Wavelet based imperceptible medical image watermarking using spread-spectrum

Robust and Imperceptible Dual Watermarking for Telemedicine Applications

Abstract: In this paper, the effects of different error correction codes on the robustness and imperceptibility of discrete wavelet transform and singular value decomposition based dual watermarking scheme is investigated. Text and image watermarks are embedded into cover radiological image for their potential application in secure and compact medical data transmission. Four different error correcting codes such as Hamming, the Bose, Ray-Chaudhuri, Hocquenghem (BCH), the Reed---Solomon and hybrid error correcting (BCH and repetition code) codes are considered for encoding of text watermark in order to achieve additional robustness for sensitive text data such as patient identification code. Performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated against number of signal processing attacks by varying the strength of watermarking and covers image modalities. The experimental results demonstrate that this algorithm provides better robustness without affecting the quality of watermarked image.This algorithm combines the advantages and removes the disadvantages of the two transform techniques. Out of the three error correcting codes tested, it has been found that Reed---Solomon shows the best performance. Further, a hybrid model of two of the error correcting codes (BCH and repetition code) is concatenated and implemented. It is found that the hybrid code achieves better results in terms of robustness. This paper provides a detailed analysis of the obtained experimental results.

Robust and Secure Multiple Watermarking for Medical Images

Abstract: This paper presents a robust and secure region of interest and non-region of interest based watermarking method for medical images. The proposed method applies the combination of discrete wavelet transform and discrete cosine transforms on the cover medical image for the embedding of image and electronic patient records (EPR) watermark simultaneously. The embedding of multiple watermarks at the same time provides extra level of security and important for the patient identity verification purpose. Further, security of the image and EPR watermarks is enhancing by using message-digest (MD5) hash algorithm and Rivest---Shamir---Adleman respectively before embedding into the medical cover image. In addition, Hamming error correction code is applying on the encrypted EPR watermark to enhance the robustness and reduce the possibility bit error rates which may result into wrong diagnosis in medical environments. The robustness of the method is also extensively examined for known attacks such as salt & pepper, Gaussian, speckle, JPEG compression, filtering, histogram equalization. The method is found to be robust for hidden watermark at acceptable quality of the watermarked image. Therefore, the hybrid method is suitable for avoidance of the patient identity theft/alteration/modification and secure medical document dissemination over the open channel for medical applications.

Multilevel Encrypted Text Watermarking on Medical Images Using Spread-Spectrum in DWT Domain

Abstract: This paper presents a secure multilevel watermarking scheme in which the encrypted text acts as a watermark. The algorithm is based on secure spread-spectrum technique for digital images in discrete wavelet transform (DWT) domain. Potential application of the proposed watermarking scheme is successfully demonstrated for embedding various medical watermarks in text format at different subband decomposition levels depending upon their performance requirements. In the embedding process, the cover CT Scan image is decomposed up to third level of DWT coefficients. Different text watermarks such as personal and medical record of the patient, diagnostic/image codes and doctor code/signature are embedded into the selective coefficients of the second and third level DWT for potential telemedicine applications. Selection of DWT coefficients for embedding is done by column wise thresholding of coefficients values. Also, encryption is applied to the ASCII representation of the text and the encoded text watermark is embedded. The algorithm correctly extracts the embedded watermarks without error and is robust against numerous known attacks without much degradation of the medical image quality of the watermarked image.

Quantization based multiple medical information watermarking for secure e-health

Abstract: In this paper, an improved wavelet based medical image watermarking algorithm is proposed. Initially, the proposed technique decomposes the cover medical image into ROI and NROI regions and embedding three different watermarks into the non-region of interest (NROI) part of the transformed DWT cover image for compact and secure medical data transmission in E-health environment. In addition, the method addressing the problem of channel noise distortion may lead to faulty watermark by applying error correcting codes (ECCs) before embedding them into the cover image. Further, the bit error rates (BER) performance of the proposed method is determined for different kind of attacks including ‘Checkmark’ attacks. Experimental results indicate that the Turbo code performs better than BCH (Bose-Chaudhuri-Hochquenghem) error correction code. Furthermore, the experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework in terms of BER and embedding capacity compared to other state-of-the-art methods. Therefore, the proposed method finds potential application in prevention of patient identity theft in e-health applications.

