Analysis and improvement of the watermark strategy for quantum images based on quantum Fourier transform

We investigate the quantum watermark strategy for quantum images based on quantum Fourier transform proposed by Zhang et al.(Quantum Inf Process 12(2):793–803, 2013). It is aimed to embed the watermark image into the Fourier coefficients of the quantum carrier image without affecting the carrier image’s visual effect. However, in our opinion the protocol is not clearly described and several steps are ambiguous. Moreover, we argue that the watermarking algorithm claimed by the authors is incorrect. At last, a possible improvement strategy is presented.