Region-based fractal image compression

A fractal coder partitions an image into blocks that are coded via self-references to other parts of the image itself. We present a fractal coder that derives highly image-adaptive partitions and corresponding fractal codes in a time-efficient manner using a region-merging approach. The proposed merging strategy leads to improved rate-distortion performance compared to previously reported pure fractal coders, and it is faster than other state-of-the-art fractal coding methods.     

图像的区域描述方法及运动估计

文中提出一种任意形状区域的图像描述方法进行图像序列的运动估计。首先,对初始帧图像采用保边界平滑,然后,对平滑帧进行分水岭分割。根据标记图像,将图像以区域邻接图的方式进行存储。为解决过度分割的问题,给出了区域的灰度特性和边界强度及区域尺寸相结合的融合准则。最后,每个区域采用仿射运动模型及非线性最小均方法进行参数优化。得到的运动矢量场同基于像素点的估计方法相比具有更高的一致性和抗干扰性,运动补偿差图像的峰值信噪比得以提高。     

Region-based image coding with multiple algorithms

The wide usage of small satellite imagery, especially its commercialization, makes data-based onboard compression not only meaningful but also necessary in order to solve the bottleneck between the huge volume of data generated onboard and the very limited downlink bandwidth. The authors propose a method that encodes different regions with different algorithms. The authors use three shape-adaptive image compression algorithms as the candidates. The first one is a JPEG-based algorithm, the second one is based on the object-based wavelet transform method proposed by Katata et al. (1997), and the third adopts Hilbert scanning of the regions of interest followed by one-dimensional (1-D) wavelet transform. The three algorithms are also applied to the full image so that one can compare their performance on a whole rectangular image. The authors use eight Landsat TM multispectral images and another 12 small satellite single-band images as their data set. The results show that these compression algorithms have significantly different performance for different regions     

Region-based image coding using polynomial intensity functions

The vast majority of coded images are real-world images. These images consist of distinct objects within a scene, where each object has its own reflective, textural and lighting characteristics. Region-based image coding encodes these images by partitioning the scene into objects, and then describing each object's characteristics using a set of parameters. The paper uses orthonormal polynomial functions to describe the lighting and reflective characteristics of each object. The coefficients of these polynomials are coded with linear quantisers that have their decision boundaries spaced according to rate-distortion considerations. The textural component of each object is coded using vector quantisation of the autocorrelation coefficients of the residual. The partitioning of the image into distinct objects is achieved with a segmentation algorithm which attempts to maximise the rate-distortion performance of the encoding procedure as a whole. In doing so, the segmentation algorithm partitions the image into distinct objects as well as providing estimates for the optimal bit allocations among the polynomial coefficients. Results generated by this method show reconstructions with quality superior to other region-based methods, both objectively and subjectively     

Region-based fractal image compression using heuristic search

Presents work carried out on fractal (or attractor) image compression. The approach relies on the assumption that image redundancy can be efficiently exploited through self-transformability. The algorithms described utilize a novel region-based partition of the image that greatly increases the compression ratios achieved over traditional block-based partitionings. Due to the large search spaces involved, heuristic algorithms are used to construct these region-based transformations. Results for three different heuristic algorithms are given. The results show that the region-based system achieves almost double the compression ratio of the simple block-based system at a similar decompressed image quality. For the Lena image, compression ratios of 41:1 can be achieved at a PSNR of 26.56 dB.     

Contourlet-based image adaptive watermarking

In the contourlet transform (CT), the Laplacian pyramid (LP) decomposes an image into a low-frequency (LF) subband and a high-frequency (HF) subband. The LF subband is created by filtering the original image with 2-D low-pass filter. However, the HF subband is created by subtracting the synthesized LF subband from the original image but not by 2-D high-pass filtering the original image. In this paper, we propose a contourlet-based image adaptive watermarking (CIAW) scheme, in which the watermark is embedded into the contourlet coefficients of the largest detail subbands of the image. The transform structure of the LP makes the embedded watermark spread out into all subbands likely in which the LF subbands are included when we reconstruct the watermarked image based on the watermarked contourlet coefficients. Since both the LF subbands and the HF subbands contain watermarking components, our watermarking scheme is expected to be robust against both the LF image processing and the HF image processing attacks. The corresponding watermarking detection algorithm is proposed to decide whether the watermark is present or not by exploiting the unique transform structure of LP. With the new proposed concept of spread watermark, the watermark is detected by computing the correlation between the spread watermark and the watermarked image in all contourlet subbands fully. The proposed CIAW scheme is particularly superior to the conventional watermarking schemes when the watermarked image is attacked by some image processing methods, which destroy the HF subbands, thanks to the watermarking components preserved in the LF subbands. Experimental results show the validity of CIAW in terms of both the watermarking invisibility and the watermarking robustness. In addition, the comparison experiments prove the high-efficiency of CIAW again.     

False-positive-free SVD-based image watermarking

The need of copyright protection and rightful ownership become very urgent in the fast growing Internet environment. The watermarking offers a convenient way to hide specific information via an imaging system for the consumer electronic devices such as digital camera, scanner, and printer. Numerous efforts have been devoted in the Singular Value Decomposition (SVD)-based image watermarking schemes which embed the visual watermark image into the host image before publishing for public usage. However, the main drawback of the SVD-based image watermarking is its false positive problem of which an attacker can easily claim and obtain the correct watermark from an unauthorized image. In this paper, we proposed a new SVD-based image watermarking by embedding the principal component of a watermark into the host image of block based manner using spread spectrum concept. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method overcomes the false positive problem, achieves a high payload, and outperforms the former reliable SVD-based watermarking.     

