Region-based hybrid medical image watermarking for secure telemedicine applications

In this paper we propose a novel region based hybrid medical image watermarking (MIW) scheme to ensure authenticity, integrity and confidentiality of medical images. In this scheme a digital medical image is partitioned into region of interest (ROI) and the region of non interest (RONI). To detect and localize ROI tampering with high accuracy pixel wise positional and relational bits are calculated. Positional bit is calculated with respect to MSBs, row and column of the pixel. Relational bit shows the relation between MSBs. Two original LSBs of each ROI pixel are replace by their corresponding positional and relational bits. Original LSBs of ROI pixels are concatenated and embedded in RONI for ROI recovery in the case of tampering. Multiple watermarks i.e. electronic patient record (EPR), hospitals logo and LSBs of ROI are embedded simultaneously as a robust watermark in RONI using IWT-SVD hybrid transform. The proposed scheme is blind and free from false positive detection. Various experiments have been carried out on different medical imaging modalities to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme in terms of imperceptibility, robustness, tamper detection, localization, recovery and computation time. ROI tampering is detected and recovered with high accuracy. Thus, the proposed scheme is effective in telemedicine applications.

     

Hybrid watermarking of medical images for ROI authentication and recovery

Medical image data require strict security, confidentiality and integrity. To achieve these stringent requirements, we propose a hybrid watermarking method which embeds a robust watermark in the region of non-interest (RONI) for achieving security and confidentiality, while integrity control is achieved by inserting a fragile watermark into the region of the interest (ROI). First the information to be modified in ROI is separated and is inserted into RONI, which later is used in recovery of the original ROI. Secondly, to avoid the underflow and overflow, a location map is generated for embedding the watermark block-wise by leaving the suspected blocks. This avoids the preprocessing step of histogram modification. The image visual quality, as well as tamper localization, is evaluated. We use weighted peak signal to noise ratio for measuring image quality of watermarked images. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the existing hybrid watermarking techniques.     

Information hiding in medical images: a robust medical image watermarking system for E-healthcare

Electronic transmission of the medical images is one of the primary requirements in a typical Electronic-Healthcare (E-Healthcare) system. However this transmission could be liable to hackers who may modify the whole medical image or only a part of it during transit. To guarantee the integrity of a medical image, digital watermarking is being used. This paper presents two different watermarking algorithms for medical images in transform domain. In first technique, a digital watermark and Electronic Patients Record (EPR) have been embedded in both regions; Region of Interest (ROI) and Region of Non-Interest (RONI). In second technique, Region of Interest (ROI) is kept untouched for tele-diagnosis purpose and Region of Non-Interest (RONI) is used to hide the digital watermark and EPR. In either algorithm 8?×?8 block based Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) has been used. In each 8?×?8 block two DCT coefficients are selected and their magnitudes are compared for embedding the watermark/EPR. The selected coefficients are modified by using a threshold for embedding bit a ‘0’ or bit ‘1’ of the watermark/EPR. The proposed techniques have been found robust not only to singular attacks but also to hybrid attacks. Comparison results viz-a - viz payload and robustness show that the proposed techniques perform better than some existing state of art techniques. As such the proposed algorithms could be useful for e-healthcare systems.     

Watermarking of chest CT scan medical images for content authentication

Image processing techniques have played a very significant role in the past decades in the field of medical sciences for diagnosis and treatment purposes. In some applications, medical images are divided into region of interest (ROI) and region of non-interest (RONI). Important information regarding diagnosis is contained in the ROI, so its integrity must be assured. We propose a fragile watermarking technique to ensure the integrity of the medical image that avoids the distortion of the image in ROI by embedding the watermark information in RONI. The watermark is composed of patient information, hospital logo and message authentication code computed using a hash function. Earlier encryption of watermark is performed to ensure inaccessibility of embedded data to the adversaries.     

An efficient fragile watermarking scheme with multilevel tamper detection and recovery based on dynamic domain selection

Self-recoverable fragile watermarking is meant for accurate tamper localization as well as image recovery with superior visual quality. However, most of the existing state of art approaches perform authentication and recovery on block basis owing to which the entire block is categorized as tampered in case of alteration of one or more pixels of it. This, results in staircase formation of tamper detected regions, hence lacking in accuracy. Furthermore, the visual quality of the recovered image also deteriorates as an approximate value is assigned to all the block pixels corresponding to the altered region. The proposed watermarking scheme performs both authentication and recovery pixelwise. The authentication of each pixel is done via multi level tamper detection(MLTD) through three authentication bits based on value, location and neighbourhood information. The domain for image recovery is chosen dynamically based on the content of the block, may it be in spatial domain for smooth blocks or frequency domain for the rough ones. This provides high accuracy in recovery. As the embedding of recovery information is done in the frequency domain, the imperceptibility of the watermarked image scheme remains high. Also, embedding of authentication information in the spatial domain maintains its fragile nature. Even for higher tampering ratios, the lost content is rebuilt with high peak signal to noise ratio(PSNR) of the recovered image. The probabilities of false rejection and false acceptance head towards the ideal value for most of the empirical analysis. Comparative study via metric evaluation of probability of false rejection (PFR), probability of false acceptance (PFA) and PSNR of recovered image for different standard test cover images demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed scheme over other existing state of art approaches. Further, the security of the proposed scheme remains high due to usage of multi-layered secret keys and chaos based random mapping handling worst tamper scenarios.     

Composite chaos-based lossless image authentication and tamper localization

To improve the robustness to combined attack of signal processing plus tamper, a composite chaos-based lossless scheme for image authentication and tamper localization is proposed. A non-successive composite chaos (NSCC) is described, and its performance is analysed by some evaluation indicators. Then NSCC is employed to disturb original image and generate chaotic logo, which enhances the security and robustness of lossless image authentication scheme due to the good performance of NSCC in these aspects of randomness, complexity and ability of anti-forecast technology. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme is not only safe, but also realizes the correct extraction of logo and precise detection of tampered region position and shape under various attacks, especially signal processing plus tamper attack.     

基于感兴趣区域的图像水印嵌入算法研究

鉴于现有绝大多数图像水印方案将载体图像看作整个场景,并未考虑载体图像自身的结构特征及人们感兴趣的视觉目标区域,本文提出了一种基于感兴趣区(ROI)的小波域图像水印嵌入算法.该算法首先结合人眼视觉感知特性,在小波变换域内利用k-均值聚类提取出感兴趣区域;然后对感兴趣区域进行小波变换,并结合图像局部相关性对小波系数进行自适应的量化调制,将水印信息嵌入到感兴趣区域的低频子带内.仿真实验表明,所提出的水印嵌入算法不仅具有较好的透明性,而且对JPEG压缩、叠加噪声、锐化等常规图像处理操作具有较好的鲁棒性.特别地,该算法能够有效抵御恶意剪切、目标移动、替换背景等攻击,而且可以实现盲检测.     

基于提升方案小波的半脆弱水印图像认证算法

在小波变换域内,将水印嵌入在特定的小波系数中,对图像带来的失真影响很小,同时可以准确地检测和篡改定位,因此目前实现认证的脆弱水印和半脆弱水印大多在小波域内.提出了一种使用提升小波变换的半脆弱水印方法.在原始宿主图像经过提升小波变换之后的低频子带,根据水印和小波系数的特征自适应地修改小波系数,嵌入过程实现了很好的不可见性和鲁棒性,实现了盲提取,并能准确地实现篡改的检测和定位.     

对水印信息篡改鲁棒的自嵌入水印算法

为提高自嵌入水印算法在任意篡改条件下的篡改恢复质量,提出一种对水印信息篡改鲁棒性的空域自嵌入水印算法,分析了算法中阈值选取的合理性和检测篡改的可靠性.该算法首先基于密钥将原始图像的最低位和1/4次低位置零,通过对图像内容的小波低频系数实施均匀标量量化生成低频特征图像,将低频特征图像置乱加密后生成的二值编码嵌入原始图像的置零位;认证时通过设定的阈值识别图像内容被恶意篡改的图像块,从而提高自嵌入水印算法对水印信息篡改和信道噪声的鲁棒性.理论分析和仿真结果表明,无论水印信息被随机篡改还是区域篡改,算法均能根据阈值区分不同篡改并选用不同的方法对其进行篡改恢复,有效地提高了自嵌入算法在部分水印信息篡改时的恢复质量.     

A majority-voting based watermarking scheme for color image tamper detection and recovery

This paper presents a novel color image watermarking scheme for both tamper detection and tampered image recovery. The proposed scheme embeds watermarks consisting of the authentication data and the recovery data into image blocks. In the tamper detection process, instead of independently examining each embedded authentication data, we take all the authentication data embedded in an image into account and utilize a majority-voting technique to determine the legitimacy of image blocks. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme can effectively thwart collage attack and vector quantization (VQ) attack, while sustaining superior accuracy of tamper localization. Furthermore, the results reveal that the tampered images can be successfully recovered with acceptable visual quality.     

Optimized SVD-based robust watermarking in the fractional Fourier domain

Digital watermarking is one of the most effective methods for protecting multimedia from different kind of threats. It has been used for many purposes, like copyright protection, ownership identification, tamper detection, etc. Many watermarking applications require embedding techniques that provide robustness against common watermarking attacks, like compression, noise, filtering, etc. In this paper, an optimized robust watermarking method is proposed using Fractional Fourier Transform and Singular Value Decomposition. The approach provides a secure way for watermarking through the embedding parameters that are required for the watermark extraction. It is a block-based method, where each watermark bit is embedded in its corresponding image block. First, the transform is applied to each block, and then the singular values are evaluated through which the embedding modification is performed. The optimum fractional powers, of the transform, and the embedding strength factor are evaluated through a Meta-heuristic optimization to optimize the watermark imperceptibility and robustness. The Artificial Bee Colony is used as the Meta-heuristic optimization method. A fitness function is employed, at the optimization process, through which the maximum achievable robustness can be provided without degrading the watermarking quality below a predetermined quality threshold Qth. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through a comparison with recent watermarking techniques in terms of the watermarking performance. The watermarking quality and robustness are evaluated for different quality threshold values. Experimental results show that the proposed approach achieves a better quality compared to that of other existing watermarking methods. On the other hand, the robustness is examined against the most common applied attacks. It is noticed that the proposed method can achieve a higher robustness degree when decreasing the quality threshold value.     

Stereo image watermarking scheme for authentication with self-recovery capability using inter-view reference sharing

Advances in three dimensional video is a strong stimulus for research in authentication of stereo image to avoid illegal modification. In this paper, a stereo image watermarking scheme is proposed for authentication with self-recovery capability using inter-view reference sharing. A mechanism of inter-view reference sharing in stereo image pairs is designed to reduce bits for recovery reference generation compared with independent references. Discrete wavelet transform coefficients are employed to generate the references, and two reference copies of each block embedded in two different mapping blocks are prepared for recover tamper. Moreover, detail information from high frequency coefficients is also embedded so as to improve the quality of tamper recovery. For the purpose of resisting collage attack and increasing the probability of tamper detection, disparities between pairs of matched blocks are checked to conduct tamper detection. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme can detect tampered blocks with the probabilities of more than 99 % after collage attack. When stereo images are cropped from 10 to 70 % with randomly tampering, they are recovered without losing main visual information and qualities of recovery are better than those of existing monocular image watermarking schemes extended to stereo images.     

An algorithm for robust image watermarking based on the DCT and Zernike moments

An image watermarking scheme in the 2D DCT domain is proposed by exploring the advantages of using Zernike moments. Zernike transform has been used in image processing applications such as image recognition, authentication, protection, etc. Here, we propose to use the Zernike moments of the DCT transform to provide an efficient watermarking method. Particularly, the novelty of the proposed approach relies on the method for selection of features that will enable both preserving the image quality and robustness to attacks. Also, a criterion for selection of image blocks suitable for watermarking is given. It is based on the ? ₁-norm of Zernike moments. The efficiency of the proposed watermarking algorithm is proved on several examples considering different types of attacks (compression, noise, filtering, geometrical attacks).     

