Embedding Strength Criteria for AWGN Watermark, Robust Against Expected Distortion

In this paper we engage in AWGN watermark for grayscale image (the message is embedded by adding of white Gaussian noise matrix; detection is blind, correlation based). We search criteria for ``the best'' (minimal one which guaranties watermark detectability) embedding strength for watermark robust against expected attack. These criteria we find for AWGN watermarks, which are embedded in spatial or in transform domains; for one bit message or for a longer message; into whole image or into some of its coefficients. This paper peculiarity is that we do not propose new watermarking algorithm; for well known, robust algorithm we find the best embedding strength for robust watermark

Optimisation of Tamper Localisation and Recovery Watermarking Techniques

Digital watermarking has found many applications in many fields, such as: copyright tracking, media authentication, tamper localisation and recovery, hardware control, and data hiding. The idea of digital watermarking is to embed arbitrary data inside a multimedia cover without affecting the perceptibility of the multimedia cover itself. The main advantage of using digital watermarking over other techniques, such as signature based techniques, is that the watermark is embedded into the multimedia cover itself and will not be removed even with the format change. Image watermarking techniques are categorised according to their robustness against modification into: fragile, semi-fragile, and robust watermarking. In fragile watermarking any change to the image will affect the watermark, this makes fragile watermarking very useful in image authentication applications, as in medical and forensic fields, where any tampering of the image is: detected, localised, and possibly recovered. Fragile watermarking techniques are also characterised by a higher capacity when compared to semi-fragile and robust watermarking. Semifragile watermarking techniques resist some modifications, such as lossy compression and low pass filtering. Semi-fragile watermarking can be used in authentication and copyright validation applications whenever the amount of embedded information is small and the expected modifications are not severe. Robust watermarking techniques are supposed to withstand more severe modifications, such as rotation and geometrical bending. Robust watermarking is used in copyright validation applications, where copyright information in the image must remains accessible even after severe modification. This research focuses on the application of image watermarking in tamper localisation and recovery and it aims to provide optimisation for some of its aspects. The optimisation aims to produce watermarking techniques that enhance one or more of the following aspects: consuming less payload, having better recovery quality, recovering larger tampered area, requiring less calculations, and being robust against the different counterfeiting attacks. Through the survey of the main existing techniques, it was found that most of them are using two separate sets of data for the localisation and the recovery of the tampered area, which is considered as a redundancy. The main focus in this research is to investigate employing image filtering techniques in order to use only one set of data for both purposes, leading to a reduced redundancy in the watermark embedding and enhanced capacity. Four tamper localisation and recovery techniques were proposed, three of them use one set of data for localisation and recovery while the fourth one is designed to be optimised and gives a better performance even though it uses separate sets of data for localisation and recovery. The four techniques were analysed and compared to two recent techniques in the literature. The performance of the proposed techniques vary from one technique to another. The fourth technique shows the best results regarding recovery quality and Probability of False Acceptance (PFA) when compared to the other proposed techniques and the two techniques in the literature, also, all proposed techniques show better recovery quality when compared to the two techniques in the literature

S-Box Based Image Encryption Application Using a Chaotic System without Equilibrium

Chaotic systems without equilibrium are of interest because they are the systems with hidden attractors. A nonequilibrium system with chaos is introduced in this work. Chaotic behavior of the system is verified by phase portraits, Lyapunov exponents, and entropy. We have implemented a real electronic circuit of the system and reported experimental results. By using this new chaotic system, we have constructed S-boxes which are applied to propose a novel image encryption algorithm. In the designed encryption algorithm, three S-boxes with strong cryptographic properties are used for the sub-byte operation. Particularly, the S-box for the sub-byte process is selected randomly. In addition, performance analyses of S-boxes and security analyses of the encryption processes have been presented