Reversible Image Watermarking Research Articles

A Reversible Medical Image Watermarking Scheme for Advanced Image Tampering Detection

A Reversible Medical Image Watermarking Scheme for Advanced Image Tampering Detection

Reversible medical image watermarking for tamper detection using ANN and SLT

Reversible medical image watermarking for tamper detection using ANN and SLT

A Reversible Medical Image Watermarking for ROI Tamper Detection and Recovery

A Reversible Medical Image Watermarking for ROI Tamper Detection and Recovery

Reversible Image Watermarking Using Modified Quadratic Difference Expansion and Hybrid Optimization Technique

Reversible Image Watermarking Using Modified Quadratic Difference Expansion and Hybrid Optimization Technique

A Reversible Digital Image Watermarking Technique for Integrity and Authenticity of MR Images

Digital Watermarking is the art and science of embedding information in existing digital content for Digital Rights Management (DRM) and authentication. Reversible watermarking is a class of (fragile) digital watermarking that not only authenticates multimedia data content, but also helps to maintain perfect integrity of the original multimedia “cover data”. Watermarking of digital images is a well-known technique that is widely used for securing image contents. A successful watermarking method must be accurate, reversible, resilient, and robust against various attacks. The technical revolution associated with the implementation the development of digital technologies in medicine, has led to the emergence and active development of new directions in many areas of medicine. The authenticity and integrity of medical images has to be protected. Hence in this paper a reversible digital image watermarking technique for integrity and authenticity of MR (Magnetic Resonance) images is presented. Reversible watermarking is recognized as a robust approach to confirm the integrity and authenticity of medical images and to verify that alterations can be detected and tracked back.

Robust and reversible color image watermarking based on DFT in the spatial domain

With the purpose of protecting the copyright and integrity of color images, a robust and reversible color image watermarking algorithm in the spatial domain fusing discrete Fourier transform (DFT) is proposed. Based on the relationship between the direct current (DC) component of DFT and the spatial-domain pixel values, the proposed quantization technology is used to embed and extract the watermark in this paper. Firstly, color images are represented in RGB color space, and the red, green, and blue channels of the host image are preprocessed for obtaining image blocks of size 2 × 2 and that of the watermark image are preprocessed for obtaining watermark bit sequences. Secondly, the DC component of DFT in each block is calculated and quantized, and the change of the DC component is assigned to each pixel value by the derived formula. Finally, it is completed to embed a 1-bit watermark into one block in the spatial domain. Meanwhile, a matrix that records the magnitude of the change of pixel value in each block is generated to recover the host image, and the related watermark extraction algorithm is also proposed. The experimental results show that this algorithm can completely extract the watermark and restore the host image without loss under the condition of not being attacked, and it has good invisibility, robustness, security, and embedding payload, particularly its running efficiency is also high.

A Prediction Error Nonlinear Difference Expansion Reversible Watermarking for Integrity and Authenticity of DICOM Medical Images

It is paramount to ensure the integrity and authenticity of medical images in telemedicine. This paper proposes an imperceptible and reversible Medical Image Watermarking (MIW) scheme based on image segmentation, image prediction and nonlinear difference expansion for integrity and authenticity of medical images and detection of both intentional and unintentional manipulations. The metadata from the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) file constitutes the authentication watermark while the integrity watermark is computed from Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA)-256. The two watermarks are combined and compressed using the Lempel Ziv (LZ) -77 algorithm. The scheme takes advantage of the large smooth areas prevalent in medical images. It predicts the smooth regions with zero error or values close to zero error, while non-smooth areas are predicted with large error values. The binary watermark is encoded and extracted in the zero-prediction error using a nonlinear difference expansion. The binary watermark is concentrated more on the Region of non-interest (RONI) than the Region of interest (ROI) to ensure a high visual quality while maintaining a high capacity. The paper also presents a separate low degradation side information processing algorithm to handle overflow. Experimental results show that the scheme is reversible and has a remarkable imperceptibility and capacity that are comparable to current works reported in literature.

