A Novel Color Image Watermarking Method with Adaptive Scaling Factor Using Similarity-Based Edge Region

This study aimed to deal with three challenges: robustness, imperceptibility, and capacity in the image watermarking field. To reach a high capacity, a novel similarity-based edge detection algorithm was developed that finds more edge points than traditional techniques. The colored watermark image was created by inserting a randomly generated message on the edge points detected by this algorithm. To ensure robustness and imperceptibility, watermark and cover images were combined in the high-frequency subbands using Discrete Wavelet Transform and Singular Value Decomposition. In the watermarking stage, the watermark image was weighted by the adaptive scaling factor calculated by the standard deviation of the similarity image. According to the results, the proposed edge-based color image watermarking technique has achieved high payload capacity, imperceptibility, and robustness to all attacks. In addition, the highest performance values were obtained against rotation attack, to which sufficient robustness has not been reached in the related studies. © 2023 CRL Publishing. All rights reserved.