A Robust Digital Watermarking Technique for Image Contents based on DWT-DFRNT Multiple Transform Method

Copyright protection of digital content has become one of important issues in digital content marketplace. Digital watermarking may be used as an effective method for identifying the copyright ownership of digital content against unauthorized use and distribution. In this paper, we propose a robust digital image watermarking algorithm based on the multiple transform method, discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and discrete fractional random transform (DFRNT). We adopt a two-dimensional (2D) barcode for hiding information and apply the block code encoding and generate a watermark through them. The generated watermark image is embedded into DWT-DFRNT using quantization technique in order to ensure robustness and imperceptibility of the watermark. Experimental results present that our proposed algorithm has improved the extraction performance by accurately extracting the hidden information in the 2D barcode from the detected watermark. Also, combining the dual transform method, DWT and DFRNT, has improved the imperceptibility and robustness of the watermark against basic image signal processing attacks.