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An integrity control system for retinal images based on watermarking

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Abstract

In telemedicine, images may possibly be tailored deliberately or unintentionally as this transmission may occur all the way through vulnerable networks. Prior to making any investigative judgment, the integrity of watermarked medical image has to be validated by the medical practitioner so as to avoid erroneous verdict. An approach that can be used to verify the integrity of medical images is digital watermarking. This paper proposes a watermarking algorithm which conforms to all unique requirements of medical image watermarking viz. complete restoration of original cover image after watermark extraction, vital parts being not tampered at all and lossless watermarking. Unique blood vessel pattern in vicinity of optic disk is strategically combined with patient ID to create secret share. Reversible watermarking has been used to embed secret share in Region of Non-Interest (RONI). High values of PSNR (greater than 69 dB) and SSIM have been achieved which imply that the algorithm is highly imperceptible in nature. Proposed system protects the image without modifying its most vital components, and permits the total restoration of the original image with verification of its authenticity and integrity. Unique Feature Extraction makes the proposed algorithm suitable for the purpose of distinctive identification of medical images during transmission and storage in large distributed databases along with enhanced security and confidentiality in tele-ophthalmological applications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Amity School of Engineering and Technology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Abhilasha Singh

  2. Centre for Advanced Studies, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Technical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Malay Kishore Dutta

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  1. Abhilasha Singh
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  2. Malay Kishore Dutta
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Correspondence to Abhilasha Singh.

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Singh, A., Dutta, M.K. An integrity control system for retinal images based on watermarking. Multimed Tools Appl 81, 2429–2452 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-021-11600-w

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