Comprehensive Survey of Image Watermarking

Digital image watermarking is receiving widespread attention to protect applications of intellectual property rights. In image watermarking, information is embedded in cover image to prove ownership. This information must remain detectable even if image is manipulated. Applications of digital image watermarking include trusted cameras, journalistic photography, prevention of identity photo forgery, digital rights management systems, e-commerce, e-governance etc. It can also be used commercially for real time services such as broadcast monitoring and security in communication. Authenticating digital images with fair imperceptibility and high detection resolution is the challenge of today’s research. Various image watermarking techniques have been proposed in the last few years. The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of existing literature available on image watermarking. This paper is organized to discuss steps in image watermarking, its applications, attributes, possible attacks, performance metrics and various methods.