A Robust Watermarking Scheme Based on the Mean Modulation of DWT Coefficients

Abstract

In an endeavor to deal with image copyright infringement, robust watermarking approaches are commonly used. However, most of the existing approaches either present a limited robustness or rely on highly computational algorithms, thereby limiting the efficiency of these solutions. In this paper, a novel blind and robust watermarking method is presented. First, the vertical and horizontal subbands coefficients, resulting from the wavelet transformation, are scrambled using a chaotic sequence and then gathered into individual blocks. Next, the mean value of each block is modulated according to watermark bit. At the extraction stage, based on the sign of the blocks’ mean, a blind watermark extractor is suggested. The imperceptibility, security, complexity, and robustness of the proposed approach have been evaluated and compared with state of the art solutions. Experimental results prove that the proposed approach successfully satisfies the watermarking requirement and outperforms existing methods against both geometric and signal processing attacks.