Digital Watermarking Scheme Research Articles

A Nested Digital Watermarking Scheme Using GARN with DWT

A Nested Digital Watermarking Scheme Using GARN with DWT

Digital Watermarking Using Hybrid Grasshopper Optimization Algorithm and Genetic Algorithm (HGOAGA)

The advancement of computer technology has raised significant issues with digital content piracy and copyright law. A popular method of protecting copyright and related uses is digital watermarking. Various algorithms have been developed to address the need for invisible performance and robustness in digital watermarking schemes. Here, we proposed a novel evolutionary algorithm, the hybrid Grass Hopper Optimization algorithm, and the Genetic algorithm (HGOAGA) for optimizing multiple scaling factors in the digital watermarking scheme in the frequency domain of hybrid Discrete Wavelet Transformation (DWT) and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) method (hybrid DWT-SVD). The subcomponents of the image are determined by calculating the DWT of the cover image. The problem is determining the best scaling factor for watermarking after converting the subcomponent to the frequency domain using SVD. In HGOAGA, an optimal solution of multiple scaling factors is found after several iterations, starting with a set of randomly generated solutions. The advantages of GOA and GA are combined in the HGOAGA to balance exploration and exploitation functionalities. Furthermore, HGOAGA can converge quickly and escape local optima well. Some standard images were used in the MATLAB environment to test the proposed algorithm. The evaluation of the experiment was carried out using various metrics such as the Structural Similarity Index (SSIM), the Normalized Cross-Correlation (NCC), and the Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR). The experimental results of the tests showed a PSNR value of 51db for the proposed method compared to existing methods, and they are best suited to solving conflict problems between robustness and quality.

In-depth exploration of digital image watermarking with discrete cosine transform and discrete wavelet transform

Digital image watermarking is a crucial technique used to protect the integrity and ownership of digital images by embedding imperceptible watermarks into the image content. This review concentrates on the utilization of discrete cosine transform (DCT) and discrete wavelet transform (DWT) in digital image watermarking schemes. DCT, widely used in image compression like JPEG, is an attractive choice for watermarking, modifying DCT coefficients with minimal impact on image quality. On the other hand, DWT offers multiresolution representation, enabling better localization and robustness against attacks. DWT-based methods use wavelet coefficients to embed watermarks in specific frequency bands or image regions. The review examines the strengths and weaknesses of DCT and DWT in digital image watermarking, exploring algorithms and approaches proposed in the literature. It also addresses challenges like attacks, synchronization, and robustness to image processing. Additionally, a comparative analysis of DCT and DWT-based methods considers imperceptibility, robustness, capacity, and computational complexity. By offering valuable insights, this review aids researchers and practitioners in implementing secure and efficient digital image watermarking solutions.

On a self-recovery digital watermarking scheme robust against spatial and temporal attacks on compressed video

In recent decades, the use of digital media has increased. With it, digital media exposure to unwanted manipulations that, although unintentional, can affect third parties. These manipulations in digital watermarking are known as attacks, consisting of intentional or unintentional editing of multimedia content such as images, videos, or audio streams. For video sequences, attacks can be performed in spatial and temporal domains. The former includes changes to individual frames, while the latter involves altering sub-sequences, such as inserting or deleting frames.This work aims to achieve approximate recovery from these attacks using digital watermarking. Unlike most existing works, this scheme uses the compression domain since most video applications use some compression standard to transmit and store these sequences. By adapting popular image block-based popular recovery schemes for large video sequences and using a novel scrambled watermark mapping, satisfactory recovery and visual quality results are achieved.

An effective digital image watermarking scheme incorporating DCT, DFT and SVD transformations.

