Embedding Locations Research Articles

Imperceptible Image Watermarking based on Chinese Remainder Theorem over the Edges

This paper introduced a watermarking method using the CRT and Canny Algorithm that able to improve the imperceptibility of watermarked image and preserving the robustness of watermark image as well. The classical CRT algorithm is spread the watermark bits evenly on the image area. It causes significant degradation when the embedding location lies on the least significant region or in the homogeny area. Otherwise, the proposed method embeds the watermark on the edges of the image which have significant difference value to maintain the imperceptibility. The Canny algorithm is used to indexing the embedding location based on the filtering output of host image. The watermark is then embedded into the host image using pair-wise coprime integers of 6 and 11 within the CRT modulo. The results show that the proposed method has significant improvement in the quality of watermarked image with the average value of 0.9995 compared to the CRT method which results in value of 0.9985. In compression and additive noise attacks the CRT has average values of 0.6618 and 0.9750, while the proposed method results in similar values of 0.6616 and 0.9752 respectively. These prove that the proposed method is able to preserve the robustness while improving the imperceptibility.

Halftone Image Watermarking by Content Aware Double-Sided Embedding Error Diffusion.

In this paper, we carry out a performance analysis from a probabilistic perspective to introduce the error diffusion-based halftone visual watermarking (EDHVW) methods' expected performances and limitations. Then, we propose a new general EDHVW method, content aware double-sided embedding error diffusion (CaDEED), via considering the expected watermark decoding performance with specific content of the cover images and watermark, different noise tolerance abilities of various cover image content, and the different importance levels of every pixel (when being perceived) in the secret pattern (watermark). To demonstrate the effectiveness of CaDEED, we propose CaDEED with expectation constraint (CaDEED-EC) and CaDEED-noise visibility function (NVF) and importance factor (IF) (CaDEED-N&I). Specifically, we build CaDEED-EC by only considering the expected performances of specific cover images and watermark. By adopting the NVF and proposing the IF to assign weights to every embedding location and watermark pixel, respectively, we build the specific method CaDEED-N&I. In the experiments, we select the optimal parameters for NVF and IF via extensive experiments. In both the numerical and visual comparisons, the experimental results demonstrate the superiority of our proposed work.

SIFT based video watermarking resistant to temporal scaling

In this paper, a blind video watermarking scheme is proposed which can resist temporal scaling such as frame dropping and frame rate adaptation due to scalable compression by exploiting the scale invariance property of the scale invariant feature transform (SIFT). A video scene can also be viewed from side plane where height is the number of rows in a video frame, width is the number of frames in the scene and depth is the number of columns in the frame. In this work, intensity values of selected embedding locations changed such that strong SIFT feature can be generated. SIFT features are extracted from side plane of the video. These newly generated SIFT features are used for watermark signal and are stored in the database for the authentication. A comprehensive set of experiments has been done to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed scheme over the existing literature against temporal attacks.

Extreme learning machine based optimal embedding location finder for image steganography.

In image steganography, determining the optimum location for embedding the secret message precisely with minimum distortion of the host medium remains a challenging issue. Yet, an effective approach for the selection of the best embedding location with least deformation is far from being achieved. To attain this goal, we propose a novel approach for image steganography with high-performance, where extreme learning machine (ELM) algorithm is modified to create a supervised mathematical model. This ELM is first trained on a part of an image or any host medium before being tested in the regression mode. This allowed us to choose the optimal location for embedding the message with best values of the predicted evaluation metrics. Contrast, homogeneity, and other texture features are used for training on a new metric. Furthermore, the developed ELM is exploited for counter over-fitting while training. The performance of the proposed steganography approach is evaluated by computing the correlation, structural similarity (SSIM) index, fusion matrices, and mean square error (MSE). The modified ELM is found to outperform the existing approaches in terms of imperceptibility. Excellent features of the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed steganographic approach is greatly proficient for preserving the visual information of an image. An improvement in the imperceptibility as much as 28% is achieved compared to the existing state of the art methods.

