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Hybrid blind robust image watermarking technique based on DFT-DCT and Arnold transform

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Abstract

In this paper, a robust blind image watermarking method is proposed for copyright protection of digital images. This hybrid method relies on combining two well-known transforms that are the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) and the discrete cosine transform (DCT). The motivation behind this combination is to enhance the imperceptibility and the robustness. The imperceptibility requirement is achieved by using magnitudes of DFT coefficients while the robustness improvement is ensured by applying DCT to the DFT coefficients magnitude. The watermark is embedded by modifying the coefficients of the middle band of the DCT using a secret key. The security of the proposed method is enhanced by applying Arnold transform (AT) to the watermark before embedding. Experiments were conducted on natural and textured images. Results show that, compared with state-of-the-art methods, the proposed method is robust to a wide range of attacks while preserving high imperceptibility.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LRIT-CNRST URAC 29, Rabat IT Center, Faculty of Sciences, Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco

    Mohamed Hamidi, Mohamed El Haziti & Mohammed El Hassouni

  2. LRIT-CNRST URAC 29, Rabat IT Center, EST, Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco

    Mohamed El Haziti

  3. Laboratoire Electronique, Informatique et Image (Le2i) UMR 6306 CNRS, University of Burgundy, Dijon, France

    Hocine Cherifi

  4. LRIT-CNRST URAC 29, Rabat IT Center, FLSH, Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco

    Mohammed El Hassouni

Authors
  1. Mohamed Hamidi
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  2. Mohamed El Haziti
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  3. Hocine Cherifi
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  4. Mohammed El Hassouni
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Correspondence to Mohamed Hamidi.

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Hamidi, M., Haziti, M.E., Cherifi, H. et al. Hybrid blind robust image watermarking technique based on DFT-DCT and Arnold transform. Multimed Tools Appl 77, 27181–27214 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-018-5913-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-018-5913-9

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