Image watermarking prevents copyright infringements by attaching visible/invisible watermark images as authentication identities in the owner's documents. The article made analysis on the advantages of different transformations for choosing better combinations to make the watermark embedding process and observed that watermarking techniques incorporating discrete cosine transform (DCT) provide better resistance towards JPEG based potential attacks, discrete Fourier transform (DFT) has strong energy compaction with geometrical invariance properties to resist geometric attacks while singular value decomposition (SVD) provides stability, proportion invariance and rotation invariance properties and it provides strong resistance against noise based attacks. Considering these advantages of different transformations, the article presents a new non-blind watermarking algorithm by utilizing advantages of DFT, DCT and SVD transforms while attaching secret contents in cover images. The algorithm starts by applying DFT followed by onion peel decomposition (OPD) for decomposing Fourier domain carrier image to four frequency sub images. The scheme then applies DCT on the frequency bands and orders them in zigzag fashion to form four individual frequency arrays. In the final step of embedding process, it embeds four copies of watermark singular value contents in DFT domain with the carrier image singular value contents to produce the watermarked image. The experimental results based on subjective and objective metrics on various test images from standard image databases with different test conditions demarcate the stability of new algorithm in producing high quality watermarked images with fewer distortions even when the watermarked images are extremely distorted by potential attacks.

Hybrid domain digital watermarking scheme based on improved differential evolution algorithm and singular value block embedding

AbstractThe internet and related technologies have promoted the development of medical and health fields, especially remote diagnosis. As medical images may be stolen in the transmission process, the patient's personal information could be leaked. Aiming at the problem of privacy disclosure of colour medical images, a hybrid domain watermarking scheme based on improved differential evolution (DE) and the singular value block embedding (SVBE) is proposed in this study. Through this scheme, the image containing the patient's information is hidden in the patient's medical carrier image as a watermark. First, redistributed invariant lifting wavelet transform (RILWT), discrete wavelet transform (DWT), and singular value decomposition (SVD) are used to process the colour medical carrier image, and the high‐frequency information in the integer wavelet domain of the watermark is embedded into the processed carrier image using the proposed singular value block embedding method based on the improved differential evolution algorithm. At the same time, to increase the security of the watermark scheme, a digital signature based on the SHA‐384 hash function is designed for verification before watermark extraction. Compared with recent related research, the scheme has strong invisibility and robustness.

A novel watermarking scheme for medical image using support vector machine and lifting wavelet transform.

Digital image watermarking has become a valuable tool for preventing unauthorized use and alteration of digital images due to technological advancements. A fundamental difficulty in digital image watermarking is to provide resilience against geometrical assault while retaining a sufficient degree of imperceptibility and security. This study presents an efficient authentication scheme for digital image watermarking on medical images benefiting from both techniques: Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Lifting Wavelet Transform (LWT). In this article, we use two strategies, where SVM is used first to separate the Region of Interest (ROI) from the Non-Region of Interest (NROI) in the medical image. Then LWT is applied to embed watermark information within the NROI part of the medical image (Cover Image). Moreover, we have applied a shared secret key to enhancing the robustness of the proposed scheme. The method is tested on an extensive image database to see how it performs under different situations. The research looked into the various experimental analyses to establish the acceptability of the existing scheme. The simulation is performed to measure the imperceptibility and robustness using various evaluation metrics.

Robust Watermarking Techniques for the Authentication and Copyright Protection of Digital Images: A Survey

Digital image authentication and security are crucial concerns for the digital revolution since any image may be readily tampered with. Digital watermarking schemes were since been utilized to tackle a range of problems over time and involving the verification of digital images and copyright protection. In a real-world setting, watermarked contents are frequently subject to a succession of assaults which makes it necessary to strike a balance between resilience and imperceptibility in the face of attacks. There are numerous hazards to this, and numerous watermarking techniques have been created to counter them. Data with less perceptual distortion should be able to be included in a real watermarking technique in addition to restoring the original cover content. As a result, robustness, imperceptibility, and security are three crucial criteria for digital content'sauthentication and copyrightpreservation. This study therefore presents a careful review of some cutting-edge watermarking technologies used for copyright protection and authentication so as to identify their strengths and limitations. For clarity, this study shall explain some basic concepts of digital watermarking as well as the various forms of attacks on watermarks. The contributions from this work will be useful to researchers aim at developing efficient watermarking techniques

