-based oblivious image watermarking
scheme using genetic algorithm. IET Image Processing,6(4), 364–373.
Sarker, M. I. H., & Khan, M. I. (2013). An improved blind watermarking method in frequency
domain for image authentication. Paper presented at the Informatics, Electronics & Vision
(ICIEV), 2013 2nd International Conference on Informatics, Electronics & Vision (ICIEV),
17–18 May 2013, Dhaka, Bangladesh, pp. 1–5.
Sharma, C., & Prashar, D. (2012). DWT based robust technique of watermarking applied on digi-
tal images. International Journal of Soft Computing and Engineering (IJSCE) ISSN, 2231-2307.
Sharma, P., & Jain, T. (2014). Robust digital watermarking for coloured images using SVD and
DWT technique. Paper presented at the Advance Computing Conference (IACC), 2014 IEEE
International Advance Computing Conference (IACC), 21–22 Feb. 2014, Gurgaon, India,
pp. 1024–1027.
Sikander, B., Ishtiaq, M., Jaar, M. A., Tariq, M., & Mirza, A. M. (2010). Adaptive digital water-
marking of images using genetic algorithm. Paper presented at the Information Science and
Applications (ICISA), 2010 International Conference on Information Science and Applica-
tions 21–23 April 2010, Seoul, Korea (South), pp. 1–8.
Srivastava, M., Srivastava, H., & Srivastava, M. (2015). A robust watermarking using DWT. Inter-
national Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering & Telecommunications,1(2), 229–240.
Swami, S. (2013). Digital image watermarking using 3 level discrete wavelet transform.Conference
on Advances in Communication and Control Systems 2013 (CAC2S 2013), Dehradun, India,
pp. 129–133.
Waleed, J., Jun, H. D., Hameed, S., & Kamil, M. (2015). Optimal positions selection for watermark
inclusion based on a nature inspired algorithm. International Journal of Signal Processing,
Image Processing and Pattern Recognition,8(1), 147–160.
Wang, J., Peng, H., & Shi, P. (2011). An optimal image watermarking approach based on a multi-
objective genetic algorithm. Information Sciences,181(24), 5501–5514.
Wang, S. H., & Lin, Y. P. (2004). Wavelet tree quantization for copyright protection watermarking.
IEEE Transactions on Image Processing,13(2), 154–165.
Wolfgang, R. B., & Delp, E. J. (1996). Awatermarkfordigitalimages. Paper presented at the Image
Processing, 3rd IEEE International Conference on Image Processing, Lausanne, Switzerland,
19–19 Sept. 1996, Vol. 3, pp. 219–222.
Wolfgang, R. B., Podilchuk, C., & Delp, E. J. (1999). Perceptual watermarks for digital images and
video. Proceedings of the IEEE,87(7), 1108–1126.
JOURNAL OF APPLIED SECURITY RESEARCH 275
Wu, C. F., & Hsieh, W. S. (2000). Digital watermarking using zerotree of DCT. IEEE Transactions
on Consumer Electronics,46(1), 87–94.
Xiao, D., & Shih, F. Y. (2012). An improved hierarchical fragile watermarking scheme using
chaotic sequence sorting and subblock post-processing. Optics Communications,285(10),
2596–2606.
Yang, Y., Lei, M., Liu, H., Zhou, Y., & Luo, Q. (2012). A novel robust zero-watermarking scheme
based on discrete wavelet transform. Journal of Multimedia,7(4), 303–308.
Yuan, Y., Huang, D., & Liu, D. (2006). An integer wavelet based multiple logo-watermarking scheme.
Paper presented at the Computer and Computational Sciences, 2006. IMSCCS’06. First Inter-
national Multi-Symposiums on Computer and Computational Sciences, 2006. IMSCCS ’06.
In 20–24 June, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China, Vol. 2, pp. 175–179.
Zhang, Q., Li, Y., & Wei, X. (2012). An improved robust and adaptive watermarking algorithm
based on DCT. Journal of Applied Research and Technology,10(3), 405–415.
Zhang, X., Zhu, G., Wang, W., Wang, M., & Ma, S. (2012). New public-key cryptosystem based
on two-dimension DLP. Journal of Computers,7(1), 169–178.
Zhou, X., Wang, S., Xiong, S., & Yu, J. (2010). Attack model and performance evaluation of text
digital watermarking. Journal of Computers,5(12), 1933–1941.
