An Efficient Content Based Image Retrieval Scheme with Preserving the Security of Images*

Abstract

In this paper, an efficient content based image retrieval scheme is proposed which incorporates the security of images in a retrieval system. The main contribution of the proposed scheme is two folded that is to develop an efficient image retrieval process, and to provide security to the retrieved images. To achieve this goal, features from the foreground region as well as background features are extracted, where more importance is given to the foreground region which is identified based on Itti Koch Saliency Map. From the obtained foreground region texture features along with color features are extracted. Simultaneously, the background is divided into four regions and color features are extracted. Finally, the foreground and background features are combined to perform image retrieval process. Now to prevent the feature vector from illegitimate users, suitable cryptographic approaches are used to provide security in terms of confidentiality and integrity. To protect the integrity, the hash value of the feature vector is computed and the obtained hash value along with feature vector are enciphered together. This enciphered value is then communicated to the user. The content owner verifies the integrity of the feature and performs the retrieval process. The retrieved results are then watermarked to protect copyright and are further enciphered so that unauthorized user's cannot access the images. This security mechanism ensures that the retrieved images are shared only to the authorized user. The retrieval process is performed on Corel dataset and the results are comparable to the existing state-of-arts methods. Finally, this process is suitable to protect the security of images in a retrieval system.