2009 World Congress on Computer Science and Information Engineering

An Improved Algorithm of Digital Watermarking Based on Wavelet Transform

Sun Jianhong Li Junsheng Li Zhiyong Engineering College, Yunnan, Honghe University, China, 661100 sparkhonghe@gmail.com Abstract
In this paper, a digital image watermarking technique based on Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) will be proposed. This scheme is designed utilizing principles deriving from the human visual system, JPEG standard compression algorithm and DWT decomposition. It is optimized special for against JPEG compression. The watermark signal as a binary sequence is embedded to the diagonal higher frequency band at 2-D level DWT decomposition of Y channel in YUV color model. The experiment shows that the proposed scheme has strong robust to against JPEG compression, some popular filtering and geometrical attacks. techniques; Transform domain technique. When applied in the spatial or temporal domains, these approaches modify the least significant bits (LSB) of the host data. Many transform-based watermarking techniques have been proposed. Like the Wavelet transform (DWT), Cosine transform (DCT), Fractal transform. To embed a watermark, a transformation is first applied to the host data, and then modifications are made to the transform coefficients. Usually, the watermarking schemes must satisfy some properties [3]: Imperceptibility: It refers to the fact that the embedded watermark is imperceptible if the degradation in the watermarked image is difficult to detect. Capacity: The amount of information that can be hidden without degrading the image quality. This amount depends on the application (copyright protection, fingerprint, medical safety, etc). Robustness: The robustness of watermark schemes is measured by their resistance to different types of attacks such as compression, filtering, geometrical attacks, etc. The proposed digital watermark scheme is invisible watermark based on transform domain technique. We attempt to improve the robustness of existing algorithm. The watermark algorithm we proposed which is an improved algorithm based on DWT transform domain techniques for still images.

1. Introduction
As we know, the multimedia becomes an important form of information exchange; such large number of digital products are created and transmitted via the Internet. There are one characteristics of digital products is that they are very easy to create, store, duplicate, transmit and modify. It also make unauthorized using, copying, or modification of the products becomes very easy. How to protect the intellectual property of digital products is a serious problem that the issuers have to face. To address this issue, digital watermarking techniques have been developed to protect the copyright of media signals [2]. Many research efforts over the past decade have enabled digital watermarking to establish itself as a potential solution for the protection of ownership rights and policing information piracy of multimedia elements like images, audio and video[5]. Digital watermarking is divided into two main categories: visible watermark and invisible watermark. They can be categorized based on the domain used for watermarking embedding process. Then they can be grouped into two main classes: Spatial domain
978-0-7695-3507-4/08 $25.00 2008 IEEE DOI 10.1109/CSIE.2009.150 280

2. The proposed DWT based technique

In our proposed scheme, the watermark is represented in binary form as wij{0,1}. In the other words, any format image or text will be embedded as watermark, at first, we need transform into a binary string. And for embedding convenience, the mapping 1 -1 and 01 will be processed subsequent. So, the

watermark binary sequence will be mapped as wij {1,-1}. From the human visual system, we know the human eye more sensitive to brightness than chroma. So, in JPEG compression processing, the chroma, Cb(blue) and Cr(red) components will be reduced to achieve compress images with few image quality decline. In JPEG standard compression processing, the down sampling ratios of components of YUV model, Y(luminance): Cb: Cr, can be dealt generally as 4:4:4 (no down sampling), 4:2:2, and most commonly 4:2:0 in JPEG compression processing. From this, we notice the Y channel of the image will be kept perfectly after any down sampling of JPEG compression. In this paper, the watermark embedded algorithm is optimized especially for against JPEG compressing through considering the characteristics of JPEG image compression algorithm; Embed the watermark into the Y channel, luminance channel in the YUV color model to ensure the watermark information will be retained more after JPEG image lossy compression. From the principle of DWT decomposition, we know the information of image will concentrate in low frequency. So, the high frequency information will be discarded after JPEG lossy compression. Based on the results of above, in our scheme, the Y channel will be transformed into DWT domain and a watermark is embedded only at diagonal component at 2-level decomposition. It is shown in the figure 1; the area is cH2, cV2 and cD2. And the Human Visual System studies also show that visual perception on the horizontal and vertical direction stimulation most sensitive to the direction of the 45o. For keeping embedded watermark invisible and still retained in host image after compression. Further, only the diagonal component cD2 was chosen to embed watermark. So both the greater invisibility and stronger robust of the watermark in the watermarked image is achieved.
cA2 cV2 cV1 cH2 cD2 cD1 cH1

channel has characteristic of the highest frequency range [6].