... Several meta-heuristic algorithms such as particle swarm optimization (PSO) [118], differential evolution (DE) [119], genetic algorithm (GA) [120], biogeography-based optimization (BBO) [121], whale optimization algorithm (WOA) [17], teachinglearning based optimization (TLBO) [122], and gravitational search algorithm (GSA) [123] have been used in literature to find the optimum value of MEF. These natural-inspired meta-heuristic methods are frequently applied to solve real-world optimization problems [124,125]. ...
... Experiments results witnessed that this method avoids false positive mistakes. Further, Ghazvini et al. [120] proposed an improved digital watermarking method based on the GA algorithm in the hybrid DCT-DWT domain. In this scheme, two random sequences are employed to generate watermark bits, which are incorporated into the DWT sub-bands of the cover image. ...
... Embedding in low frequency gives a significant effect on the quality of the watermarked image. The embedding watermark in the low frequency will degrade the image quality [33]. The DCT block with a size of 8 × 8 pixels became the standard block size and it provided higher energy compaction than the block size of 4 × 4, 16 × 16 pixels [65]. ...
Article
Full-text available
This survey presented a discussion of the existing scaling factor and adaptive scaling factor in image watermarking schemes. The discussion included several issues: robustness, imperceptibility and computational time for embedding a watermark. This survey also discussed the general concept of the image watermarking, transform method, embedding region and security on the existing watermarking scheme. This paper also discussed the recent use of watermarking techniques, potential issues and available solutions in adaptive watermarking schemes. Furthermore, the performance summary of the state-of-art embedding techniques is presented and analysed for future research. This literature review became useful to researchers to know the current challenges in embedding a watermark image. This survey information can be used to design an efficient embedding watermark for copyright protection.
Chapter
This work uses the fuzzy weight strategy to construct a novel image interpolation method. By taking into account the fuzzy weight value of each pair of pixels in a chosen block, the interpolated pixel values are created. Each input pixel pair’s fuzzy membership values have been taken to represent the range between the block’s minimum and maximum value. The input membership value is fed into the fuzzy output function, which calculates the fuzzy rule’s strength using the Max–Min composite principle. Then, through a defuzzification process, interpolated pixel values are calculated from the fuzzy output function dependent on the strength of the fuzzy rule. In actuality, fuzzy weight based interpolation algorithms create virtual pixels, which are superior to the interpolation techniques now in use. The results of the experiments show that the suggested method almost always produced images with the highest PSNR. So, in the suggested technique, the FWS was used to generate the improved cover image.
Article
Full-text available
Digital security is one of the important aspects of today’s era. Digital content is being grown every day on the internet; therefore, it is essential to guard the copyright of digital content using various techniques. Watermarking has emerged as an important field of study aiming at securing digital content and copyright protection. None of the watermarking techniques can provide well robustness against all the attacks, and algorithms are designed based on required specifications, which means there is a lot of opportunity in this field. Image watermarking is a vast area of research, starting from spatial-based methods to deep learning-based methods, and it has recently gained a lot of popularity due to the involvement of deep learning technology for ensuring the security of digital content. This study aims at exploring important highlights from spatial to deep learning methods of watermarking, which will be helpful for the researchers. In order to accomplish this study, the standard research papers of the last ten years have been obtained from various databases and reviewed to answer the five research questions. Open issues and challenges are identified and listed after reviewing various kinds of literature. Our study reveals that hybrid watermarking performs better in terms of balancing the trade-off between imperceptibility and robustness. Current research trends and future direction is also discussed.
Article
This paper proposes an effective optimal blind colour image watermarking based on Triangular Vertex Transform (TVT), Lifting Wavelet Transform (LWT) and Schur decomposition. Firstly, the RGB channels of the colour host image are processed with TVT to attain U, V, and W coefficients. The image quality is preserved by applying LWT on the W coefficients. As the middle frequency (HL and LH) components of the LWT wavelet domain achieve much robustness, these two components are split into 4×4 nonoverlapping blocks further it is processed with Schur decomposition for improving perceptual transparency. The optimal solution attained by an Adaptive Chaotic Grasshopper Optimization Algorithm (ACGOA) is used as the embedding factor to ensure the embedding strength of the watermark. The confidentiality of the watermark is improved by 2D Logistic-Modulated-Sine-Coupling-Logistic Chaotic Map (LSMCL). Subsequently, each bit of encrypted watermark image is inserted in the highest eigenvalue of upper triangular matrix of Schur decomposition using the embedding factor β obtained by ACGOA to accomplish the watermarked image. The watermark recovery is performed using the embedding factor β and the decryption process is done using LSMCL. The efficiency of the ACGOA based scheme is estimated and the highest Peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) value achieved is 54.2987 dB. The Normalized Cross-Correlation (NCC) results show better reliability for different attacks including geometric attacks and the NCC value obtained is close to 1.