Region-based image retrieval using color-size features of watershed regions

This paper presents a region-based image retrieval system that provides a user interface for helping to specify the watershed regions of interest within a query image. We first propose a new type of visual features, called color-size feature, which includes color-size histogram and moments, to integrate color and region-size information of watershed regions. Next, we design a scheme of region filtering that is based on color-size histogram to fast screen out some of most irrelevant regions and images for the preprocessing of the image retrieval. Our region-based image retrieval system applies the Earth Mover’s Distance in the design of the similarity measure for image ranking and matching. Finally, we present some experiments for the color-size feature, region filtering, and retrieval results that demonstrate the efficiency of our proposed system.     

一种基于量化的图像水印方案

本文提出一种图像自适应的扩频水印方案，利用量化-替换过程将水印嵌到图像DCT域的中高频系数上，为保证水印的鲁棒性和透明性，根据视觉模型自适应地确定水印的量化区间，在水印检测时不需要参考原图。对水印图像的攻击实验表明：算法对噪声干扰及常见的图像处理技术具有较好的鲁棒性。     

Geometric Invariance in image watermarking

Surviving geometric attacks in image watermarking is considered to be of great importance. In this paper, the watermark is used in an authentication context. Two solutions are being proposed for such a problem. Both geometric and invariant moments are used in the proposed techniques. An invariant watermark is designed and tested against attacks performed by StirMark using the invariant moments. On the other hand, an image normalization technique is also proposed which creates a normalized environment for watermark embedding and detection. The proposed algorithms have the advantage of being robust, computationally efficient, and no overhead needs to be transmitted to the decoder side. The proposed techniques have proven to be highly robust to all geometric manipulations, filtering, compression and slight cropping which are performed as part of StirMark attacks as well as noise addition, both Gaussian and salt & pepper.     

VQ-based digital image watermarking method

A vector-quantisation (VQ)-based watermarking method is presented which utilises the codebook expansion technique. This method is efficient, provides enhanced security and the watermarked image is robust against the effects of VQ compression. Moreover, the watermark extraction can be performed without the original image. Experimental results are presented which demonstrate the effectiveness of this algorithm.     

基于DCT域的图像数字水印技术

采用了DCT离散余弦变换的算法，对图像这种多媒体数字作品进行了数字水印的嵌入和检测研究。并且使用了MATLAB来介绍了一种DCT域的图像数字水印嵌入和提取的实例，在最后对嵌入水印的图像进行了攻击实验，验证了该算法的鲁棒性和不可见性。     

Robust image watermarking using non-regular wavelets

An approach to watermarking digital images using non-regular wavelets is advanced. Non-regular transforms spread the energy in the transform domain. The proposed method leads at the same time to increased image quality and increased robustness with respect to lossy compression. The approach provides robust watermarking by suitably creating watermarked messages that have energy compaction and frequency spreading. Our experimental results show that the application of non-regular wavelets, instead of regular ones, can furnish a superior robust watermarking scheme. The generated watermarked data is more immune against non-intentional JPEG and JPEG2000 attacks.     

Wavelet based image adaptive watermarking scheme

An image adaptive watermark casting method based on the wavelet transform is proposed. To increase the robustness and perceptual invisibility, the algorithm is combined with the quantisation model based on the human visual system. The number of factors that affect the noise sensitivity of the human eye are taken into consideration. Experimental results demonstrate the robustness of the algorithm to high compression environments     

Geometric attacks on image watermarking systems

Synchronization errors can lead to significant performance loss in image watermarking methods, as the geometric attacks in the Stirmark benchmark software show. The authors describe the most common types of geometric attacks and survey proposed solutions.     

一种新的基于图像内容特征的顽健水印

使用混沌映射将二进制商标的像素在空间区域中进行随机置乱,然后将置乱的信息分块嵌入在图像的DCT变换系数中。为了使水印的分布集中在图像显著的边缘特征中,提出了基于图像内容的模糊熵测度算法,水印嵌入的强度随着图像特征变化而自适应地变化。在水印的检测中,利用Kalman滤波算法对水印信息进行预测和估计,在没有原始图像数据的情况下,能够使嵌入的商标得到恢复以表明数字图像的版权。实验结果表明,所提出的方案,对于水印的嵌入及提取具有很好的效果,可作为可靠的版权保护工具而应用。     

Filter evaluation for DWT-domain image watermarking

Similar to other wavelet-based image processing algorithms, the choice of wavelet filters generally affects the performance of a wavelet-based watermarking system. Reported is an evaluation of a set of biorthogonal integer wavelets under a multiresolution-watermarking framework. Further investigation is conducted to justify the robustness performance against attacks.     

一种半脆弱性数字图像水印算法

本文基于JPEG有损压缩提出了一种半脆弱性数字图像水印算法。实验测试表明,所提出的算法不会明显影响图像的主客观质量,对JPEG有损压缩具有一定的顽健性,可以有效地进行篡改检测,达到检测和标示图像内容真实性的目的。     

Fragile watermarking scheme for image authentication

A simple fragile watermarking scheme for image authentication is proposed. The insertion of a binary watermark is accomplished by replacing the least significant bit of the host image with a random binary image obtained by random permutations and suitable XOR operations among bitplanes. The proposed scheme is secure, fast, and capable of detecting and localising modification, and is immune of the well-known quantisation attack.