Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Blind reliable invisible watermarking method in wavelet domain for face image watermark

  • Published:
Multimedia Tools and Applications Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this paper, we have combined watermarking and biometrics for possible improvement in owner identification/verification technology. We have proposed and compared wavelet based four blind invisible watermarking methods that have used face image as watermark. Two watermarking methods are based on the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and rest two watermarking methods are based on the redundant discrete wavelet transform (RDWT). One watermarking method in each transform incorporates weighted binary coding to achieve improved reliability of extracted watermark. Other watermarking methods replace original image coefficients with face image coefficients. We have observed that DWT based watermarking methods outperform RDWT based watermarking methods. We have compared the robustness of the proposed watermarking methods against various common image processing attacks/operations. We have observed that DWT based watermarking method coupled with weighted binary coding has the best performance without attacks; peak signal to noise ratio value of watermarked image is greater than 50 dB and normalized correlation coefficient value of extracted watermark is 1 at the watermark embedding strength of 1. Moreover, the same watermarking method has the best robustness against most of the attacks.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Unique Identification Authority of India Planning Commission Government of India (2009) Unique identification authority of India (UIDAI). http://uidai.gov.in/. Accessed 1 Jan 2014

  2. Bao P, Ma X (2005) Image adaptive watermarking using wavelet domain singular value decomposition. Trans Circuits Syst Video Technol 15(1):96–102

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Barni M, Bartolini F, Piva A (2001) Improved wavelet-based watermarking through pixel-wise masking. IEEE Trans Image Process 10(5):783–791

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  4. Bhatnagar G, Raman B (2009) A new robust reference watermarking scheme based on dwt-svd. Comput Stand Interfaces 31(5):1002–1013

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Bhatnagar G, Raman B (2011) A new robust reference logo watermarking scheme. Multimed Tools Appl 52(2–3):621–640

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Bhatnagar G, Wu Q, Raman B (2012) A new robust adjustable logo watermarking scheme. Comput Secur 31(1):40–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Cao JG, Fowler JE, Younan NH (2001) An image-adaptive watermark based on a redundant wavelet transform. In: Proceedings of IEEE international conference on image processing 2001, vol 2. Thessaloniki, pp 277–280

  8. Cheddad A, Condell J, Curran K, McKevitt P (2008) Biometric inspired digital image steganography. In: Proceedings of IEEE 15th annual international conference and workshop on the Engineering of Computer Based Systems, ECBS 2008. Belfast, pp 159–168

  9. Chung Y, Moon D, Moon K, Pan S (2005) Hiding biometric data for secure transmission. In: Knowledge-based intelligent information and engineering systems. Lecture notes in computer science, vol 3683, pp 1049–1057

  10. Dawei Z, Guanrong C, Wenbo L (2004) A chaos-based robust wavelet-domain watermarking algorithm. Chaos, Solitons Fractals 22(1):47–54

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  11. Ding S, Li C, Liu Z (2010) Protecting hidden transmission of biometrics using authentication watermarking. In: Proceeding of WASE International Conference on Information Engineering (ICIE) 2010, vol 2. Beidaihe, pp 105–108

  12. Dugad R, Ratakonda K, Ahuja N (1998) A new wavelet-based scheme for watermarking images. In: Proceedings of IEEE international conference on image processing, 1998, vol 2. Chicago, pp 419–423

  13. Fallahpour M, Megías D (2011) High capacity audio watermarking using the high frequency band of the wavelet domain. Multimed Tools Appl 52(2–3):485–498

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Fouad M, El Saddik A, Petriu E (2010) Combining dwt and lsb watermarking to secure revocable iris templates. In: Proceddings of IEEE 10th international conference on Information Sciences Signal Processing and their Applications (ISSPA), 2010. Kuala Lumpur, pp 25–28

  15. Fridrich J (2000) Visual hash for oblivious watermarking. In: Wong PW, Delp EJ (eds)SPIE international society for optics and photonics, security and watermarking of multimedia contents II, vol 3971. San Jose, pp 286–294

  16. Ghouti L, Bouridane A, Ibrahim M K, Boussakta S (2006) Digital image watermarking using balanced multiwavelets. IEEE Trans Signal Process 54(4):1519–1536

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Gunsel B, Uludag U, Murat Tekalp A (2002) Robust watermarking of fingerprint images. Pattern Recogn 35(12):2739–2747

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  18. Hassanien A E (2006) Hiding iris data for authentication of digital images using wavelet theory. Pattern Recogn Image Anal 16(4):637–643

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Holliman M, Memon N (2000) Counterfeiting attacks on oblivious block-wise independent invisible watermarking schemes. IEEE Trans Image Process 9(3):432–441

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Hong I, Kim I, Han SS (2001) A blind watermarking technique using wavelet transform. In: IEEE International Symposium on Industrial Electronics (ISIE), 2001, vol 3. Pusan, pp 1946–1950