2.1 Watermark Embedding

The proposed watermark embedding process is shown in figure 2.
Host image (RGB) Watermark signal

Transform into Ycbcr (YUV) Watermark Embedding IDWT transform

Channel separating

Y channel

DWT transform

Watermarked Channel Y channel combining

Watermarked image

Figure 2. Watermark embedding process The relation of embedding process is given as (1):

F = F +k | F | w , F < F
ij ij ij ij

'

ij

mean

Fij = Fij +k Fmeanwij , Fij >=Fmean

'

(1)

The relation there is a little change with formula used in [6] which presents the original relation is Fij=Fij+k|Fij|Wij. Where i and j is range over all selected coefficients in cD2 region. Fij, Fij denote the DWT coefficient of the Y channel of the original image and the watermarked image respectively, Wij is the watermark signal and k is a very important parameter which scale is determined by experiment. Fmean is the mean of absolute coefficients value of cD2 region. Compared with paper [6], the algorithm can increase strength K to ensure the embedded watermark easy to recover, and avoid affecting the quality of host image, because the largest amplitude coefficients will be limited when the small amplitude coefficients increase as increasing K.

2.2 Watermark Detecting

The watermark detecting process is shown as figure 3; the watermark signal and random seed is required to participate. In addition, recovering watermark also need the original image to participate. The detecting process steps are: a) Separate the target image into Y, Cb, Cr channels, and then select the Y channel. b) Transform Y channel into 2-level DWT domain. c) Use the random seed same as embed process to extract N (the watermarked bits) coefficients as No.1

Figure 1. 2-D discrete wavelet transforms Contrast, the authors of literature [6] proposed imbedded the watermark into the blue channel of the RGB color model. The reason is that the human visual system is least sensitive to the range of high frequency [4]. Among three channels of the RGB image, the blue

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group, and compute the mean value T of them. The formula is: Where FW is the chosen coefficients sequence, they are assumed embedded watermark. The other coefficients as No.2 group, and then compute its mean value To and multiplies a coefficient alpha as a threshold. The formula is:
(3-2) Threshold = T 0 Here Fnon is the coefficients sequence of No.2 group. d) Compare the No.1s mean value with the mean value of No.2. The target image is considered embedded watermark if the T >To. Where is another important parameter.
Key( seed) Y channel of Watermarke d image DWT Original watermark Calculate Mw *Nw

T = mean ( F w )

(2)

= mean

non

(3-1)

luminance, Median of luminance of original image and the watermarked image for different values of K. Luminance is a measure of the amount of energy an observer perceives from a light source. The change of high luminance pixel is harder be detected by the human eyes than at the lower luminance pixel. From the Table 1 we see that, the mean amplitude of luminance almost no change from K=0.6 to K=2.4, For stronger watermark robust, the K scale take around 2.0, and it also under satisfy imperceptibility at mean of luminance and median luminance test. Table 1. Impact to images on different scale of embedding parameter K
Mean of luminance Images lenna baboon goldhill original 128.23 126.46 110.74 181.86 K=0.6 K=1.2 K=1.8 Median of luminance K=2.4 original k=0.6 K=1.2 K=1.8 K=2.4 119 121 103 201 119 121 103 201 119 121 103 201 119 121 103 201 119 122 103 201

128.23 128.23 128.23 128.22 126.46 126.46 126.46 126.46 110.75 110.75 110.75 110.75 181.85 181.85 181.85 181.85

Separating coefficient s Calculate

Calculate threshold To

airplane

T>T o N Y

Watermarked

Non-watermarked

The figure 4 shows Coefficients amplitude of cD2(Y channel) of the original image (lenna.jpg) compare with after watermarked (watermark1, k=2.0). We can see they are almost same. This result further explanation watermark embedding little impact on the host image.

Figure 3. Watermark detecting process

2.3 Watermark recovering

The watermark recovering just compare the watermarked coefficients with original coefficients, set 1 into watermark vector if watermarked coefficient is smaller than original coefficient. Otherwise, set 0 into watermark vector. Then we can get recover the embedded watermark.

(a)

(b)

Figure 4. Coefficients amplitude of cD2(Y channel) of the original image (lenna.jpg); (b) Coefficients amplitude of cD2(Y channel) of the watermarked image (watermark1, k=2.0).

