Contourlet versus Wavelet Transform for a Robust Digital Image Watermarking Technique

Authors: Ibrahim A. El rube, Mohamad Abou El Nasr , Mostafa M. Naim, Mahmoud Farouk

Abstract:

In this paper, a watermarking algorithm that uses the wavelet transform with Multiple Description Coding (MDC) and Quantization Index Modulation (QIM) concepts is introduced. Also, the paper investigates the role of Contourlet Transform (CT) versus Wavelet Transform (WT) in providing robust image watermarking. Two measures are utilized in the comparison between the waveletbased and the contourlet-based methods; Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Normalized Cross-Correlation (NCC). Experimental results reveal that the introduced algorithm is robust against different attacks and has good results compared to the contourlet-based algorithm.

Keywords: image watermarking; discrete wavelet transform, discrete contourlet transform, multiple description coding, quantization index modulation

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1332998

References:

[1] Wang Y, Alan P. "Blind image data hiding based on self reference", In Pattern Recognition Letters, Elsevier Science Inc. New York, 2004, pp. 1681 - 1689.
[2] Lee C, and Lee H. "Geometric attack resistant watermarking in wavelet transform domain", In Optics Express, vol. 13, USA, 2005, pp. 1307- 1321.
[3] Peter Meerwald and Andreas Uhl, "A Survey Of Wavelet-Domain Watermarking Algorithms", in Proceedings of SPIE, Electronic Imaging, Security and Watermarking of Multimedia Contents III, 2001, pp. 505- 516
[4] B.Chandra Mohan and S.Srinivas Kumar, "Robust Digital watermarking scheme using Contourlet transform", International Journal of Computer Science and Network Security, Korea, 2008, pp.43-51.
[5] Guiduo Duan, A.T.S. Ho, and Xi Zhao, "A novel non-redundant contourlet transform for robust image watermarking against nongeometrical and geometrical attacks". 5th International Conference on Visual Information Engineering (VIE 2008), Xi'an, China, 29 July-1 Aug. 2008, (CP543), p. 124 -129.
[6] Haohao Song, Songyu Yu, Xiaokang Yang, Li Song and Chen Wang, "Contourlet-based image adaptive watermarking", Signal Processing: Image Communication Journal, Volume 23, Issue 3, March 2008, pp. 162-178.
[7] Do, Minh N, and Vetterli M. "The contourlet Transform: An efficient directional multiresolutional image representation", In IEEE transactions on Image Processing, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, New York, NY, 2005, pp. 2091-2106
[8] Chandramouli R, Graubard Benjamin and Richard Collin R. "A multiple description framework for oblivious watermarking", In Proceedings of Security , Watermarking and Multimedia, SPIE, USA, 2001, pp. 585- 593.
[9] Chen B and Wornell G.W. "Digital Watermarking and information embedding using dither modulation," In IEEE Workshop on Multimedia Signal Processing, USA, 1998, pp. 273-278.
[10] Phoong S.M, Kim C.W, Vaidyanathan P.P, and Ansari R. "A new class of two channel biorthogonal filter banks and wavelet bases," In IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, New York, 1995, pp. 649-665.
[11] http://watermarking.unique.ch/Checkmark/index.html
[12] http://www.graphicregion.com/batchconverter.htm
[13] http://Morgan-Multimedia.com