  21. Hsieh MS, Tseng DC, Huang YH (2001) Hiding digital watermarks using multiresolution wavelet transform. IEEE Trans Ind Electron 48(5):875–882

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Hsu C T, Wu J L (1998) Multiresolution watermarking for digital images. IEEE Trans Circ Syst II Analog Digit Signal Process 45(8):1097–1101

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Jain A K, Nandakumar K (2012) Biometric authentication: system security and user privacy. IEEE Comput 45(11):87–92

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Jain AK, Uludag U (2003) Hiding biometric data. IEEE Trans Pattern Anal Mach Intell 25(11):1494–1498

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Jain AK, Ross A, Prabhakar S (2004) An introduction to biometric recognition. IEEE Trans Circuits Syst Video Technol 14(1):4–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Keyvanpour MR, Merrikh-Bayat F (2011) Robust dynamic block-based image watermarking in dwt domain. Procedia Comput Sci 3:238–242

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Khan MK, Xie L, Zhang J (2007) Robust hiding of fingerprint-biometric data into audio signals. In: Advances in biometrics lecture notes in computer science, vol 4642, pp 702–712

  28. Khan MK, Zhang J, Tian L (2007) Chaotic secure content-based hidden transmission of biometric templates. Chaos Solitons Fractals 32(5):1749–1759

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Kim JR, Moon YS (1999) A robust wavelet-based digital watermarking using level-adaptive thresholding. In: Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), 1999, vol 2. Kobe, pp 226–230

  30. Kim T, Chung Y, Jung S, Moon D (2006) Secure remote fingerprint verification using dual watermarks. In: Digital rights management technologies, issues, challenges and systems. Lecture notes in computer science, vol 3919. Springer, pp 217–227

  31. Kim Wg, Lee H (2009) Multimodal biometric image watermarking using two-stage integrity verification. Signal Process 89(12):2385–2399

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  32. Korus P, Białas J, Dziech A (2012) A new approach to high-capacity annotation watermarking based on digital fountain codes. Multimed Tools Appl 1–19. doi:10.1007/s11042-011-0986-8

  33. Kougianos E, Mohanty SP, Mahapatra RN (2009) Hardware assisted watermarking for multimedia. Comput Electr Eng 35(2):339–358

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  34. Kundur D, Hatzinakos D (1999) Digital watermarking for telltale tamper proofing and authentication. Proc IEEE 87(7):1167–1180

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Kundur D, Hatzinakos D (2004) Toward robust logo watermarking using multiresolution image fusion principles. IEEE Trans Multimedia 6(1):185–198

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Lai CC, Tsai CC (2010) Digital image watermarking using discrete wavelet transform and singular value decomposition. IEEE Trans Instrum Meas 59(11):3060–3063

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Li C, Wang Y, Liu L (2009) A biometric templates secure transmission method based on bi-layer watermarking and pki. In: IEEE international conference on multimedia information networking and security, 2009, MINES’09, vol 2. Hubei, pp 95–98

  38. Li CT, Yang FM, Lee CS (2002) Oblivious fragile watermarking scheme for image authentication. In: IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), 2002, vol 4. Orlando, pp IV–3445–IV–3448

  39. Lin WH, Horng SJ, Kao TW, Fan P, Lee CL, Pan Y (2008) An efficient watermarking method based on significant difference of wavelet coefficient quantization. IEEE Trans Multimedia 10(5):746–757

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Lin WH, Wang YR, Horng SJ, Kao TW, Pan Y (2009) A blind watermarking method using maximum wavelet coefficient quantization. Expert Syst Appl 36(9):11509–11516

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Liu JL, Lou DC, Chang MC, Tso HK (2006) A robust watermarking scheme using self-reference image. Comput Stand Interfaces 28(3):356–367

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Ma B, Wang Y, Li C, Zhang Z, Huang D (2013) Secure multimodal biometric authentication with wavelet quantization based fingerprint watermarking. Multimed Tools Appl 1–30. doi:10.1007/s11042-013-1372-5

  43. Memon N, Wong PW (2001) A buyer-seller watermarking protocol. IEEE Trans Image Process 10(4):643–649

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  44. Mohanty S P (2009) A secure digital camera architecture for integrated real-time digital rights management. J Syst Archit 55(10):468–480

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Mohanty SP, Bhargava BK (2008) Invisible watermarking based on creation and robust insertion-extraction of image adaptive watermarks. ACM Trans. Multimed Comput Commun Appl 5(2):12

    Google Scholar 

  46. Morimoto N (1999) Digital watermarking technology with practical applications. Informing Sci Spec Issue Multimed Informing Technol Part 1 2(4):107–111

    Google Scholar 

  47. Noore A, Singh R, Vatsa M, Houck MM (2007) Enhancing security of fingerprints through contextual biometric watermarking. Forensic Sci Int 169(2):188–194

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Park KR, Jeong DS, Kang BJ, Lee EC (2007) A study on iris feature watermarking on face data, vol 4432

