Local quaternion PHT based robust color image watermarking algorithm

• A robust color image feature points detector was proposed by incorporating SIFER detector and color invariance model.
• The affine invariant local regions were built and selected adaptively according to the local image content variation.
• A new and robust 2D transform, named quaternion PHT, was introduced to embed digital watermark in the color host image.

It is a challenging work to design a robust localized color image watermarking scheme against desynchronization attacks. There are two main drawbacks indwelled in current localized color image watermarking: firstly, the pure gray-based feature points detectors were utilized, in which the important color information is ignored. Secondly, the watermarking algorithms were designed mainly to mark the image luminance component only, in which the significant color channels correlation are neglected. In this paper, we propose a robust color image watermarking algorithm using local quaternion PHT (Polar Harmonic Transform), which is invariant to various noises, local geometric transformations, and color variations. Firstly, the stable color image feature points are extracted by using new color image feature point detector, in which the SIFER (Scale-Invariant Feature detector with Error Resilience) detector and color invariance model are incorporated. Then, the affine invariant local regions are built adaptively according to local image content variation. Finally, the digital watermark is embedded into the local regions by modulating the invariant quaternion PHT modulus coefficients. Experiments are carried out on a color image set collected from Internet, and the extensive experimental works have shown that the proposed color image watermarking is not only invisible and robust against common image processing operations such as median filtering, noise adding, and JPEG compression, but also has conquered those challenging desynchronization attacks.