Robust additive watermarking in the DTCWT domain based on perceptual masking

In this paper, a robust additive image watermarking system operating in the Dual Tree Complex Wavelet Transform (DTCWT) domain is proposed. The system takes advantage of a new perceptual masking model that exploits the Human Visual System (HVS) characteristics at the embedding stage. It also uses an efficient watermark detection structure, called the Rao-test, to verify the presence of the candidate watermark. This structure relies on the statistical modeling of high frequency DTCWT coefficients by the Generalized Gaussian distribution. Experimental results show that the proposed system outperforms related state-of-the-art watermarking systems in terms of imperceptibility and robustness.