  49. Parker KM, Fowler JE (2005) Redundant-wavelet watermarking with pixel-wise masking. In: IEEE International Conference on Image Processing, ICIP 2005, vol 2005, pp I685–I688

  50. Podilchuk CI, Zeng W (1998) Image-adaptive watermarking using visual models. IEEE J Select Areas Commun 16(4):525–539

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Prabhakar S, Pankanti S, Jain AK (2003) Biometric recognition: security and privacy concerns. IEEE Secur Priv 1(2):33–42

    Article  Google Scholar 

  52. Qi M, Lu Y, Du N, Zhang Y, Wang C, Kong J (2010) A novel image hiding approach based on correlation analysis for secure multimodal biometrics. J Netw Comput Appl 33(3):247–257

    Article  Google Scholar 

  53. Rani A, Raman B, Kumar S (2013) A robust watermarking scheme exploiting balanced neural tree for rightful ownership protection. Multimed Tools Appl 1–24. doi:10.1007/s11042-013-1528-3

  54. Ratha NK, Connell JH, Bolle RM (2000) Secure data hiding in wavelet compressed fingerprint images. In: Proceedings of the 2000 ACM workshops on multimedia. ACM, USA, pp 127–130

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  55. Ratha NK, Connell JH, Bolle RM (2001) Enhancing security and privacy in biometrics-based authentication systems. IBM Syst J 40(3):614–634

    Article  Google Scholar 

  56. Reddy AA, Chatterji BN (2005) A new wavelet based logo-watermarking scheme. Pattern Recogn Lett 26(7):1019–1027

    Article  Google Scholar 

  57. Roy SD, Li X, Shoshan Y, Fish A, Yadid-Pecht O (2013) Hardware implementation of a digital watermarking system for video authentication. IEEE Trans Circ Syst Video Technol 22(2):289–301

    Article  Google Scholar 

  58. Shejul AA, Kulkarni UL (2010) A dwt based approach for steganography using biometrics. In: IEEE international conference on Data Storage and Data Engineering (DSDE) 2010.Bangalore, pp 39–43

  59. Soheili MR (2008) Redundant watermarking using wavelet packets. In: IEEE/ACS International Conference on Computer Systems and Applications, AICCSA. Doha, pp 591–598

  60. Subramanyam A, Emmanuel S, Kankanhalli MS (2012) Robust watermarking of compressed and encrypted jpeg2000 images. IEEE Trans Multimed 14(3):703–716

    Article  Google Scholar 

  61. Tay R, Havlicek J (2002) Image watermarking using wavelets. In: IEEE the 45th Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems, MWSCAS 2002, vol 3, pp III–258–III–261

  62. Vatsa M, Singh R, Mitra P, Noore A (2004) Comparing robustness of watermarking algorithms on biometrics data. In: Workshop proceedings biometrics: challenges arising from theory to practice. Cambridge, pp 5–8

  63. Vatsa M, Singh R, Noore A (2009) Feature based rdwt watermarking for multimodal biometric system. Image Vis Comput 27(3):293–304

    Article  Google Scholar 

  64. Wang N, Men C (2013) Reversible fragile watermarking for locating tampered blocks in 2d vector maps. Multimed Tools Appl 67(3):709–739. doi:10.1007/s11042-012-1333-4

  65. Wei Z, Qin P, Fu Y (1998) Perceptual digital watermark of images using wavelet transform. IEEE Trans Consumer Electron 44(4):1267–1272

    Article  Google Scholar 

  66. Yang Hy, Wang Xy, Wang Cp (2012) A robust digital watermarking algorithm in undecimated discrete wavelet transform domain. Comput Electr Eng 39(3):893–906

    Article  Google Scholar 

  67. Zebbiche K, Ghouti L, Khelifi F, Bouridane A (2006) Protecting fingerprint data using watermarking. In: First NASA/ESA conference on Adaptive Hardware and Systems, AHS 2006. Istanbul, pp 451–456

  68. Zebbiche K, Khelifi F, Bouridane A (2008) An efficient watermarking technique for the protection of fingerprint images. EURASIP J Inf Secur 4:1–20. doi:10.1155/2008/918601

    Google Scholar 

  69. Zhang XD, Feng J, Lo KT (2003) Image watermarking using tree-based spatial-frequency feature of wavelet transform. J Vis Commun Image Represent 14(4):474–491

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

One of the authors, Himanshu Agarwal, acknowledges the University Grants Commission (UGC), of New Delhi, India for granting him a scholarship under the JRF scheme for his research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, 247667, India

    Himanshu Agarwal

  2. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, 247667, India

    Balasubramanian Raman

  3. School of Computer Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 USM, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

    Ibrahim Venkat

Authors
  1. Himanshu Agarwal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Balasubramanian Raman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ibrahim Venkat
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Himanshu Agarwal.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Agarwal, H., Raman, B. & Venkat, I. Blind reliable invisible watermarking method in wavelet domain for face image watermark. Multimed Tools Appl 74, 6897–6935 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-014-1934-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-014-1934-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation