Reversible Semi-fragile Watermarking Based on Histogram Shifting of Integer Wavelet Coefficients

A reversible semi-fragile watermarking scheme for image authentication is presented in this paper. By embedding a watermark in LL₄ subband of the integer wavelet domain, the scheme has the ability for tamper localization which is not mentioned in most of the reversible semi-fragile authentication watermarking scheme reported in the literature. Data that are used to restore the original image are hidden in the high frequency subbands by histogram shifting of integer wavelet coefficients with higher magnitude in the corresponding subband coefficients histogram, and therefore keep good visual quality of the marked image. Moreover, this scheme is robust to JPEG lossy compression at a lower quality factor. Experimental results demonstrate the merits of the proposed scheme.