Improving Security of Watermarking Algorithms via Parametric M-band Wavelet Transform

Abstract

Robustness, Security, Imperceptibility and Data payload are the most important attributes that should be satisfied by a watermarking algorithm. A watermarking algorithm cannot satisfy all the required attributes for all applications. Best watermarking algorithms are chose, depending upon the application. Moreover, there is always a tradeoff between security versus robustness and capacity. This paper proposes a method to achieve security without the loss of robustness, imperceptibility and capacity. M-band wavelets possess the advantage of enjoying many degrees of freedom in spite of its richer parametric space. Achieving a highly secure transform domain is possible via parametric M-band wavelet transform, when the parameters used for designing are secret. This paper explains a design procedure for parametric M-band wavelets, its decomposition and reconstruction and a way to improve the security of existing robust watermarking algorithms without sacrificing any of its attributes.