Dark matter in the local group of galaxies

We describe the neutrino flavor ([Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]) masses as [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] with [Formula: see text] and probably [Formula: see text]. The quantity [Formula: see text] is the degenerate neutrino mass. Because neutrino flavor is not a quantum number, this degenerate mass appears in the neutrino equation-of-state [P. D. Morley and D. J. Buettner, Int. J. Mod. Phys. D (2014), doi:10.1142/s0218271815500042.]. We apply a Monte Carlo computational physics technique to the Local Group (LG) of galaxies to determine an approximate location for a Dark Matter embedding Condensed Neutrino Object (CNO) [P. D. Morley and D. J. Buettner, Int. J. Mod. Phys. D (2016), doi:10.1142/s0218271816500899.]. The calculation is based on the rotational properties of the only spiral galaxies within the LG: M31, M33 and the Milky Way. CNOs could be the Dark Matter everyone is looking for and we estimate the CNO embedding the LG to have a mass 5.17[Formula: see text] M[Formula: see text] and a radius 1.316 Mpc, with the estimated value of [Formula: see text] eV[Formula: see text]/c2. The up-coming KATRIN experiment [https://www.katrin.kit.edu.] will either be the definitive result or eliminate condensed neutrinos as a Dark Matter candidate.

Adaptive Embedding Approach in Color Image Carrier for Covert Communication

Steganography plays a vital role in the field of covert communication. This paper proposes a novel embedding scheme which embeds secret data adaptively. The proposed scheme employs integer to integer Lifting Wavelet Transforms (LWT) and pixel strength to specify suitable locations for data embedding. The integer LWT eliminates distortions, which is produced because of rounding process in the convolutional wavelet transforms. The performance of the proposed scheme is addressed using image quality metrics based on Peak Signal To Noise Ratio (PSNR) versus embedding ratio. Moreover, Bit Error Rate (BER) is utilized to assess robustness of the scheme. The experimental results show that the proposed is superior over several embedding techniques such as embedding based convolutional wavelet transforms and Lest Significant Bits (LSBs). The range of PSNR is gained between 51.52 and 22.15dB for range of embedding rate between 5% and 35%. Furthermore, the technique results error free for retrieving of secret data. In addition to the above features, the proposed technique increases security level of embedded data due to adaptive embedding process that increases randomly of embedding locations. The proposed scheme can be used in several important applications such as bank tag for authentication, military communications. Also, it can be implemented easily as a hardware chip and combine with covert imaging systems.

Blind Steganography in Color Images by Double Wavelet Transform and Improved Arnold Transform

<p>Steganography is a method which can put data into a media without a tangible impact on the cover media. In addition, the hidden data can be extracted with minimal differences. In this paper, two-dimensional discrete wavelet transform is used for steganography in 24-bit color images. This steganography is of blind type that has no need for original images to extract the secret image. In this algorithm, by the help of a structural similarity (SSIM) and a two-dimensional correlation coefficient, it is tried to select part of sub-band cover image instead of embedding location. These sub-bands are obtained by 3-levels of applying the DWT. Also to increase the steganography resistance against cropping or insert visible watermark, two channels of color image is used simultaneously. In order to raise the security, an encryption algorithm based on Arnold transform was also added to the steganography operation. </p>

Separation of longitudinal and flexural wave in a cylindrical structure based on sensor arrangement for non-destructive evaluation

Low strain integrity testing is commonly used to assess the in situ condition of the poles or piles. For poles, it is important to calculate the embedment length and location of damage which is highly influenced by the accurate determination of the wave velocity. In general, depending on impact location and orientation, both longitudinal and bending waves may generate inside the pole, and these two waves have very distinct characteristics and wave velocity. These differences are even more prominent in the low frequency which is usually induced in the low strain non-destructive testing. Consequently, it will be useful if these two waves can be separated for the condition assessment of the poles. In this paper, a numerical analysis is performed on a pole considering that both waves are generated, and a method is proposed to differentiate these two waves based on an appropriate sensor arrangement that includes the location and the orientation of the sensors. Continuous wavelet transform is applied on the numerical signal to calculate the phase velocity of the waves and compared with analytical phase velocity curves. From the results, it can be seen that appropriate location and orientation of the sensors can separate the longitudinal and flexural waves as they match significantly well with the corresponding analytical phase velocity curves of these two waves.

