PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT IN SPREAD SPECTRUM IMAGE WATERMARKING USING WAVELETS

Abstract

This paper investigates the scope of wavelets for performance improvement in spread spectrum image watermarking. Performance of a digital image watermarking algorithm, in general, is determined by the visual invisibility of the hidden data (imperceptibility), reliability in the detection of the hidden information after various common and deliberate signal processing operations (robustness) applied on the watermarked signals and the amount of data to be hidden (payload) without affecting the imperceptibility and robustness properties. In this paper, we propose a few spread spectrum (SS) image watermarking schemes using discrete wavelet transform (DWT), biorthogonal DWT and M-band wavelets coupled with various modulation, multiplexing and signaling techniques. The performance of the watermarking methods are also reported along with the relative merits and demerits.