Preprint
Full-text available
Medical image watermarking represents a promising alternative tool regarding security, digital rights, authenticity and integrity issues. In this paper, an informed medical image watermarking scheme is proposed based on local binary pattern LBP. A watermark is built based on the significant information extracted from the host image by LBP and will be addressed to be embedded through a linear interpolation. Scenarios of geometric and non-geometric attacks have been realized on the watermarked images to evaluate the robustness of the embedded watermark in the extraction process. Furthermore, it is verified through achieved experiments that the proposed scheme is imperceptible and more robust from the achieved results which are very encouraging.
Article
A hybrid and robust digital image watermarking is suggested by using advantages of both frequency domain and wavelet domain. In this method, the most suitable color component of the host image and the most efficient wavelet sub-band are chosen, concluding from the comprehensive experiments. In this paper, three parallel stages are used to embed and extract the watermark message. After transforming color component of the host image into the wavelet domain, some preprocessing with Discrete Cosines Transformers are applied, and then the watermark message is embedded into the best range by using a secret key. By detecting the rank of constructed detection matrices and voting among three output bits, the watermark bit is extracted. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method, besides the high robustness against Gaussian noise-based attacks especially AWGN, has performed well in imperceptibility and embedding capacity factors.
Article
Recently, machine/deep learning has become a promising solution for some intelligent tasks. It can be actively used for watermarking but less so for conventional tasks such as prediction, classification and regression. This article presents a comprehensive study on watermarking using trending technologies, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning. Also, it briefly discusses the introduction of watermarking, background information and the most interesting and utilised applications. The major role of trending technologies in watermarking has also been highlighted. The contribution of the surveyed scheme is also summarised and compared for different technical perspectives. Lastly, the article highlights recent challenges and directions of potential research that could fill gaps in this area for researchers and developers.
Chapter
Image watermarking plays a major role in the field of communication. Applying the watermarking on the symbol provides higher imperceptibility and robustness properties with cover data help. Thus, various implementations are focused on non-blind watermarking (NBW) schemes combined with various transformations to perform this watermarking. The NBW methods do not have the accurate functionality to provide the maximum imperceptibility, embedding capacity standards, and the lack of robustness, respectively. Thus, to overcome these problems, this article focuses on implementing the proposed watermarking framework that utilizes the singular value decomposition (SVD), discrete cosine transform (DCT), and redundant discrete wavelet transform (RDWT) jointly, so the properties of the threes methods function together and give the higher performance. The proposed RDWT-DCT-SVD watermarking scheme simulated and compared for the various quality metrics such as normalized correlation coefficient (NCC), root means square error (RMSE), and peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR). Comparing the various existing methods shows that the proposed method gives higher imperceptibility and robustness properties.
Article
Full-text available
Among emergent applications of digital watermarking, owner identification, proof of ownership and transaction tracking are applications that protect data by embedding the owner's information (watermark) in it. Recently, a robust image watermarking scheme based on discrete wavelet transform, discrete cosine transform and singular value decomposition was proposed by Hu et al. [1]. However, this scheme has shown some drawbacks. In this paper, we present two ambiguity attacks that clearly demonstrate the ineffectiveness of the above scheme some watermarking applications, such as proof of ownership, transaction tracking and data authentication.
Article
Full-text available
One of the powerful optimization tools that has been exploited in the computer world are nature inspired algorithms (NIAs), they are also used to solve problems in the computer programming world. For many years new algorithms have been developed regarding computer science and engineering communities such algorithms concentrates on NIAs which has proven their capabilities in many aspect, in some situation rapid solutions are needed to solve some problems these algorithms provides a versatile robust solutions for many of these situations. This paper presents a watermark inclusion based on a recently presented nature inspired algorithm to enhance the digital image watermarking procedure to be used for copyright protection. The nature inspired algorithm in focus is used to perfectly identify optimal positions in the discrete wavelet transform domain (DWT) for watermark inclusion in the gray scale image, The obtained results are shown in the experimental results section clarifying the superiority of using the algorithm in focus for the watermarking technique, In addition, showing how the algorithm optimum positions are obtained with lowest effect to the PSNR value of the produced watermark included images.
