A hybrid matrix factorization technique to free the watermarking scheme from false positive and negative problems

Abstract

Optimization techniques are used in watermarking algorithms to balance the trade-off between the two mutually conflicting parameters-imperceptibility and robustness. Differential Evolution (DE) with Rotational Cross over (RCO), namely DE-RCO, is employed in the proposed algorithm to improve the convergence of optimization. The DE-RCO provides a watermarking scheme with the highest robustness preserving the transparency. The watermark encoding and decoding carried in the transform domain with a hybrid combination of Schur Factorization (SF) and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD). Two-fold security provided with the Digital Signature (DS) generation and B-test. The DS is concealed in the watermarked image for authentication purpose of freeing the algorithm from the false-positive problem. When the signature passed through the insecure channel, it may corrupt and lead to the failure of the A-test, even the correct watermark given at the extraction leading to the false-negative problem. B-test is conducted to free the algorithm from a false negative problem. An enhanced authentication framework designed and implemented to make the algorithm free from the false-positive and false-negative issues using DS and the hash generated by Gaussian Hermite Moments (GHMs). The experimental results compared with the related existing watermarking schemes demonstrate that the proposed scheme exhibit strong robustness to attacks, invisible and highly secure against false-positive and false-negative problems.