A novel blind color image watermarking using upper Hessenberg matrix

It is a challenging work to design a blind color image watermarking scheme for protecting copyright, which is different from the existing schemes used binary image or grayscale image as watermark and is also different from other non-blind watermarking schemes. In this paper, we analyze the feature of the upper Hessenberg matrix, and propose a blind color image watermarking scheme using upper Hessenberg matrix of Hessenberg transform. Arnold transform is used to improve the security, and the MD5-based Hash pseudo-random algorithm is also used to improve the robustness. In the process of watermark embedding, the encrypted watermark information is embedded into the biggest energy element of the Hessenberg matrix by quantization technique. In the process of watermark extraction, the watermark is extracted from the attacked host image with blind manner. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms other related methods in the aspects of the invisibility, robustness, capacity and computational complexity.