A zero-watermark scheme for identification photos based on QR code and visual cryptography

Abstract

This paper proposes a zero-watermark scheme for identification photos based on QR code and visual cryptography. The method makes no changes to original images while embedding the QR code watermark. In order to ensure the security, we use Arnold transformation to scrambling the watermark. In the scheme, we use discrete wavelet transform and matrix norm computing to generate the invariant feature values against print-scan attacks. Then the VC scheme is applied to generate the secret image from the feature values and the disturbed watermark by using a codebook. In the extraction scheme, we get the secret image which is registered to certification authority and the feature values extracted from the examined image with VC scheme, and then apply inverse Arnold transformation to restore the watermark, finally repair position patterns of the QR code. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is effective and robust against attacks such as JPEG compression, add noise, multiple filters, scale, little angle rotation and crop, especial print-scan attacks.