基于提升格式的数字水印算法

小波提升格式因其优势在图像处理领域得到了广泛应用。提出了一种基于Haar小波提升格式S变换的图像水印算法,先将原始图像进行分块,再将每块子图进行S变换,最后将置乱后的水印嵌入到低频系数。实验结果表明,该算法不仅具有良好的隐蔽性,而且对JPEG有损压缩、旋转、剪切和噪声等攻击具有理想的鲁棒性。     

一种抗JPEG压缩的半脆弱图像水印算法

半脆弱水印因为在多媒体内容认证方面的重要作用而受到人们密切的关注.为了能够区分偶然攻击与恶意篡改,半脆弱水印需要对一般的内容保护图像操作有一定的鲁棒性.由于JPEG压缩应用的普遍性,在保持较高的对篡改检测能力的情况下,提高抗JPEG压缩性能一直是半脆弱水印的重要问题.根据图像相邻小波高频系数之间的大小关系在JPEG压缩之后大多数没有发生变化这一事实,提出了一种新的抗JPEG压缩的半脆弱水印算法.实验结果表明,该算法计算简单,嵌入容量大,有很好的抗JPEG压缩性能,同时对篡改的定位也很精确.     

基于提升小波和纠错编码的复合型盲水印技术

提出了一种改进的复合型水印嵌入方法,引入了通信中的纠错编码技术,在很大程度上增强了鲁棒水印的鲁棒性。两类水印均实现了盲提取,且算法是公开的。与改进前的算法相比较,该算法中的鲁棒性水印对图像增强、几何剪切、马赛克等常见攻击,尤其是对局部区域篡改、JPEG压缩的抵抗能力有了明显的改善。同时,脆弱性水印不仅能判断图像的真实性,还能够准确、直观地定位篡改位置。     

Digital image authentication and recovery: Employing integer transform based information embedding and extraction

Recently, several semi-fragile watermarking approaches with the additional capability of image recovery have been proposed. However, the security, robustness, and image recovery aspect of these approaches have certain shortcomings. In this paper, a novel semi-fragile watermarking framework using integer transform based information embedding and extraction is proposed, which allows accurate authentication and recovery of the image. It is based on integer wavelet transform with improved security against collage attack, enhanced robustness, and capability of producing better quality recovered image. Security is enhanced by correlating the to-be-embedded watermark with the approximation subband of wavelet transform. Similarly, no unprotected area is left for attacks on the image, either in spatial or transform domain. Robustness is enhanced by using the idea of embedding in largest coefficient inside a group and correlating it with the quantized version of the mean of the group. In particular, the recovery approach is improved by introducing lossless compression and BCH coding of the integer DCT based low-pass version of the cover image itself. Alteration sensitivity is improved compared to traditional block-based approaches and thus the proposed approach can concisely determine the regions where the integrity verification fails. Experimental comparisons with existing approaches validate the usefulness of the proposed multiple semi-fragile watermarking approach.     

一种二维DCT彩色图像数字水印的新算法

作为版权保护的重要手段,数字水印技术已得到了广泛地研究和应用,但实用的彩色图像数字水印技术不多,特别是灰度级水印信号的嵌入算法不多。文中充分考虑到人类视觉系统特点,采用YIQ色彩空间,将灰度图像水印信号自适应嵌入载体的亮度分量Y的DCT系数中,并根据人类视觉掩蔽特征,在较复杂的块嵌入量增加。此外,采用Amold变换将水印图像进行置乱,消除像素的空间相关性,使算法抗攻击能力增强。实验结果证明:文中算法对叠加噪声、JPEG压缩、几何剪切、图像增强等攻击均具有较好的鲁棒性。     

Contourlet-based image and video watermarking robust to geometric attacks and compressions

In this paper, we first propose a new blind image watermarking scheme robust to geometric attacks and compressions. The scheme is based on contourlet transform (CT) and principal component analysis (PCA). The scheme uses the principal components of the largest contourlet coefficients of the last directional subband of the cover image to embed the watermark. Meanwhile, with the noise visibility function (NVF), the watermarking strength is adjusted adaptively to preserve the perceptual quality of the image. The watermark can be detected with high accuracy after various possible distortions. The normalized correlation (NC) between the original watermark and the watermark extracted from the distorted watermarked image is used as the robustness evaluation criterion. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme has good performance in terms of both quality and robustness against a variety of image-processing attacks, such as rotation, scaling and image compressions. Then we extend the scheme to blind video watermarking. The performance of the video watermarking scheme is evaluated against video attacks like rotation, frame averaging, noise additions and video compressions. The introduction of the CT produces robustness against image and video compressions, and the PCA yields resistance to geometric attacks.