A Secure and Semi-Blind Technique of Embedding Color Watermark in RGB Image Using Curvelet Domain

Abstract

A semi-blind and secure watermarking technique for the color image using curvelet domain has been proposed. To make the algorithm secure a Bijection mapping function has been used. The watermark also separated into color planes and each color plane into a bit planes. The most significant bit (MSB) planes of each color used as the embedding information and remaining bit planes are used as a key at the time of extraction. The MSB planes of each color of watermark image embedded into the curvelet coefficients of the blue color plane of the processed cover image. For embedding the MSB bit planes of watermark image in the cover image each curvelet coefficient of blue planes of the processed cover image has been compared with the value of its 8 connected coefficients (neighbors). The results of the watermarking scheme have been analyzed by different quality assessment metric such as PSNR, Correlation Coefficient (CC) and Mean Structure Similarity Index Measure (MSSIM). The experimental results show that the proposed technique gives the good invisibility of watermark, the quality of extracting watermark and robustness against different attacks.