Efficient image authentication and tamper localization algorithm using active watermarking

Abstract

Due to the increasing number of forged images and possibilities of effortless digital manipulations, certain organizations have started to focus on approaches that help preserve their digital data integrity. Image authentication systems try to accurately verify the integrity of digital images, of which digital watermarking is known to be one of the most precise techniques in authenticating the originality of digital images. This chapter has presented a novel image authentication system with accurate tamper localization ability. In the proposed algorithm a 16-bit watermark key has been created from each block of pixels in a host image. The generated 16-bit watermark key will be embedded into the host image by utilizing a fragile watermarking algorithm. The security of the watermarking algorithm will be ensured by using the proposed block cipher algorithm, which encrypts the user key and watermarking algorithm. The proposed tamper detection algorithm conducts two comprehensive comparisons, to ensure the accuracy of the results. The high quality watermarks and powerful tamper detection approaches, along with less computational complexity are the main advantages of the proposed image authentication system, which makes it suitable for real-time application. Several tampering experiments have been conducted to examine the proposed algorithm. The experiment.