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Robust hybrid color image watermarking method based on DFT domain and 2D histogram modification

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Abstract

In this paper, we present a robust hybrid watermarking method applied to color images for authentication, which presents robustness against several distortions. Due to the different nature of common signal processing and geometrical attacks, two different techniques for embed a same watermark are used in this method. In the first one, the luminance component (Y) information is used to embed the watermark bit sequence into the magnitude of the middle frequencies of the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT). In the second one, a selected region of 2D histogram composed by blue-difference and red-difference (Cb–Cr) chrominance components is modified according to the watermark bit sequence. The quality of the watermarked image is measured using the following well-known indices peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR), visual information fidelity (VIF) and structural similarity index (SSIM). The difference color of the watermarked image is obtained using the normalized color difference (NCD) measure. The experimental results show that the proposed method provides robustness against several geometric distortions, signal processing operations, combined distortions and photo editing. The comparison with the previously reported methods based on different techniques is also provided.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Program of Post Doctoral Scholarships DGAPA in the UNAM of Mexico, the National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico by support provided during the realization of this research, and DGAPA-UNAM project PAPIIT IN-112513.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Electric Engineering Division, Engineering Faculty, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Circuito Exterior, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510 , Coyoacan, Mexico City, Mexico

    Manuel Cedillo-Hernández & Francisco García-Ugalde

  2. Postgraduate Section, Mechanical Electrical Engineering School, National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico, 1000 Santa Ana Avenue, San Francisco Culhuacan, 04430 , Coyoacan, Mexico City, Mexico

    Mariko Nakano-Miyatake & Héctor Manuel Pérez-Meana

Authors
  1. Manuel Cedillo-Hernández
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  2. Francisco García-Ugalde
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  3. Mariko Nakano-Miyatake
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  4. Héctor Manuel Pérez-Meana
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Correspondence to Manuel Cedillo-Hernández.

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Cedillo-Hernández, M., García-Ugalde, F., Nakano-Miyatake, M. et al. Robust hybrid color image watermarking method based on DFT domain and 2D histogram modification. SIViP 8, 49–63 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11760-013-0459-9

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