Hybrid Optimization-Based Robust Watermarking Using Denoising Convolutional Neural Network

Colour images have been widely used in many aspects of life; however, copyright violation issues related to these images motivate research efforts. This paper aims to develop an enhanced watermarking algorithm for producing a watermarked image using hybrid optimisation with high imperceptibility and robustness. The algorithm is based on spatial and transform domains and begins by embedding multiple secret marks into cover media using an optimal scaling factor. The multi-type mark contributes an additional level of authenticity to the proposed algorithm. Furthermore, the marked image is encrypted using an improved encryption scheme, and the denoising convolutional neural network (DnCNN) is employed to enhance the robustness of the proposed algorithm. The results reveal that the proposed watermarking algorithm yields low computational overhead, excellent watermark capacity, imperceptibility, and robustness to common filtering attacks. Moreover, the comparison shows that the proposed algorithm outperforms other competing methods.

Asymmetric optical cryptosystem for multiple images based on devil’s spiral Fresnel lens phase and random spiral transform in gyrator domain

An asymmetric cryptosystem is presented for encrypting multiple images in gyrator transform domains. In the encryption approach, the devil’s spiral Fresnel lens variable pure phase mask is first designed for each image band to be encrypted by using devil’ mask, random spiral phase and Fresnel mask, respectively. Subsequently, a novel random devil’ spiral Fresnel transform in optical gyrator transform is implemented to achieved the intermediate output. Then, the intermediate data is divided into two masks by employing random modulus decomposition in the asymmetric process. Finally, a random permutation matrix is utilized to obtain the ciphertext of the intact algorithm. For the decryption approach, two divided masks (private key and ciphertext) need to be imported into the optical gyrator input plane simultaneously. Some numerical experiments are given to verify the effectiveness and capability of this asymmetric cryptosystem.

New Orthogonal Transforms for Signal and Image Processing

In the paper, orthogonal transforms based on proposed symmetric, orthogonal matrices are created. These transforms can be considered as generalized Walsh–Hadamard Transforms. The simplicity of calculating the forward and inverse transforms is one of the important features of the presented approach. The conditions for creating symmetric, orthogonal matrices are defined. It is shown that for the selection of the elements of an orthogonal matrix that meets the given conditions, it is necessary to select only a limited number of elements. The general form of the orthogonal, symmetric matrix having an exponential form is also presented. Orthogonal basis functions based on the created matrices can be used for orthogonal expansion leading to signal approximation. An exponential form of orthogonal, sparse matrices with variable parameters is also created. Various versions of orthogonal transforms related to the created full and sparse matrices are proposed. Fast computation of the presented transforms in comparison to fast algorithms of selected orthogonal transforms is discussed. Possible applications for signal approximation and examples of image spectrum in the considered transform domains are presented.

Discrete Transforms and Matrix Rotation Based Cancelable Face and Fingerprint Recognition for Biometric Security Applications

The security of information is necessary for the success of any system. So, there is a need to have a robust mechanism to ensure the verification of any person before allowing him to access the stored data. So, for purposes of increasing the security level and privacy of users against attacks, cancelable biometrics can be utilized. The principal objective of cancelable biometrics is to generate new distorted biometric templates to be stored in biometric databases instead of the original ones. This paper presents effective methods based on different discrete transforms, such as Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT), Fractional Fourier Transform (FrFT), Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), and Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), in addition to matrix rotation to generate cancelable biometric templates, in order to meet revocability and prevent the restoration of the original templates from the generated cancelable ones. Rotated versions of the images are generated in either spatial or transform domains and added together to eliminate the ability to recover the original biometric templates. The cancelability performance is evaluated and tested through extensive simulation results for all proposed methods on a different face and fingerprint datasets. Low Equal Error Rate (EER) values with high AROC values reflect the efficiency of the proposed methods, especially those dependent on DCT and DFrFT. Moreover, a comparative study is performed to evaluate the proposed method with all transformations to select the best one from the security perspective. Furthermore, a comparative analysis is carried out to test the performance of the proposed schemes with the existing schemes. The obtained outcomes reveal the efficiency of the proposed cancelable biometric schemes by introducing an average AROC of 0.998, EER of 0.0023, FAR of 0.008, and FRR of 0.003.

Synthetic-Aperture Radar Image Despeckling based on Improved Non-Local Means and Non-Subsampled Shearlet Transform

When Synthetic-Aperture (SAR) image is transformed into wavelet domain and other transform domains, most of the coefficients of the image are small or zero. This shows that SAR image is sparse. However, speckle can be seen in SAR images. The non-local means is a despeckling algorithm, but it cannot overcome the speckle in homogeneous regions and it blurs edge details of the image. In order to solve these problems, an improved non-local means is suggested. At the same time, in order to better suppress the speckle effectively in edge regions, the non-subsampled Shearlet transform (NSST) is applied. By combining NSST with the improved non-local means, a new type of despeckling algorithm is proposed. Results show that the proposed algorithm leads to a satisfying performance for SAR images.