Article
Full-text available
The aim of this paper is to present multiobjective evolutionary optimizer (MEO) based highly secured and strongly robust image watermarking technique using discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and singular value decomposition (SVD). Many researchers have failed to achieve optimization of perceptual quality and robustness with high capacity watermark embedding. Here, we achieved optimized peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and normalized correlation (NC) using MEO. Strong security is implemented through eight different security levels including watermark scrambling by Fibonacci-Lucas transformation (FLT). Haar wavelet is selected for DWT decomposition to compare practical performance of wavelets from different wavelet families. The technique is non-blind and tested with cover images of size 512x512 and grey scale watermark of size 256x256. The achieved perceptual quality in terms of PSNR is 79.8611dBs for Lena, 87.8446 dBs for peppers and 93.2853 dBs for lake images by varying scale factor K1 from 1 to 5. All candidate images used for testing namely Lena, peppers and lake images show exact recovery of watermark giving NC equals to 1. The robustness is tested against variety of attacks on watermarked image. The experimental demonstration proved that proposed method gives NC more than 0.96 for majority of attacks under consideration. The performance evaluation of this technique is found superior to all existing hybrid image watermarking techniques under consideration.
Article
To protect the copyright of digital image, this paper proposed a combined Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) based watermarking scheme. To embed the watermark, the cover image was decomposed by a 2-level DWT, and the HL2 sub-band coefficient was divided into 4x4 blocks, then the DCT was performed on each of these blocks. The watermark bit was embedded by predefined pattern_0 or pattern_1 on the middle band coefficients of DCT. After watermark insertion, inverse DCT was applied to each of the 4x4 blocks of HL2 sub-band coefficient, and inverse DWT was applied to obtain the watermarked image. For watermark extraction, the watermarked image, which may be attacked by various image attacks, was decomposed with 2-level DWT and DCT similarly as watermark embedding process, then correlation between middle band coefficients of block DCT and the predefined pattern (pattern_0 and pattern_1) was calculated to decide whether a bit 0 or a bit 1 was embedded. Genetic algorithm was used for embedding and extraction parameters optimization. Optimization is to maximize PSNR of the watermarked image and NCC of the extracted watermark. Experiment results show that the proposed scheme in this paper is robust against many image attacks, and improvement can be observed when compared to other existing schemes.
Article
In traditional watermarking algorithms, the insertion of watermark into the original signal inevitably introduces some perceptible quality degradation. Another problem is the inherent conflict between imperceptibility and robustness. Zero-watermarking technique can solve these problems successfully. But most existing zero-watermarking algorithm for audio and image cannot resist against some signal processing manipulations or malicious attacks. In the paper, a novel audio zero-watermarking scheme based on discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is proposed, which is more efficient and robust. The experiments show that the algorithm is robust against the common audio signal processing operations such as MP3 compression, re-quantization, re-sampling, low-pass filtering, cutting-replacement, additive white Gaussian noise and so on. These results demonstrate that the proposed watermarking method can be a suitable candidate for audio
Conference Paper
With the rapid development of multimedia and computer technology, images, audio, text and video can be more easily produced, processed as well as stored by digital devices in recent years. To conceal data in transmitting message for preventing the illegal copying or to protect the secret is very important. Data encryption and information hiding schemes are developed to protect the secret data. In this paper, digital image watermarking algorithm based on DWT, DCT and SVD has been proposed in which Arnold transform has been applied to watermark image in order to ensure the watermark robustness. Experimental results show the algorithm is robust to the common image process such as JPEG compression and other attacks like noise and filters.
Article
A watermarking technique based on the frequency domain is presented in this paper. The one of the basic demands for the robustness in the watermarking mechanism should be able to dispute the JPEG attack since the JPEG is a usually file format for transmitting the digital content on the network. Thus, the proposed algorithm can used to resist the JPEG attach and avoid the some weaknesses of JPEG quantification. And, the information of the original host image and watermark are not needed in the extracting process. In addition, two important but conflicting parameters are adopted to trade-off the qualities between the watermarked image and the retrieve watermark. The experimental results have demonstrated that the proposed scheme has satisfied the basic requirements of watermarking such as robustness and imperceptible.
Conference Paper
This paper proposes a Digital Watermarking Algorithm using a unique combination of Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) for secured transmission of data through watermarking digital color images. The singular values obtained from SVD of DWT+DFT transformed watermark is embedded onto the singular values obtained from SVD of DWT+DFT transformed color image. Experimental results show the promising performance of the proposed algorithm for watermarking. Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) values for the watermarked image in the range of 65 to 85 dB and maximum correlation of 0.9998 are achieved.