Color Image Blind Watermark Algorithm Based on Spread Spectrum Modulation and Visual Masking[J]. Journal of Image and Graphics, 2009, 14(7): 1307. DOI: 10.11834/jig.20090712.
In order to better protect the copyright of the color image
this paper explained theoretically why the green color image component should be chosen to embed into a watermark
and thus proposed a new blind watermark algorithm for a color image. First
the green component of the original image was divided block by block with size 8×8 pixels
and transformed with discrete cosine transformation (DCT). Second
the binary watermark image was spread spectrum modulated by two uncorrelated random sequences. At last
in order to maximize the enhanced watermark strength without affecting transparency
human visual masking factor was imported. And the modulated watermark with different intensities was embedded in mid-frequency region coefficients of DCT domain based on visual masking factor magnitude. The watermark was extracted by comparing the relativity between two random sequences with watermarked image
and the process did not need the original image
which means a blind watermark algorithm. Experimental results demonstrated that this method was invisible and robust against some usual attacks such as JPEG compression
cropping
adding noise
and embedding watermark in a green component is more robust against lossy compression than embedding watermark in a red or blue component.