A Robust Watermarking Scheme Based on the Mean Modulation of DWT Coefficients

Zied Kricha,Anis Kricha,Anis Sakly

doi:10.1155/2018/1254081

Zied Kricha, Anis Kricha + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/1254081

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Abstract

In an endeavor to deal with image copyright infringement, robust watermarking approaches are commonly used. However, most of the existing approaches either present a limited robustness or rely on highly computational algorithms, thereby limiting the efficiency of these solutions. In this paper, a novel blind and robust watermarking method is presented. First, the vertical and horizontal subbands coefficients, resulting from the wavelet transformation, are scrambled using a chaotic sequence and then gathered into individual blocks. Next, the mean value of each block is modulated according to watermark bit. At the extraction stage, based on the sign of the blocks’ mean, a blind watermark extractor is suggested. The imperceptibility, security, complexity, and robustness of the proposed approach have been evaluated and compared with state of the art solutions. Experimental results prove that the proposed approach successfully satisfies the watermarking requirement and outperforms existing methods against both geometric and signal processing attacks.

Highlights

We all remember directing a banknote toward a source of light to verify its authenticity
The used image database includes Lena, Baboon, Peppers, and Tank. These images present a variety of image properties (e.g., mixture of dark and light area, alongside with highly textures regions in the Lena image), which refutes the idea of tying the performance of the scheme to some image properties
The performance of the suggested method is experimentally examined from different aspects

Summary

Introduction

We all remember directing a banknote toward a source of light to verify its authenticity. The presence of a predefined pattern, number, or portrait, technically called watermark, determines whether the banknote is fake or not. Watermarking is an old technique used to prevent counterfeiting of several official paper documents. Physical form of paper is not the only valuable thing worth securing, whereas images, audio tracks, and video sequences present a new form of money, that is vulnerable to unauthorized distribution and modification. In an effort to address these issues, watermarking concept was again adopted, but this time with the prefix “digital” for referring to digital objects. Digital watermarking is the act of incorporating supplemental information into multimedia material (still images, audio, or video) in such a manner that it does not alter the delivered material and yet still readily exploited by the watermark detector, even after some undesirable operations. An overview of the literature reveals a broad range of application domains including encryption [1], copyright protection [2], integrity verification [3], content restoration [4], and documentation [5]

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