Cross correlation feature mining for steganalysis of hash based least significant bit substitution video steganography

Recently, video steganography has attracted researchers' attentions for its relative higher capacity than steganographic technique using image or audio as cover. Various image steganographic techniques have been proposed, such as least significant bit (LSB) substitution, LSB matching, etc. In (Dasgupta et al. in Int J Secur Priv Trust Manag 4:1---11, 2012), the authors proposed a hash based least significant bit substitution video steganography in spatial domain, and eight bits of secret message were divided into 3, 3, 2 segments and embedded into the RGB pixel values of cover frame. Besides, a hash function was used to determine the embedding locations. However, the hash function is fragile to attack and the observer can easily figure out the exact embedded positions. Moreover, the embedding of secret message significantly changes the cross correlation feature of consecutive video frames. Based on cross correlation analysis, a video steganalysis technique is proposed in this paper. Theoretical analysis and experimental results all show the effectiveness of the proposed cross correlation based video steganalysis technique.

False-positive free Hilbert and multi-resolution-based image watermarking technique using firefly optimisation algorithm

To increase the robustness and imperceptibility of the image watermarking scheme, a novel optimisation technique is proposed. The presented watermarking scheme uses Hilbert and multi-resolution transform (DWT) with principal component analysis (PCA)-based subband selection method for determining the suitable location for embedding. The modified firefly optimisation algorithm is used to decide the optimal scaling values among the multiple scaling factors for embedding the watermark within the cover image in hybrid transform space. Since, the embedding process is done in Hilbert transform domain, the imperceptibility of the watermark is improved and it is free from false positive detection. The experimental results shows that the presented approach is more robust against different kinds of image processing attacks such as, Gaussian filter, Poisson noise, salt and pepper noise, median filter, contrast adjustment, histogram equalisation, row and column deletion, JPEG compression and geometrical attacks such as, rotation and cropping.

An Invisible Logo Watermarking Using Arnold Transform

Digital watermarking is the process of hiding information into the digital content. The method of embedding a smaller logo image into the host image is called logo watermarking. The system proposes an invisible and secure watermarking. The key entered initially determine the location of embedding and thus classified the host image to white and black textured regions. The logo image is then transformed using Arnold transform. Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) technique is employed for embedding the transformed logo into the white textured regions. Watermark extraction is done by entering the same key which was already entered during embedding. The system is secure and the logo is imperceptible within the host image. Finally for analysis, PSNR value has been used as a metric for determining the quality of the recovered image.

Multi-bit watermarking of high dynamic range images based on perceptual models

A blind multi-bit watermarking method, specifically designed for high dynamic range (HDR) images, is introduced in this work. The presented embedding strategy takes into account several properties of the human visual system in order to guarantee proper imperceptibility of the embedded watermarks, as well as robustness against tone-mapping operators (TMOs) employed to derive low dynamic range (LDR) representations of the marked HDR content. Specifically, binary marks are embedded into the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) of the just-noticeable difference domain. Additionally, embedding locations are preferably selected in correspondence of the detail parts of an HDR image, determined by exploiting the properties of bilateral filtering. Furthermore, the watermark strength adopted in each DWT subband is modulated depending on a contrast sensitivity function, depending of the subband scale and orientation, to improve the visual quality of the watermarked image. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach, in terms of both mark imperceptibility and robustness, several experimental tests are carried out on a database comprising 15 HDR images. Specifically, robustness is evaluated by blindly extracting the embedded messages from both HDR marked images and from their LDR counterparts, thus investigating the effects of TMOs on message recovery. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A robust color video watermarking scheme based on hybrid embedding techniques