3. Experimental results
There are four 512512 standard images work as host images and two binary images work as watermark images in the experiments.

3.2 Determining the size of parameter

The alpha () is one of the important parameters in proposed watermark scheme. It determines the scale of threshold of watermark detector. It will result watermark detector false positive if the threshold is too small. But if the threshold is too big, the false negative will present in the detecting process. ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) curve is a commonly method to analyze these two types of false. The ordinate of ROC curve can be presented by formula (4).
TPR = TP TP + FN

3.1 Determining the scaling parameter K

The scaling parameter (K) is an important factor in the proposed algorithm. Too large scale K will cause the bad host image quality, and then the watermarks imperceptions will be affected. But the small value of K will degrades the detector response. So the value of K must be in a reasonable range for successful watermark detection. Table 1 shows the Mean of

(4)

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Where TPR is True Positive Ration, also be called sensitivity. TP is the times of watermarked images are detected correct; FN is the times of watermarked images cant be detected. And the abscissa of ROC curve can be presented by formula (5). TNR=1-FPR FP FPR = TN + FP
(5-1) (5-2)

Table 3. Proposed watermark scheme against compression (k=2, alpha=10lenna.jpg)

Compression ratio 60% 70% 80% 90% Threshold (DWT) 0.3815 0.4055 0.4530 No result Correlation (DWT) 0.4310 0.4330 0.4450 No result Threshold (10*To) 0.0038 0.0051 0.0050 0.0059 Value of T 0.0180 0.0156 0.0088 0.0068

3.4 Scaling Attack Testing

Scaling is also one of the most common image processes. The table 4 shows performance of the proposed watermark scheme compared with method of paper [6] proposed against scaling attack. Table 4. Proposed watermark scheme against scaling (k=2, alpha=10lenna.jpg)
Scaling 0.5 0.8 1 1.2 1.5 1.6 3 5
Threshold (DWT) 0.2015 0.2525 0.2709 0.2880 0.4525 0.4629 No result No result Correlation (DWT) 0.3545 0.4155 0.4172 0.4310 0.4525 0.4590 No result No result Threshold (10*To) 0.0080 0.0036 0.0021 0.0007 0.0010 0.0011 0.0020 0.0021 Value of T 0.0146 0.0175 0.0268 0.0232 0.0150 0.0248 0.0267 0.0267

Here FPR is False Positive Ratio. TNR is called specificity. FP is the times of watermark are detected in non-watermarked images. TN is the times of did not detect watermark in non-watermarked images. Testing samples have 150 images, there are 50 images embedded watermark among them which have been attacked with random JPEG compression ratio. The detecting result shows as table 2. The figure 5 is the ROC curve. Table 2. Watermark detected result at different alpha
Alpha()
5

TP
50

FN
0

FP
13

TN
87

TPR
1

TNR
0.87

10
15 20 25 30

46
42 37 33 32

4
8 23 27 28

4
3 0 0 0

96
97 100 100 100

0.92
0.84 0.74 0.66 0.64

0.96
0.97 1 1 1

ROC curve 1.05 1 T NR 0.95 0.9 0.85 0.8

0. 58 0. 74 0. 92 0. 66 0. 84 0. 64 0. 62 0. 54 0. 6 1

The result shows that the method proposed by paper [6] against scaling attack no more than 1.6 of scaling size. The proposed scheme in this paper has strong robust against scaling attack. Especially, the results indicate the watermark extracting almost no any sensitive for scaling attack when the scale more than 1.

TPR

3.5 Blur Attack Testing

Testing samples: Test images were dealt with 1 to 3 times PHOTOSHOP Blur operation. The testing result is shown in table 5. From the results we can see the proposed scheme can against two times blur processes. Table 5. Blur Attack Testing (k=2, alpha=10)
Images (K=2.0) lenna T& Threshold T Threshold (10*To) T Threshold (10*To) T Threshold (10*To) T Threshold (10*To) 1 time 0.0150 0.0052 0.0476 0.0180 0.0167 0.0077 0.0146 0.0048 Blur 2times 0.0087 0.0080 0.0280 0.0251 0.0098 0.0102 0.0085 0.0072 3times 0.0054 0.0081 0.0173 0.0251 0.0061 0.0101 0.0052 0.0073

Figure 5. ROC curve The perfect curve is TNR always keep 1. From the table and curve above, we know =10 is the best choice.

