Imperceptible watermarking for security of fundus images in tele-ophthalmology applications and computer-aided diagnosis of retina diseases

Abstract

Background and objectivesThe authentication and integrity verification of medical images is a critical and growing issue for patients in e-health services. Accurate identification of medical images and patient verification is an essential requirement to prevent error in medical diagnosis. The proposed work presents an imperceptible watermarking system to address the security issue of medical fundus images for tele-ophthalmology applications and computer aided automated diagnosis of retinal diseases. MethodsIn the proposed work, patient identity is embedded in fundus image in singular value decomposition domain with adaptive quantization parameter to maintain perceptual transparency for variety of fundus images like healthy fundus or disease affected image. In the proposed method insertion of watermark in fundus image does not affect the automatic image processing diagnosis of retinal objects & pathologies which ensure uncompromised computer-based diagnosis associated with fundus image. Patient ID is correctly recovered from watermarked fundus image for integrity verification of fundus image at the diagnosis centre. ResultsThe proposed watermarking system is tested in a comprehensive database of fundus images and results are convincing. Experimentalresults indicate that proposed watermarking method is imperceptible and it does not affect computer vision based automated diagnosis of retinal diseases. ConclusionsCorrect recovery of patient ID from watermarked fundus image makes the proposed watermarking system applicable for authentication of fundus images for computer aided diagnosis and Tele-ophthalmology applications.