The advancements in network technologies and processing of multimedia contents have provided the way for the distribution and sharing of multimedia contents through networks. This in turn has increased the demand for protecting the multimedia contents in terms of authentication, proof of ownership, copy control etc., which can be achieved by means of what is called digital watermarking. The challenges in watermarking techniques are how to achieve the imperceptibility, robustness and payload simultaneously. This paper presents a new bit plane sliced, scrambled color image watermark embedded on the color cover video using hybrid transforms such as Contourlet Transform (CT), Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) transformations with good imperceptibility, high robustness and at an information rate of (N ź number of motion frames) / 24 images per second of the video, where N is the total number of frames in the video. In order to achieve a good level of imperceptibility, we perform the following: First, we slice the color watermark image into 24 slices using the bit plane slicing mechanism. Subsequently, the so called Arnold transformation key is used to scramble those slices, to achieve first-level of security. Thus, an authenticated receiver with an appropriate key alone can descramble the received slices. Second, we embed those scrambled slices on one of the DWT mid-frequency coefficients (LH band) of successive 1-level CT non-motion frames of color cover video. The non-motion frames are identified using the histogram difference based shot boundary detection algorithm. Third, in order to the provide second-level of security, we generate a random eigen vector from the color watermark image, using co-variance matrix and maximum eigen value and then embed it on another DWT mid-frequency coefficients (HL band). Thus, embedding only the slices (not an entire image) will improve the level of imperceptibility. The mid-frequency embedding location can withstand against all low pass and high pass filtering attacks; thereby it increases the level of robustness. Thus, the proposed system is suitable for authentication. Finally, as far as payload is concerned, we need only 24 non-motion frames for embedding our watermark on to the cover video. Hence the remaining frames can be utilized for embedding other color images. Our simulation results prove that the proposed system provides trustworthy performance against various notable image processing attacks, multiple attacks, geometrical attacks, and temporal attacks.

Stereo Image Reversible Watermarking for Authentication

To authenticate stereo image, this paper proposes a stereo image reversible watermarking method for three dimensional television systems. The proposed method can recover the original stereo image without any distortion if stereo image is not tampered. Otherwise, it can authenticate stereo image with the capability of locating tamper. Difference expansion is used to embed authentication bits reversibly into each block for locating tamper. Pixel pairs without resulting in overflow/underflow after expansion are chosen as candidates of embedding locations. In order to avoid transmit big size of embedding location map, the same embedding locations for each block are decided in advance, which adaptively determines the block size. Moreover, in order to resist collage attack, authentication bits generated from each block embedded into its mapping blocks, so that authentication of each block is not independent. Experimental results demonstrate that stereo image can be totally recovered if watermarked stereo image is not modified. Moreover, it proves suitability and stability of the proposed method for tamper location with relationships of stereo images.

An Improved Information Hiding Method Based on Sparse Representation

A novel biometric authentication information hiding method based on the sparse representation is proposed for enhancing the security of biometric information transmitted in the network. In order to make good use of abundant information of the cover image, the sparse representation method is adopted to exploit the correlation between the cover and biometric images. Thus, the biometric image is divided into two parts. The first part is the reconstructed image, and the other part is the residual image. The biometric authentication image cannot be restored by any one part. The residual image and sparse representation coefficients are embedded into the cover image. Then, for the sake of causing much less attention of attackers, the visual attention mechanism is employed to select embedding location and embedding sequence of secret information. Finally, the reversible watermarking algorithm based on histogram is utilized for embedding the secret information. For verifying the validity of the algorithm, the PolyU multispectral palmprint and the CASIA iris databases are used as biometric information. The experimental results show that the proposed method exhibits good security, invisibility, and high capacity.

Steganographic algorithm based on randomization of DCT kernel

Calibration attack is one of the most important attacks specially on JPEG domain steganography. Prediction of cover image statistics from its stego image is an important requirement in calibration based attacks. Domain separation techniques are used as a counter measures against such attacks because they make the cover image prediction process rather difficult. Most of the algorithms in the past are based on randomization of embedding locations. In this paper, we propose a new domain separation technique which is based on randomization of DCT kernel matrix. A comprehensive set of experiments are done to validate that the proposed domain separation scheme performs better than the related existing schemes.