Multiple histogram based adaptive pairwise prediction-error modification for efficient reversible image watermarking

The prediction-error expansion (PEE) based reversible data hiding (RDH) methods mainly contain two steps: prediction-error histogram (PEH) generation and PEH modification. Multiple histograms modification (MHM) and pairwise PEE are two efficient methods used in PEH modification, which can greatly reduce the distortion to the cover image under given payloads. However, these two effective methods are not used together for their conflict on causality and large computational complexity. To address the above two problems, in this paper, a group of non-causal predictors with a specially designed complexity metric are proposed so that the conflict on causality is resolved. Then, the original optimization problem to determine the parameters of MHM and pairwise PEE is decomposed into two easier ones, which are addressed by a step-by-step optimization. Several efficient constraints are used to narrow the search range for the optimal parameters while minimizing the performance degradation. As a result, the proposed method can obtain high quality on the embedded images, that is, the average PSNR of the 8 standard 512 × 512 sized grayscale images from the USC-SIPI image database can reach 60.43 dB for the payload of 10,000 bits, while the running time for the proposed algorithm is acceptable. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms many kinds of RDH schemes, and achieves an obvious increment in fidelity over a series of state-of-the-art RDH schemes.

Robust and reversible image watermarking in homomorphic encrypted domain

This paper proposes a robust and reversible watermarking scheme for the encrypted image by using Paillier cryptosystem. In the proposed method, the original image is divided into a number of non-overlapping blocks sized by 8 × 8 and Paillier cryptosystem is applied to encrypt the pixels in each block. Firstly, a data hider can calculate the statistical values of encrypted blocks by employing modular multiplicative inverse (MMI) method and looking for a mapping table. Then a watermark sequence can be embedded into the encrypted image by shifting the histogram of the statistical values. On the receiver side, the shifted histogram can be obtained from both the encrypted image and the decrypted image. Furthermore, the embedded watermark can be extracted from the shifted histogram. The encrypted original image can be restored by employing inverse operations of histogram shifting. This is followed by a decryption operation to restore the original image. In the proposed method, the hidden bits can still be extracted correctly under some typical content-preserving operations, such as JPEG/JPEG2000 compression and additive Gaussian noise. Compared with the previous reversible watermarking methods in plaintext domain, the proposed method has satisfactory performance in image quality and robustness. Experimental results have shown the validity of the proposed method.

Large-capacity reversible image watermarking based on improved DE.

Aiming at solving the problems of bad imperceptibility and low embedding rate of existing algorithms, a novel large-capacity reversible image watermarking based on improved difference expansion (DE) is proposed. Firstly, the smoothness calculation algorithm is used to calculate and sort the smoothness values of the divided image sub-blocks; then, the scrambled watermark is embedded into the sub-blocks with less smoothness after removing the abrupt point by using the generalized difference expansion (GDE); finally, the absolute difference operation is applied to the generated overflow pixels to make their pixel values within a reasonable range for embedding watermark information. Under the premise of ensuring a certain visual quality, multiple watermark embedding can effectively improve the embedding rate. The simulation results show that this algorithm not only realizes blind extraction, but also recovers the original images without loss. At the same time, this algorithm achieves a high embedding rate (the average embedding rate is as high as 77.91 dB) without decreasing the visual quality.

Reversible Watermarking Technique for Fingerprint authentication based on DCT

In this paper, a new reversible and blind fingerprint image watermarking technique based on the differential method and discrete cosine transform (DCT) domains is presented. The focus is to increase the security of the fingerprint image in authentication systems. Two DCT-transformed sub-vectors are employed to embed the bits of the watermark sequence in a differential scheme. The original sub-vectors are acquired by the DCT transform on the host fingerprint image. In the extraction process, a minor variance between the sub-vectors that correspond to the watermarked fingerprint image directly allows access to the embedded watermark sequence; therefore, the extraction process doesn’t require an original fingerprint. The original fingerprint image is then recovered from the watermarked fingerprint image based on the reversible watermarking technique. The similarity between the reversible fingerprint image and the original is considered, and we could extract minutiae points from it without a problem. The proposed technique is evaluated using 80 fingerprint images from 10 persons for each from FVC2002 fingerprint database. Eight fingerprint images have been taken from each person to be used as the template then the process was followed by embedding the watermark into each fingerprint image. The experimental results validate the proposed method able to give promising results in preserving the fingerprint image security.

Reversible Image Watermarking Algorithm Based on Quadratic Difference Expansion

To improve the visual quality and embedding rate of existing reversible image watermarking algorithms, a reversible image watermarking algorithm based on quadratic difference expansion is proposed. First, the pixel points with grayscale values 0 and 255 in the original image are removed, and then, the half-scrambled watermark information is embedded into the original image using linear difference expansion. Finally, the remaining half of the watermark information is embedded into the previously generated watermarked image by the quadratic difference expansion, meanwhile the removed pixel points with grayscale values 0 and 255 in the image are merged, and the final watermarked image is generated accordingly. The experimental results show that the algorithm has both a high embedding rate and a high visual quality, which can completely recover the original image. Compared with other difference expansion watermarking algorithms, it has certain advantages without having to consider the smoothness of the embedded image region.