An evolutionary programming approach for securing medical images using watermarking scheme in invariant discrete wavelet transformation

Abstract: The importance of digital images in the field of health care made major impact in the recent years. There is need for protecting the medical images from unauthorized usage and watermarking serves well in this situations. Digital medical Image watermarking is the procedure of protecting the medical image content by inserting the watermark into it. The major objective of the image watermarking technique is to develop an algorithm with high imperceptibility. To achieve this, this paper proposed the image watermarking algorithm in wavelet transformation (IDWT) using the singular value decomposition (SVD) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). The improved DWT is applied to the medical image to retrieve the invariant wavelet domain. The watermark is inserted in to the selected region by modifying the values of the coefficients in the image using threshold function. The scaling factors are optimized using the PSO algorithm. The performance of the proposed model is evaluated using the existing schemes similar to the properties of the proposed model. The normalized coefficient (NC) and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) is considered to evaluate the similarity between the medical image and watermarked medical image. The proposed algorithm showed improved performance in terms of imperceptibility and robustness.

Secure spread spectrum watermarking for multimedia

Abstract: This paper presents a secure (tamper-resistant) algorithm for watermarking images, and a methodology for digital watermarking that may be generalized to audio, video, and multimedia data. We advocate that a watermark should be constructed as an independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) Gaussian random vector that is imperceptibly inserted in a spread-spectrum-like fashion into the perceptually most significant spectral components of the data. We argue that insertion of a watermark under this regime makes the watermark robust to signal processing operations (such as lossy compression, filtering, digital-analog and analog-digital conversion, requantization, etc.), and common geometric transformations (such as cropping, scaling, translation, and rotation) provided that the original image is available and that it can be successfully registered against the transformed watermarked image. In these cases, the watermark detector unambiguously identifies the owner. Further, the use of Gaussian noise, ensures strong resilience to multiple-document, or collusional, attacks. Experimental results are provided to support these claims, along with an exposition of pending open problems.

Watermarking digital image and video data. A state-of-the-art overview

Abstract: The authors begin by discussing the need for watermarking and the requirements. They go on to discuss digital watermarking techniques based on correlation and techniques that are not based on correlation.

Improved spread spectrum: a new modulation technique for robust watermarking

Abstract: This paper introduces a new watermarking modulation technique, which we call improved spread spectrum (ISS). When compared with traditional spread spectrum (SS), the signal does not act as a noise source, leading to significant gains. In some examples, performance improvements over SS are 20 dB in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or ten or more orders of magnitude in the error probability. The proposed method achieves roughly the same noise robustness gain as quantization index modulation (QIM) but without the amplitude scale sensitivity of QIM. Our proposed ISS is as robust in practice as traditional SS.

Survey of wavelet-domain watermarking algorithms

Abstract: In this paper, we will provide an overview of the wavelet-based watermarking techniques available today. We will see how previously proposed methods such as spread-spectrum watermarking have been applied to the wavelet transform domain in a variety of ways and how new concepts such as the multi-resolution property of the wavelet image decomposition can be exploited. One of the main advantages of watermarking in the wavelet domain is its compatibility with the upcoming image coding standard, JPEG2000. Although many wavelet-domain watermarking techniques have been proposed, only few fit the independent block coding approach of JPEG2000. We will illustrate how different watermarking techniques relate to image compression and examine the robustness of selected watermarking algorithms against image compression.

Multiple Image Watermarking Applied to Health Information Management

Abstract: Information technology advances have brought forth new challenges in healthcare information management, due to the vast amount of medical data that needs to be efficiently stored, retrieved, and distributed, and the increased security threats that explicitly have to be addressed. The paper discusses the perspectives of digital watermarking in a range of medical data management and distribution issues, and proposes a complementary and/or alternative tool that simultaneously addresses medical data protection, archiving, and retrieval, as well as source and data authentication. The scheme imperceptibly embeds in medical images multiple watermarks conveying patient's personal and examination data, keywords for information retrieval, the physician's digital signature for authentication, and a reference message for data integrity control. Experimental results indicate the efficiency and transparency of the scheme, which conforms to the strict requirements that apply to regions of diagnostic significance