Pixel P Air-Wise Fragile Image Watermarking Based on HC-Based Absolute Moment Block Truncation Coding

Abstract

In this paper, we first designed Huffman code (HC)-based absolute moment block truncation coding (AMBTC). Then, we applied Huffman code (HC)-based absolute moment block truncation coding (AMBTC) to design a pixel pair-wise fragile image watermarking method. Pixel pair-wise tampering detection and content recovery mechanisms were collaboratively applied in the proposed scheme to enhance readability even when images have been tampered with. Representative features are derived from our proposed HC-based AMBTC compression codes of the original image, and then serve as authentication code and recovery information at the same time during tamper detection and recovery operations. Recovery information is embedded into two LSB of the original image with a turtle shell-based data hiding method and a pre-determined matrix. Therefore, each non-overlapping pixel-pair carries four bits of recovery information. When the recipient suspects that the received image may have been tampered with, the compressed image can be used to locate tampered pixels, and then the recovery information can be used to restore the tampered pixels.