Skip to main content

Advertisement

Springer Nature Link
Log in

Region-based reversible medical image watermarking algorithm for privacy protection and integrity authentication

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

Abstract

Medical images are widely used in telemedicine, sharing and electronic transmission between hospitals. While enjoying convenience, medical images also face privacy disclosure, illegal copy and malicious tamper, etc. It is highly important to ensure privacy and integrity of medical images. Cogitating the above needs, a reversible medical image watermarking algorithm for privacy protection and integrity authentication is proposed. Firstly, the medical image is divided into the ROI (Region of Interest) and RONI (Region of Non-Interest) based on active contour model. Then, the proposed “Three-Dimensional Watermarks” are generated, including authentication watermark, restoration watermark and privacy watermark, which are produced by the novel Parallel Lattice Hash Function, the proposed Neighborhood Difference Method, and the proposed encryption algorithm, respectively. Moreover, “Double-Layer Reversible Embedding Strategy Based on Difference Expansion” is modified in ROI to improve embedding capacity, and “Histogram Modification Reversible Embedding Strategy of Difference Image” is modified to adaptively acquire four or more peak points, which is more flexible than common algorithms. Experimental results confirm the efficient of the proposed scheme, and demonstrate it not only realizes privacy protection, integrity authentication, reversibility, but also holds the characteristics of higher security, larger capacity and better restoration quality.

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

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

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
Fig. 13
Fig. 14
Fig. 15

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Alshanbari H S (2020) Medical image watermarking for ownership & tamper detection. Multimed Tools Appl1–16 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-020-08814-9.(on line)

  2. Anjum R, Verma P, Verma S (2019) Multiple image watermarking for efficient storage and transmission of medical images. In Int Conf Adv Comput Data Sci pp.92-102

  3. Davie B, Florance V, Friede A, Sheehan J, Sisk JE (2001) Bringing Health-Care Applications to the Internet A United States study of health-care applications in relation to Internet capabilities found distinct, if not unique, requirements for its evolutionary development. IEEE Int Comput 5(3):42–48

  4. Fang LL, Qiu TS, Liu Y et al (2018) Active contour model driven by global and local intensity information for ultrasound image segmentation. Comput Math Appl 75:4286–4299

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  5. Farfoura ME, Horng S J (2010) A novel blind reversible method for watermarking relational databases. In International Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Processing with Applications, ISPA 2010, Taipei, Taiwan, 6-9 September 2010, IEEE 11:563–569

  6. Gangadhar Y, Giridhar Akula VS, Redd PC (2018) An evolutionary programming approach for securing medical images using watermarking scheme in invariant discrete wavelet transformation. Biomedical Signal Processing & Control 43:31–40

  7. Gomez-Coronel S L, Moya-Albor E, Boris Escalante-Ramírez, et al (2015) Watermarked cardiac CT image segmentation using deformable models and the Hermite transform. In 10th International Symposium on Medical Information Processing and Analysis. International Society for Optics and Photonics,pp.928717.

  8. He HJ, Zhang J, Tai HM (2008) Block-chain based fragile watermarking scheme with superior localization. In: 10th international conference on information hiding. Springer, Berlin, pp 147–160

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. He HJ, Zhang J, Tai HM (2009) Self-recovery fragile watermarking using block-neighborhood tampering characterization. In: 11th international conference on information hiding. Springer, Berlin, pp 132–145

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  10. Horng SJ, Rosiyadi D, Fan PZ et al (2014) An adaptive watermarking scheme for e-government document images. Multimed Tools Appl 72(3):3085–3103

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Horng SJ, Rosiyadi D, Li TR, Takao T, Guo M, Khan MK (2013) A blind image copyright protection scheme for e-government. J Vis Commun Image Represent 24(7):1099–1105

  12. Huang YL, Horng SJ, Kao TW, Run RS (2011) An improved forecasting model based on the weighted fuzzy relationship matrix combined with a PSO adaptation for enrollments. Int J Innov Comput Inf Control Ijicic 07(7A):4027–4025

  13. Lee TY, Lin SD (2008) Dual watermark for image tamper detection and recovery. Pattern Recogn 41(11):3497–3506

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  14. Li C, Wang Y, Ma B, Zhang Z (2012) Tamper detection and self-recovery of biometric images using salient region-based authentication watermarking scheme. Computer Standards & Interfaces 34(4):367–379

  15. Medical Image Database (2017) Available: https://medpix.nlm.nih.gov/. Last Access Year

  16. Nazari M, Mehrabian M (2020) A novel chaotic IWT-LSB blind watermarking approach with flexible capacity for secure transmission of authenticated medical images. Multimedia tools and application. Pp.1-41 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-020-10032-2.(on line)

  17. Parah SA, Ahad F, Sheikh JA, Bhat GM (2017) Hiding clinical information in medical images: a new high capacity and reversible data hiding technique. J Biomed Inform 66:214–230

  18. Parah SA, Ahad F, Sheikh JA, Loan NA, Bhat GM (2017) Watermarked cardiac and high capacity data hiding technique for E-healthcare applications. Multimed Tools Appl 76(3):3943–3975

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Prasetyo H, Rosiyadi D, Harjito B et al (2019) Bit plane slicing-based progressive visual secret sharing for grayscale and color images. In proceedings of International Symposium on Electronics and Smart Devices (ISESD).

