TY - JOUR
T1 - Additional information delivery to image content via improved unseen–visible watermarking
AU - Juarez-Sandoval, Oswaldo Ulises
AU - Reyes-Ruiz, Laura Josefina
AU - Garcia-Ugalde, Francisco
AU - Cedillo-Hernandez, Manuel
AU - Ramirez-Hernandez, Jazmin
AU - Morelos-Zaragoza, Robert
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/9
Y1 - 2021/9
N2 - In a practical watermark scenario, watermarks are used to provide auxiliary information; in this way, an analogous digital approach called unseen–visible watermark has been introduced to deliver auxiliary information. In this algorithm, the embedding stage takes advantage of the visible and invisible watermarking to embed an owner logotype or barcodes as watermarks; in the exhibition stage, the equipped functions of the display devices are used to reveal the watermark to the naked eyes, eliminating any watermark exhibition algorithm. In this paper, a watermark complement strategy for unseen–visible watermarking is proposed to improve the embedding stage, reducing the histogram distortion and the visual degradation of the watermarked image. The presented algorithm exhibits the following contributions: first, the algorithm can be applied to any class of images with large smooth regions of low or high intensity; second, a watermark complement strategy is introduced to reduce the visual degradation and histogram distortion of the watermarked image; and third, an embedding error measurement is proposed. Evaluation results show that the proposed strategy has high performance in comparison with other algorithms, providing a high visual quality of the exhibited watermark and preserving its robustness in terms of readability and imperceptibility against geometric and processing attacks.
AB - In a practical watermark scenario, watermarks are used to provide auxiliary information; in this way, an analogous digital approach called unseen–visible watermark has been introduced to deliver auxiliary information. In this algorithm, the embedding stage takes advantage of the visible and invisible watermarking to embed an owner logotype or barcodes as watermarks; in the exhibition stage, the equipped functions of the display devices are used to reveal the watermark to the naked eyes, eliminating any watermark exhibition algorithm. In this paper, a watermark complement strategy for unseen–visible watermarking is proposed to improve the embedding stage, reducing the histogram distortion and the visual degradation of the watermarked image. The presented algorithm exhibits the following contributions: first, the algorithm can be applied to any class of images with large smooth regions of low or high intensity; second, a watermark complement strategy is introduced to reduce the visual degradation and histogram distortion of the watermarked image; and third, an embedding error measurement is proposed. Evaluation results show that the proposed strategy has high performance in comparison with other algorithms, providing a high visual quality of the exhibited watermark and preserving its robustness in terms of readability and imperceptibility against geometric and processing attacks.
KW - Histogram distortion
KW - Imperceptible–visible watermarking
KW - Invisible–visible watermarking
KW - QR code
KW - Unseen–visible watermarking
KW - Visual degradation
KW - Watermark complement strategy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85114343691&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/electronics10182186
DO - 10.3390/electronics10182186
M3 - Artículo
AN - SCOPUS:85114343691
SN - 2079-9292
VL - 10
JO - Electronics (Switzerland)
JF - Electronics (Switzerland)
IS - 18
M1 - 2186
ER -