Augmenting security of biometric with watermarking

This paper presents a new blind biometric watermarking scheme based on discrete wavelet transform for biometric template protection. We are using fingerprint feature and iris feature as multiple watermarks instead of randomly generated Gaussian noise type watermark. Watermark embedding locations are selected by measuring power level of each coefficient which gives sensibility of human eye to local image perturbations. Though biometric features are embedded sequentially, care is taken that most significant features are embedded to those locations whose power level is maximum which provides more robustness. We embed watermark into mid-frequency sub-band by modifying the amplitude of selected coefficient based on comparison between original and estimated values. Estimated value of coefficient is calculated from average sub-band of the same resolution level of the cover image. A reliable watermark extraction scheme is developed for the extraction of watermark from distorted image. Experimental evaluation demonstrates that the proposed scheme is able to withstand a variety of attacks. We show that the proposed scheme also gives adjustability to the user for selecting P percentage of retained wavelet coefficients.

A Novel Data Hiding Using Multi-Bit Minimum Error Replacement with Flexible Bit Location

The k-LSBs multi-bit minimum error replacement (MER) is a method used for embedding multi-bit logo/secret data into k least-significant bits (LSBs) of cover data only introduces minimum embedding error (MEE). However, the k-LSBs MER suffers from weak robustness. Moreover, it is unfortunate because no literature discusses the formulations and the properties of multi-bit MEE up to this day. Therefore, this work firstly establishes the formulations and the properties of multi-bit MEEs, we then use the results to develop a novel multi-bit MERs with flexible bit location embedding method (multi-bit MER_FBL embedding method). The proposed multi-bit MER_FBL embedding method embeds multi-bit (k-bit, k ≥ 1) logo/secret data into any adjoining (starting with the i^th location) k-bit b(subscript i)b(subscript i-1) ...b(subscript i-k+1) of cover data only introduces MEE in the range of 0 to ± (2k - 1)2^(i-k). Using the formulations and the properties of multi-bit MEEs, the MEE of multi-bit MER_FBL embedding method can be easily and determinedly evaluated. Because the proposed multi-bit MER_FBL embedding method has the feature of flexible bit location which enhances robustness as possible as the embedding location closing to the MSBs of cover data, we thus develop a mechanic of embedding threshold to evaluate robustness of the proposed method. We also developed a multi-bit MER_FBL embedding scheme based on the proposed method and then used it to build a novel multi-bit, invisible, and blind watermarking scheme to evaluate its performances. Final, simulation results show that the proposed multi-bit MER_FBL embedding method achieves high embedding capacity, good embedding quality, and can be high robustness for watermarking application.

Anti-Print and Scan Halftone Watermarking Algorithm Based on Edge Detection

In order to resist print and scan attacks, a kind of digital halftone image watermarking algorithm is proposed, which is based on the edge detection and improved error diffusion. The edge of gray image is gotten using canny detection. Calculate the noise visibility function values of the edge points. Then, sort the values in ascending order and select the size that equal to the length of watermark as the location of watermark embedding. While the grayscale image turns to halftone image using the improved error diffusion algorithm, binary watermark is embedded in the edge position. Watermark is pretreated with Arnold before embedding to improve the safety of watermark. Experiment results show that the algorithm is good resistance to print and scan attacks, while resistance to shearing, noise and jpeg compression attacks.

A semi-oblivious energy-aware adaptive watermarking for wireless image sensor networks

In this paper, we propose a semi-oblivious energy-aware adaptive watermarking scheme for wireless image sensor networks, which considered key characteristics such as the embedding capacity, security, imperceptibility, computation, and communication energy requirements. We evaluated the distortion in cover image due to watermark redundancies, the number of embedding locations with respect to two channel adaptive parameters, and the impact of compression of cover image on the correctness of extracted watermark. In addition, we investigated the robustness of the scheme against statistical analysis attacks. The results have shown that the proposed scheme has sufficient capacity to embed redundant watermarks in the cover image in an imperceptible manner with reasonably low distortion. The scheme is also considered relatively robust against collusion and middleman attacks.