Verifiable image revision from chameleon hashes

In a digital society, the rapid development of computer science and the Internet has greatly facilitated image applications. However, one of the public network also brings risks to both image tampering and privacy exposure. Image authentication is the most important approaches to verify image integrity and authenticity. However, it has been challenging for image authentication to address both issues of tampering detection and privacy protection. One aspect, image authentication requires image contents not be changed to detect tampering. The other, privacy protection needs to remove sensitive information from images, and as a result, the contents should be changed. In this paper, we propose a practical image authentication scheme constructed from chameleon hashes combined with ordinary digital signatures to make tradeoff between tampering detection and privacy protection. Our scheme allows legitimate users to modify contents of authenticated images with a privacy-aware purpose (for example, cover some sensitive areas with mosaics) according to specific rules and verify the authenticity without interaction with the original authenticator. The security of our scheme is guaranteed by the security of the underlying cryptographic primitives. Experiment results show that our scheme is efficient and practical. We believe that our work will facilitate image applications where both authentication and privacy protection are desirable.

Multiple Blind Watermarking Framework for Security and Integrity of Medical Images in E-Health Applications

Nowadays, e-health applications carry the most advanced information and communication technologies for ensuring quality, remote healthcare services, and support diagnostics. These applications are sharing and transmitting of medical data over the internet, which makes them serious targets for alteration and illegal access. Image watermarking presents a compelling solution for protecting patient's information and ensures medical image integrity. This paper gives a new secure framework to protect medical data based on blind multiple watermarking schemes. The proposed approach consists of combining LWT (lifting wavelet transform), QR decomposition, and Arnold chaotic map in transform domain for the first watermark, while for the second watermark is encrusted in the spatial domain. During the de-watermarking process, both extracted watermarks are compared to detect any alterations during transmitting. The experimentation results demonstrate that the suggested method achieves good image fidelity and alters detection and robustness contra different kinds of attacks.

The treatment of microbubble disease of 20th century cellulose acetate microfilm: application of ethyl cellulose and microrepair method

Microbubble disease observed in cellulose acetate microfilm is accompanied by the production of vinegar syndrome, which affects the image integrity. In the present study, samples of cellulose acetate microfilm with microbubble disease were selected to investigate potential treatment methods. Samples were sourced from the Republic of China (AD 1912–1949) microfilm collections held in the Second Historical Archives of China. A combination of optical microscopy and a stainless-steel needle was used to remove plasticizer exudation within microbubbles. The plasticizer was effectively removed by infiltrating butan-1-ol into the microbubble from a small hole made by the stainless-steel needle. SEM and confocal microscopy were used to study the morphology and roughness of the internal surface of the microbubbles. It was found that the blurry image could be attributed to light scattering from the rough surface. Ethyl cellulose was used to fill the interior of the microbubble to obtain a clearer image. To determine the protective potential of this filling material, the chemical and mechanical properties of coated film after dry heat, hygrothermal and UV accelerated ageing were measured. Based on the above-mentioned results, it is encouraging that a new microrepair method and its corresponding method are offered in film treatment work.

The Treatment of Microbubble Disease of 20th Century Cellulose Acetate Microfilm: Application of Ethyl cellulose and Microrepair Method

Microbubble disease observed in cellulose acetate microfilm is accompanied by the production of vinegar syndrome, which affects the image integrity. In the present study, samples of cellulose acetate microfilm with microbubble disease were selected to investigate potential treatment methods. Samples were sourced from the Republic of China (AD 1912-1949) microfilm collections held in the Second Historical Archives of China. A combination of optical microscopy and a stainless-steel needle was used to remove plasticizer exudation within microbubbles. The plasticizer was effectively removed by infiltrating butan-1-ol into the microbubble from a small hole made by the stainless-steel needle. SEM and confocal microscopy were used to study the morphology and roughness of the internal surface of the microbubbles. It was found that the blurry image could be attributed to light scattering from the rough surface. Ethyl cellulose was used to fill the interior of the microbubble to obtain a clearer image. To determine the protective potential of this filling material, the chemical and mechanical properties of coated film after dry heat, hygrothermal and UV accelerated ageing were measured. Based on the above-mentioned results, it is encouraging that a new microrepair method and its corresponding method are offered in film treatment work.

«That Limit of Depth…»: Rhythm and Meaning in the Poem «I Was Killed near Rzhev» («Ya Ubit podo Rzhevom») (To the 110th Anniversary of the Birth of A. T. Tvardovsky)

The article is devoted to the analysis and interpretation of A. Tvardovsky’s poem «I Was Killed Near Rzhev» («Ya Ubit podo Rzhevom») in the unity of its form and content. The analysis was carried out using the methods of prosody and text philological analysis, techniques of decoding stylistics, text reading «under the linguistic microscope», commentary, rhetorical analysis. The authors come to the conclusion that the imagery stylistic system of the poem is based on the affective contradiction – a collision of despair connected with an atheistic understanding of death as a total destruction of an individual and craving for faith. Polyphony and polysemantics of the poem’s text, a repeated change of communicative and rhythmic registers against the background of the author’s image integrity personified in the poem are viewed upon as iconic signs transmitting the idea of conciliarism of the Russian people as an integrated-divided unity.

High-Resolution Remote Sensing Image Integrity Authentication Method Considering Both Global and Local Features

Content integrity of high-resolution remote sensing (HRRS) images is the premise of its usability. Existing HRRS image integrity authentication methods are mostly binary decision-making processes, which cannot provide a further interpretable information (e.g., tamper localization, tamper type determination). Due to this reason, a robust HRRS images integrity authentication algorithm using perceptual hashing technology considering both global and local features is proposed in this paper. It extracts global features by the efficient recognition ability of Zernike moments to texture information. Meanwhile, Features from Accelerated Segment Test (FAST) key points are applied to local features construction and tamper localization. By applying the concept of multi-feature combination to the integrity authentication of HRRS images, the authentication process is more convincing in comparison to existing algorithms. Furthermore, an interpretable authentication result can be given. The experimental results show that the algorithm proposed in this paper is highly robust to the content retention operation, has a strong sensitivity to the content changing operations, and the result of tampering localization is more precise comparing with existing algorithms.