A Self-Error-Correction-Based Reversible Watermarking Scheme for Vector Maps

The existing digital watermarking schemes for vector maps focus mainly on the process of watermark embedding, while few works have been conducted on the topic of the self-optimization of watermark data in the process of watermark detection. There is thus still much room for accuracy improvement in watermark detection. In this paper, a model of mixed watermark data construction is built first. It constructs the error-correction codes and checking code of the original copyright watermark data and combines them to generate the final watermark data. Additionally, a lossless compression algorithm is designed for watermark data to constrain the total watermark length. Based on the constructed model, a self-error-correction-based reversible watermarking scheme is put forward for vector maps. In this scheme, map vertices are divided into non-intersecting groups first according to stability, and mixed watermark data are then embedded with respective vertex groups. Simulation results demonstrate that the watermark capacity of this scheme is 1.0000, the coordinate error caused by the watermark embedding process can be limited to no more than 0.00001 when the strength of watermark embedding is set to five, and several watermark bits can be effectively detected and corrected after watermark extraction. Experimental results and analysis show that it can strike a good balance among reversibility, invisibility, capacity and robustness. It can provide a novel solution to improve the watermark detection accuracy of digital watermarking schemes for vector maps.

An Optimized Deep Fusion Convolutional Neural Network-Based Digital Color Image Watermarking Scheme for Copyright Protection

An Optimized Deep Fusion Convolutional Neural Network-Based Digital Color Image Watermarking Scheme for Copyright Protection

Digital watermarking scheme based on curvelet transform and multiple chaotic maps

The rapid development of digital products brings security issues. Digital watermarking technology is an important means to handle these problems. To enhance the imperceptibility of watermark and locate the possible tampering as well, a digital watermarking scheme based on curvelet transform is presented by combining with multiple chaotic maps. The host image is decomposed into three parts, i.e., coarse layer, detail layer and fine layer, with curvelet transform, and a robust watermark is embedded into the coarse layer for copyright protection of digital products. In addition, an authentication watermark is embedded into the fine layer to detect and locate the illegal changes. Simulation results show that the proposed digital watermarking scheme possesses acceptable robustness and security.

A robust blind watermarking scheme based on lifting wavelet transform and hessenberg decomposition

In this paper, a novel robust blind grayscale image digital watermarking scheme is introduced based on lifting wavelet transform (LWT) in combination with discrete cosine transform (DCT), Hessenberg decomposition, and entropy analysis for copyright protection of multimedia information. At first, the two levels of LWT are applied to the host grayscale image to improve the imperceptibility of the watermarking scheme and then the high-frequency sub-band of the 2-level of LWT is decomposed by DCT. Next, the DCT coefficients are divided into 4×4 non-overlapping blocks. After that, Hessenberg decomposition performs on each selected block, whereas the first row, first column element of the upper Hessenberg matrix is utilized to hide the watermark. To evaluate the imperceptibility and robustness of the proposed digital watermarking scheme, the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), and normalized cross-correlation (NC) are utilized to measure the quality and the ability of the proposed watermarking scheme to robust against signal processing operations and geometric attacks. Experimental and analysis results have demonstrated that the proposed scheme is achieved a very good tradeoff between imperceptibility and robustness. The comparison with other scheme have shown that the proposed digital watermarking schemes have a superior performance in terms of imperceptibility and robustness than other.

A Wavelet Based Digital Image Watermarking Technique through Encryption with DCT

Recently, due to the increase in popularity of the Internet, the problem of digital data security over the Internet is increasing at a phenomenal rate. Watermarking is used for various notable applications to secure digital data from unauthorized individuals. Digital image watermarking is an attractive research area since it protects the multimedia data from unauthorized access. Digital images are widely communicated over the internet. The security of digital images is an essential and challenging task on shared communication channel. In the era of big data and networking, it is necessary to develop a secure and robust digital watermarking scheme with high computational efficiency to protect copyrights of digital works. Digital watermarking is need for the security of digital images to achieve security goals, i.e. confidentiality, integrity and availability. With the use of sophisticated signal/image processing algorithms, manipulations and duplications of audio, images, and videos are much easier. Hence, content authentication through encryption and resistance to general attacks such as noise, compression, and geometric has become an urgent and important issue. Hence in this work a wavelet based digital image watermarking technique through encryption with DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) is presented that can guarantee robustness of image against salt and pepper attack.

Robustness of Modified Non-Separable HaarWavelet Transform and Singular Value Decomposition for Non-blind Digital Image Watermarking

Security is a matter of significant concern for image media. An effective way to protect images is by digital watermarking. This paper introduces a non-blind digital watermarking scheme using modified non-separable Haar wavelet transform (NSHWT), singular value decomposition (SVD), Arnold's cat map, and Rabin-p cryptosystem to embed a binary watermark image into a color cover image. Aside from robustness, security is also prioritized in the scheme. High robustness is achieved using two transform domain techniques, discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and SVD, while security is heightened with the double encryption by Arnold's cat map scrambling and Rabin-p cryptosystem. A disadvantage of the discrete wavelet transform in digital image watermarking is the calculation complexity and the high cost of changing memory and time. The proposed algorithm uses a modified NSHWT instead of the traditional method of DWT. Therefore, the load of the process on the hardware can significantly be reduced while still maintaining the advantages of DWT. The algorithm is objectively evaluated in terms of imperceptibility, robustness, and embedding capacity for both binary and color watermarks, as well as efficiency. It has been concluded that the proposed scheme performs competently compared with other recent watermarking techniques based on DWT and SVD.

MantaRayWmark: An image adaptive multiple embedding strength optimization based watermarking using Manta Ray Foraging and bi-directional ELM

Digital watermarking schemes based on a single value of embedding strength do not take into account the local characteristics of the host signal for watermark embedding. Consequently, striking a balance between imperceptibility and the robustness of the watermarking scheme becomes a challenging task. The use of multiple values of the embedding strength provides a solution to this problem. Multiple embedding strength-based watermarking schemes often deploy meta-heuristic techniques to look for locally optimal values of the embedding strength. However, meta-heuristic techniques being inherently slow, such watermarking schemes cannot be applied in real-time applications. This paper proposes MantaRayWmark—a novel image adaptive watermarking scheme that uses Manta Ray Foraging Optimization (MRFO) to optimize the locally relevant multiple embedding strengths (MES) for balancing the imperceptibility and robustness. However, the time-intensive MRFO-based optimization is carried out only once to train a bi-directional ELM (B-ELM) for a set of images. Each training image is subjected to 4-level DTCWT to produce approximation coefficients. For B-ELM training, the approximation coefficients act as the input features and the corresponding MES values (obtained by way of MRFO using imperceptibility and robustness as the optimization criteria) act as the target outputs. Subsequently, given a new image, the trained B-ELM is used to predict the optimized multiple embedding strengths. For watermark embedding, an image is transformed using 4-level DTCWT and the resulting approximation sub-band matrix is decomposed using SVD to get the principal component (PC) matrix. To avoid the false-positive problem, a binary watermark is inserted into the PC matrix using the MES. To ensure the robustness of the proposed scheme against geometric attacks, we have deployed a novel convolution neural network (ConvNet) based geometric correction procedure. Further, image authentication is achieved by applying SVD-based hashing on the watermarked image. To ensure the security of watermark, the watermark is scrambled using transposition cipher. Experimental results reveal that MantaRayWmark achieves a high degree of watermark recoverability from the signed image in the presence of a number of common geometric and image processing attacks, thus proving its robustness. The results also demonstrate the superiority of the proposed MantaRayWmark when compared to the existing state-of-the-art schemes in terms of robustness and imperceptibility. The proposed scheme being time-efficient may find use its in various multimedia applications.

Audio Watermarking for Security and Non-Security Applications

The digitization of audiovisual data is significantly increasing. Thus, to guarantee the protection of the intellectual properties of this digital content, watermarking has appeared as a solution. Watermarking can be used in reality in several types of applications that target two different contexts: the first for security applications and the second for non-security ones. In this paper, we carry a big interest in studying these two types of applications. Moreover, we propose a first digital watermarking scheme for security copyright protection applications, where we have involved neural network architecture in the insertion and detection processes, and integrated some masking phenomena of the human psychoacoustic model with linear predictive coding spectral envelope estimation of the audio file. Experiments proved the efficiency of exploiting perceptual masking with spectral envelope consideration in terms of imperceptibility and robustness results. In addition, we suggest a second audio watermarking technique for non-security content characterization applications based on a deep learning classification architecture. In this scheme, the extracted watermark advises about the audio class: music or speech, speaker gender, and emotion. The reported results indicated that the suggested scheme achieved a higher performance at the classification level, as well as at the watermarking properties.

Digital Watermarking Scheme for Securing Textual Database Using Histogram Shifting Model

Information security is one of the most important methods of protecting the confidentiality and privacy of internet users. The greater the volume of data, the more the need to increase the security methods for protecting data from intruders. This task can be challenging for researchers in terms of managing enormous data and maintaining their safety and effectiveness. Protection of digital content is a major issue in maintaining the privacy and secrecy of data. Toward this end, digital watermarking is based on the concept of information security through the insertion and detection of an embedded watermark in an efficient manner. Recent methodologies in the research on digital watermarking result in data distortion after embedding the watermark. This scenario can reduce the efficiency of detecting watermarks as well as violate data confidentiality. This study adapts a robust reversible histogram shifting (HS) technique for textual data in relational databases. Furthermore, the study presents a digital watermarking scheme intended for document copyright protection and proof of ownership. The major advantage of the proposed watermarking scheme is that it can protect digital data and preserve data quality. To the best of our knowledge, this research methodology is promising for use in the HS expansion model for watermarking data on non-numeric databases. In addition, the results showed that despite exposing the database to an insertion attacks at 50% and 75% of the watermark, the proposed algorithm can recover more than half of the embedded watermark in all addition and alteration attacks cases. As a result, the watermark information can be retained and restored completely.

Advanced Watermarking o f Digital Images Showing Robust, Semi Fragile a nd Fragile Behaviour

Digital Image Watermarking plays an important role when it comes to maintaining digital color picture authentication information. The proposed paper consists mainly of a digital watermarking scheme consisting of discrete wavelet transformation and involving the generation of pn sequence number to embed the watermark and also to extract the watermark from the host image. The technique suggested includes both embedding the watermark and removing it from the host file. Both the method of embedding and extraction consists of generating the pn sequence number values using the random numbers. The technique for all three of the RGB signal sources is included. The watermark symbol is located independently within the RGB image's red, green, and blue channels. The suggested technique further reveals the improved mode of digital watermarking of images through fragile watermarking of images and semi-fragile digital watermarking of images.

Robust DWT-SVD Domain Image Watermarking based on Iterative Blending

Copyright protection for digital multimedia has become a research hotspot in recent years. As an efficient solution, the digital watermarking scheme has emerged at the right moment. In this article, a highly robust and hybrid watermarking method is proposed. The discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and the singular value decomposition (SVD) as well as iterative blending are adopted in this method to insert and recover the watermark. To enhance the watermark imperceptibility, the second low-level (LL2) coefficients after SVD are modified by using the watermark. Compared with the conventional DWT-SVD-based watermarking method and other watermarking techniques, the watermarked images obtained by the proposed method have higher image quality. In addition, the proposed method achieves high robustness in resisting various image processing attacks.

Watermarking schemes for digital images: Robustness overview

Digital watermarking is an important scientific direction located at the intersection of cybersecurity and multimedia processing. Digital watermarking is used for digital objects copyright protection and protection against forgery. The importance of those tasks is highlighted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that lasts for more than a year and forced multiple industries to transit to online. The main digital watermarking application include active attackers whose goal is to destroy or damage watermarks. Thus, digital watermarking schemes must be robust to attacks. Despite of the large number of existing digital watermarking schemes, a comprehensive analysis of their robustness towards various attacks does not exist. Our study aims to fill this gap. In this article, latest years findings in digital watermarking are systematized. First of all, we review the most prominent distinctive features of watermarking schemes, attack types, and performance measures to facilitate navigation in digital image watermarking. Then, we introduce classification of digital watermarking schemes by their robustness towards various classes of attacks. We believe this classification could be useful for researchers who aim to choose a digital watermarking scheme for their application with a known set of attacks. Finally, we highlight the most promising solutions that further development could lead to schemes with better robustness compared to existing schemes.