Title: A visual cryptography copyright protection method based on artificial bee colony algorithm

Authors: Yongchang Chen; Weiyu Yu; Jiuchao Feng

Addresses: School of Electronic and Information Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China ' School of Electronic and Information Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China ' School of Electronic and Information Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China

Abstract: In this paper, a novel visual cryptography (VC) copyright protection scheme based on artificial bee colony algorithm (ABCA) is proposed. First, we apply wavelet decomposition (discrete wavelet transform, DWT) to decompose the cover image, and ABCA is used to adaptively select feature sub-blocks. Then singular value decomposition (SVD) is implemented to extract the image feature, which is classified into two clusters for generating the master share. Finally, ownership share is generated with the help of the secret image and the master share. In the process of ownership identification, the secret image can be acquired by stacking the master share and the ownership share. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme is robust and effectively resists several different signal processing attacks, without any distortion of the cover image.

Keywords: visual cryptography; watermarking; ABCA; artificial bee colony algorithm; copyright protection; wavelet decomposition; discrete wavelet transform; DWT; singular value decomposition; SVD; ownership identification; secret image; signal processing attacks.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAT.2014.062365

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, 2014 Vol.49 No.3/4, pp.297 - 305

Published online: 02 Mar 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article