Novel wavelet-based QIM data hiding technique for tamper detection and correction of digital images

This paper proposes a tamper detection and correction technique using semi-fragile data hiding that aims to achieve high perceptual quality of images at the user-end even after malicious modifications. A binary signature and an image digest are embedded by modulating integer wavelet coefficients using dither modulation based quantization index modulation. Half-toning technique is used to obtain image digest from the low-resolution version of the host image itself. Decoder extracts the binary signature from the watermarked image for tamper detection, while the extracted image digest is used to correct the tamper region. Unlike previously proposed techniques, this novel approach distinguishes malicious changes from various common image processing operations more efficiently and also correct tapered regions effectively. Experimental results show that the proposed technique provides a superior performance in terms of probability of miss and false alarm as well as in tamper correction, compared to several existing semi-fragile watermarking techniques.

► A novel semi-fragile data hiding technique is proposed for tamper detection and correction.
► Quantization index modulation and integer wavelets are used to improve performance.
► The technique can distinguish malicious changes due to common image processing operations.
► The tampered regions are corrected effectively if the damaged portion is less than 40%.
► The work may be extended using hardware implementation through ASIC or FPGA.