3.3 JPEG Compression Testing

JPEG compression is the most common image processing. The table 3 shows performance of the proposed watermark scheme compared with method of paper [6] proposed under the high ratio of JPEG compression. The result shows that the method proposed by paper [6] against JPEG compression no more than compression ratio 70%. However, the JPEG compression almost no any affect in our scheme.

baboon

goldhill

airplane

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3.6 Sharpen Attack Testing

Testing samples: Test images were dealt with 1 to 4 times PHOTOSHOP Sharpen operation. Table 6. Sharpen Attack Testing (k=2, alpha=10)
Images (K=2.0) T& Threshold Sharpen 1 time 0.0492 0.0017 0.0550 0.0141 0.1520 0.0443 0.0490 0.0150 2times 0.0878 0.0480 0.1013 0.0048 0.2207 0.1070 0.0885 0.0045 3times 0.1430 0.0986 0.1675 0.1081 0.2668 0.1638 0.1466 0.0092 4times 0.1926 0.0148 0.2206 0.1649 0.2840 0.1952 0.2064 0.1477

T lenna Threshold (10*To) T baboon Threshold(10*To) T goldhill Threshold (10*To) T airplane Threshold (10*To)

In this paper a watermark method against some familiar attacks were presented. We obtained good results in most of these attacks. Further improvements may be done in the watermark detecting and recovering of cropped watermarked images. The problem is how to determine the initial coefficient of cropped image. The result conduce the remains watermark information in cropped images can be extracting and recovering. Another future work is improving the algorithm to enhance the capacity of proposed scheme.

5. References
[1] J. Alberto Mndez-Polanco, &A. Cristina Palacios Garca, Ral Rodrguez-Coln, and Claudia Feregrino-Uribe, Digital Watermarking Based on Image Centroid Resistant to Rotation and Scaling. 17th International Conference on Electronics, Communications and Computers. IEEE 2007. [2] Lu, Chun-Shien, A. Multimedia Security: Steganography and Digital Watermarking Techniques for Protection of Intellectual Property, Idea Group Publishing, 2005, pp. 1-41. [3] Puech W., Rodrigues J.J. A new cryptowatermarking method for medical images safe transfer. In Proceedings of the 12th European Signal Processing Conference, Vienna Austria, 2004, pp.1481-1484. [4] R.C Gonzalez and R.E. Woods, Digital image processing, Wesley, 1993, PP. 21-25, 191-195, [5] Saraju P.Mohanty, K.R Ramakrishnan, Mohan S Kankanhalli. A DCT Domain Visible Watermarking Technique for Images, IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo, 2002 [6] S.M. Mohidul Islam, Rameswar Debnath, S.K Alamgir Hossain, DWT Based Digital Watermarking Technique and its Robustness on Image Rotation, Scaling, JPEG compression, Cropping and Multiple Watermarking, International Conference on Information and Communication Technology, ICICT 2007, March 2007, Dhaka, Bangladesh. P.246-249

The testing result is shown in table 6. The watermarked images after four times sharpen operation have vastly different with the original watermarked images, but the watermark detection almost unaffected. From the result we can see the sharpen attack is does not work to proposed scheme.

3.7 Against Rotation Attack Testing

As many schemes, the proposed scheme detecting the watermark from the rotated image is difficult unless use image processing software, such as PHOTOSHOP to resume, the detecting result is totally depend on the quality of resumed image, this problem will be one important point in my future research. The Rotation attack experiment results were shown as table 7. From the experiment, we can see that information of watermark embedded didnt destroy by rotation process. The problem is the detect method. Table 7. Rotation Attack Testing
Images T& (K=2.0) Threshold T lenna Threshold (10*To) T baboon Threshold (10*To) T goldhill Threshold (10*To) T airplane Threshold (10*To) Rotation 30o 0.0084 0.0035 0.0593 0.0242 0.0164 0.0096 0.0188 0.0075 60o 0.0106 0.0017 0.0736 0.0163 0.0227 0.0050 0.0232 0.0048 90o 0.0154 0.0021 0.1066 0.0031 0.0323 0.0011 0.0331 0.0016 120o 0.0097 0.0004 0.0667 0.0202 0.0201 0.0058 0.0206 0.0052 150o 0.0121 0.0013 0.0834 0.0164 0.0160 0.0011 0.0256 0.0047 180o 0.0154 0.0021 0.1066 0.0031 0.0201 0.0058 0.0331 0.0016

4. Conclusions and future work

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