Prediction-Based Reversible Watermarking of CT Scan Images for Content Authentication and Copyright Protection

In the application of teleradiology, radiologists located at different geographical locations around the globe, exchange Computed Tomography (CT) scan images along with relevant patient information for diagnosis as well as therapeutic measures. However, when these images are exchanged over public networks like the Internet, two important issues are created: content authentication and copyright protection. In this paper, a novel high capacity reversible watermarking scheme for CT Scan images is presented which is based on the region of interest (ROI) and region of non-interest (RONI) watermarking. The scheme embeds and extracts the secret data into the input CT scan image as well as restores the image to its pristine state at the receiving end. After segmenting the host image into the ROI and RONI regions, the scheme implants a fragile watermark (FW) into the ROI to check the integrity of the ROI and a robust watermark (RW) into the RONI for copyright protection. The novelty of the proposed system is in two fold. First, it takes advantage of the segmentation algorithm to avoid the additional overhead of information about the vertices usually required at the receiving end in order to select the ROI. Secondly, it takes advantage of the prediction-based reversible watermarking to avoid additional overhead of location map, which is usually required for reversibility in most of the reversible medical image watermarking techniques. Experimental results show that the proposed system outperforms medical image watermarking techniques recently reported in the literature in terms of embedding capacity and imperceptibility of watermarked image.

A reversible water marking algorithm for multimedia images using two-dimensional non-causal prediction and ESPVD

Reversible image watermarking algorithm is an important branch of information hiding, which can protect the integrity of data. Therefore, it is of great practical significance and practical value to study the reversible image water marking algorithm. A multimedia image watermarking algorithm based on two-dimensional non-causal prediction and edge based sorted pixel value difference (ESPVD) is proposed in this paper, which is used to protect the security of multimedia information. Firstly, the optimum prediction coefficients in the horizontal and vertical directions of image are calculated. Then, two-dimensional non-causal prediction of image is carried out according to raster scanning sequence, and prediction pixels and prediction errors are calculated. Finally, the morphological edge (ME) operator is used to identify edge pixel positions, and the ESPVD technology is used to embed the watermarking information. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has better performance than those of other image watermarking algorithms under the same embedding ability.

Wavelet based Reversible Image Watermarking with Logistic Encryption for Health Informatics Systems

Health Informatics systems preserves the patient’s digital records. Two techniques that help in this process are watermarking and encryption. In this paper a reversible image watermarking scheme with logistic encryption is presented. The reversible watermarking is utilizing the concept of integer wavelet transform. The image is divided into sub bands and then the binary data is hidden in these sub bands. The watermarked wavelet sub bands are passed through logistic encryption module which scrambles the coefficients. These coefficients are then sent to inverse wavelet transform for image reconstruction. This process helps encrypt the image though spectral scrambling, thus resulting in faster and better encryption. The proposed algorithm outperforms the exiting algorithms in terms of execution time and the level of encryption.

Comparison Of Reversible Image Watermarking Methods Based On Prediction-Errors

This study compares two reversible image watermarking algorithms applied to a digital image. The first algorithm is a method based on adaptive watermarking of prediction-errors. With this method, as in the existing reversible image watermarking methods, pixels are embedded in two different ways according to the values of prediction-errors instead of applying the same watermarking algorithm to all pixels in the imageAccordingly, the image pixels are divided into two blocks as uniform and non-uniform. The watermarking capacity has been increased by embedding 2-bit to specific pixels of uniform blocks and 1-bit to specific pixels of non-uniform blocks. The second algorithm is a method based on interpolation errors. In this method, interpolation error is utilized. The two methods compared with each other were compared with the existing methods in the literature by using computer simulations, and superior and weak aspects of the methods were determined.

