Title: Robust and imperceptible image watermarking in DWT-BTC domain

Authors: Anum Javeed Zargar; Amit Kumar Singh

Addresses: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Jaypee University of Information Technology Waknaghat, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, 173234, India ' Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Jaypee University of Information Technology Waknaghat, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, 173234, India

Abstract: In this paper, an algorithm for digital image watermarking based on discrete wavelet transforms (DWT) and block truncation coding (BTC) has been proposed. In the embedding process, the host image is decomposed into first level DWT and the watermark image is compressed by BTC. The compressed watermark is then embedded into the selected sub-band of the host image. The proposed method has been extensively tested against numerous known signal processing attacks and has been found to be robust and highly imperceptible. Further, the performance of the algorithm has been tested with fractal compression technique. The performance of the BTC-based technique is better than the fractal-based compression techniques in terms of robustness and imperceptibility.

Keywords: robust watermarking; imperceptible watermarking; image watermarking; discrete wavelet transform; DWT; block truncation coding; BTC; robustness; peak SNR; signal to noise ratio; PSNR; digital images; signal processing attacks; fractal compression; image security.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESDF.2016.073734

International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics, 2016 Vol.8 No.1, pp.53 - 62

Received: 23 Feb 2015
Accepted: 30 Sep 2015
Published online: 16 Dec 2015 *

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