Secured color image watermarking technique in DWT-DCT domain

The multilayer secured DWT-DCT and YIQ color space based image watermarking technique with robustness and better correlation is presented here. The security levels are increased by using multiple pn sequences, Arnold scrambling, DWT domain, DCT domain and color space conversions. Peak signal to noise ratio and Normalized correlations are used as measurement metrics. The 512x512 sized color images with different histograms are used for testing and watermark of size 64x64 is embedded in HL region of DWT and 4x4 DCT is used. ‘Haar’ wavelet is used for decomposition and direct flexing factor is used. We got PSNR value is 63.9988 for flexing factor k=1 for Lena image and the maximum NC 0.9781 for flexing factor k=4 in Q color space. The comparative performance in Y, I and Q color space is presented. The technique is robust for different attacks like scaling, compression, rotation etc.