  20. Prasetyo H, Rosiyadi D, Horng S J (2018) Modified generalized random grids-based progressive secret sharing with lossless ability for binary image. In Proceedings of International Conference on Computer, Control, Informatics and its Applications (IC3INA). IEEE

  21. Run RS, Horng SJ, Lai JL, Kao TW, Chen RJ (2012) An improved SVD-based watermarking technique for copyright protection. Expert Syst Appl 39(1):673–689

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Sabbane F, Tairi H (2019) Medical image watermarking technique based on polynomial decomposition. Multimed Tools Appl 78:34129–34155

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Shi H, Wang XH, Li MC et al (2017) Secure variable-capacity self-recovery watermarking scheme. Multimed Tools Appl 76(5):6941–6972

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Shih FY, Zhong X (2016) High-capacity multiple regions of interest watermarking for medical images. Inf Sci 367-368:648–659

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Soni G K, Rawat A, Jain S, et al (2019) A pixel-based digital medical images protection using genetic algorithm with LSB watermark technique. In Smart Systems and IoT: Innovations in Computing pp.483–492

  26. Soualmi A, Alti A, Laouamer L (2018) A new blind medical image watermarking based on weber descriptors and Arnold chaotic map. Arab J Sci Eng 43:7893–7905

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Soualmi A, Alti A, Laouamer L(2018) Toward a secure and robust medical image watermarking in untrusted environment. In The Int Conf Adv Mach Learn Technol Appl pp.693-703

  28. Su WG, Shen YL, Wang X (2019) Two-layer reversible watermarking algorithm using difference expansion. J Comput Res Dev 56(7):1498–1505

    Google Scholar 

  29. Thakkar FN, Srivastava VK (2017) A blind medical image watermarking: DWT-SVD based robust and secure approach for telemedicine applications. Multimed Tools Appl 76:3669–3697

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Thanki R, Borr AS (2019) Fragile watermarking for copyright authentication and tamper detection of medical images using compressive sensing (CS) based encryption and contourlet domain processing. Multimed Tools Appl 78:13905–13924

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Thanki R, Borra S, Dwivedi V, Borisagar K (2017) A RONI based visible watermarking approach for medical image authentication. J Med Syst 41(9):143

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Thanki R, Borra S, Dwivedi V et al (2017) An efficient medical image watermarking scheme based on FDCu-DCT. Eng Sci Technol Int J 20:1366–1379

    Google Scholar 

  33. Thanki R, Kothari A (2020) Multi-level security of medical images based on encryption and watermarking for telemedicine applications. Multimedia tools and application, pp.1-19 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-020-09941-z. (on line)

  34. Tian J (2003) Reversible data embedding using a difference expansion. IEEE Trans Circ Syst Vid Technol 13(8):890–896

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Ustubioglu A, Ulutas G (2017) A new medical image watermarking technique with finer tamper localization. J Digit Imaging 30:665–680

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Varalakshmi LM, Florence SG (2013) An enhanced encryption algorithm for video based on multiple Huffman tables. Multimed Tools Appl 64(3):717–729

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Vellaisamy S, Ramesh V (2014) Inversion attack resilient zero-watermarking scheme for medical image authentication. IRT Image Process 8:718–727

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Vellaisamy S, Ramesh V (2014) Inversion attack resilient zero-watermarking scheme for medical image authentication. IET Image Process 8(12):718–727

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Wan WB, Wang J, Li J et al (2020) Pattern complexity-based JND estimation for quantization watermarking. Pattern Recogn Lett 130(2):157–164

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Wan WB, Wang J, Li J et al (2020) Hybrid JND model-guided watermarking method for screen content images[J]. Multimed Tools Appl 79:4907–4930

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Wang J, Wan WB, Li XX et al (2020) Color image watermarking based on orientation diversity and color complexity. Expert Syst Appl 40(2):112868

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Wu Y, Deng RH (2005) Security of an ill-posed operator for image authentication. IEEE Trans Circ Syst Vid Technol 15(1):161–163

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Wu CH, Horng SJ, Lee PZ (2001) A new computation of shape moments via quadtree decomposition. Pattern Recogn 34(7):1319–1330

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Wu X Q, Li J B, Bhatti U A, et al. (2019) Logistic map and Contourlet-based robust zero watermark for medical images[M]// innovation in medicine and healthcare systems, and multimedia 115-123

  45. Xiang SJ, Luo XR, Shi SX (2016) A novel reversible image watermarking algorithm in homomorphic encrypted domain. Chin J Comput 39(3):571–581

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  46. Yang YJ, Chen F, Sun ZW et al (2019) Secure and efficient parallel hash function construction and its application on cloud audit. Soft Comput 23:8907–8925

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Yin ZX, Niu XJ, Zhang XP (2018) Reversible data hiding in encrypted AMBTC images. Multimed Tools Appl 77:18067–18083

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Zhang X (2011) Separable reversible data hiding in encrypted image. IEEE Trans Inf Forensic Secur\ 7(2):826–832

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Liaoning Provincial Social Science Planning Fund under Grant L19BTQ001.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer and Information Technology College, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, 116029, China

    Hui Shi, Ying Wang, Yanni Li & Yonggong Ren

  2. School of Software Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116620, China

    Cheng Guo

Authors
  1. Hui Shi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ying Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yanni Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Yonggong Ren
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Cheng Guo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Hui Shi or Yonggong Ren.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Shi, H., Wang, Y., Li, Y. et al. Region-based reversible medical image watermarking algorithm for privacy protection and integrity authentication. Multimed Tools Appl 80, 24631–24667 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-021-10853-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-021-10853-9

Keywords