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A combined just noticeable distortion model–guided image watermarking

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Abstract

Perceptual watermarking should take full advantage of the results from human visual system (HVS) studies. Just noticeable distortion (JND), which refers to the maximum distortion that the HVS does not perceive, gives us a way to model the HVS accurately. In this paper, we exploit a combined JND model, which represents an additional, accurate, perceptual visibility threshold profile to guide watermarking for digital images. The combined JND model-guided watermarking scheme, where visual models are fully used to determine image-dependent upper bounds on watermark insertion, allows us to provide the maximum strength transparent watermark. Experimental results confirm the improved performance of our combined JND model. Our combined JND model is capable of yielding higher injected-watermark energy without introducing noticeable distortion to the original image and outperforms the relevant existing visual models. Simulation results show that the proposed JND model-guided image watermarking scheme is more robust than other algorithms based on the relevant existing perceptual models while retaining the watermark transparency. At the same time, the proposed combined JND model has much lower computational complexity compared with the relevant existing perceptual models.

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Correspondence to Yaqing Niu.

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Niu, Y., Kyan, M., Krishnan, S. et al. A combined just noticeable distortion model–guided image watermarking. SIViP 5, 517–526 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11760-010-0164-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11760-010-0164-x

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