Toward Optimal Prediction Error Expansion-Based Reversible Image Watermarking

Reversible image watermarking is a technique that allows the cover image to remain unmodified after watermark extraction. Prediction error expansion-based schemes are currently the most efficient and widely used class of reversible image watermarking techniques. In this paper, first, we prove that the bounded capacity distortion minimization problem for prediction error expansion-based reversible watermarking schemes is NP-hard, and the corresponding decision version of the problem is NP-complete. Then, we prove that the dual problem of bounded distortion capacity maximization problem for prediction error expansion-based reversible watermarking schemes is NP-hard, and the corresponding decision problem is NP-complete. Furthermore, taking advantage of the integer linear programming formulations of the optimization problems, we find the optimal performance metric values for a given image, using concepts from the optimal linear prediction theory. Our technique allows the calculation of these performance metric limit without assuming any particular prediction scheme. The experimental results for several common benchmark images are consistent with the calculated performance limits validate our approach.

IWT-MDE based reversible thermal image watermarking enhanced with secret sharing mechanism

Telemedicine systems are used to transfer medical images between hospitals and doctors for consultation in many countries recently. It is crucial to ensure integrity of medical images transferred on unencrypted channels. Many medical image watermarking techniques have been proposed in the literature to deal with this problem. Thermal imaging to detect dense vascular regions is a new medical imaging modality gaining popularity to enhance diagnosis of breast cancer. Thermal images with large smooth areas and Region of Interest (ROI) have different characteristics compared to traditional medical images and require new image watermarking methods. A new thermal image watermarking algorithm utilizing Integer Wavelet Transform (IWT), Modified Difference Expansion (MDE) and Shamir’s Secret Sharing Scheme (SSSS) has been proposed for e-healthcare applications in this paper. IWT coefficients of thermal image are expanded by the MDE to make more consecutive blocks expandable. Location Map (LM) becomes more compressible if there are many consecutive blocks. Thus, larger ROI can be watermarked by the proposed method. The method also uses SSSS to share LM into meaningless shares embedded into border regions. Sharing LM by the SSSS makes it possible to reconstruct it even if some of the thermal image borders are removed inadvertently or modified on purpose to break the watermark. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method has better embedding capacity and good imperceptibility compared to similar methods reported in the literature. Besides, it has expanded ROI size and also is the first method which considers border region attacks in medical image watermarking.

CERTAIN INVESTIGATIONS ON REVERSIBLE IMAGE WATERMARKING

Objectives: To protect secret information in a digital medium without compromising robustness. There are many approaches introduced regarding the importance of utilizing medical, military and natural images for image watermarking procedure. Reversible watermarking is appreciated that the original media can be recovered without any loss of information after extracting stego-data. With an aim to provide higher security and robustness, certain investigations have been done on reversible image watermarking. Methods/Statistics: This research work mainly addresses on privacy, reversibility, payload and robustness related goals. Considering these challenges, three parts of image watermarking techniques, namely proposed Bi-orthogonal Wavelet Transform and Importance Measure Model (BWT and IMM), introduced Dynamic Prediction Error Integrated Reversible Image Watermarking (DPEIRIW) and proposed Multi Wavelet Transform based and Oppositional Particle Swarm Optimization (MWT - OPSO) are introduced to improvise the data hiding performance. Findings: The methodologies introduced in this research work not only surpass other approaches with considerations to a variety of incursions, but still maintains a satisfactory image quality. From the experimental results, it is clearly understood that this suggested approach MWT and OPSO attains the average PSNR of 59.84 dB and average NC of 1, which is minimal when comparedwith the all the other existing strategies. Applications/Improvements: As the ongoing trend is now towards multi-core computing and the requirements for the real time video communication is very much in demand, the ownership right information also required to be preserved. It could be a great future direction to deploy this design approach under multi-core platforms. Keywords: Correlation Coefficient, Entropy, Importance Measure Model, OPSO Biorthogonal DWT, Prediction Error, Reversible Watermarking, NC, PSNR

Reversible image watermarking based on texture analysis of grey level co-occurrence matrix

Embedding the watermark in the complex area of the image can effectively improve concealment. However, most methods simply use the mean squared error (MSE) and some simple methods to judge the texture complexity. In this paper, we propose a new texture analysis method based on grey level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) and provide an in-depth discussion on how to accurately choose a complex region. This new method is applied to the reversible image watermarking. Firstly, the original host image is divided into 128 * 128 sub blocks. Then, we use the mean square error to assign the weight of the four texture feature parameters to establish the relationship between the characteristic parameters and the complexity of an image sub block. Applying this formulaic series, we can calculate the complexity of each sub block, along with the selection of the maximum sub blocks of the texture complexity. If the embedding position is insufficient, then we select the second sub block to be embedded in the watermark, until the satisfactory embedding capacity is reached. Pairwise prediction error extend (PPEE) is used to hide the data.