Chaotic system and QR factorization based robust digital image watermarking algorithm

In order to protect copyright of digital images, a new robust digital image watermarking algorithm based on chaotic system and QR factorization was proposed. The host images were firstly divided into blocks with same size, then QR factorization was performed on each block. Pseudorandom circular chain (PCC) generated by logistic mapping (LM) was applied to select the embedding blocks for enhancing the security of the scheme. The first column coefficients in Q matrix of chosen blocks were modified to embed watermarks without causing noticeable artifacts. Watermark extraction procedure was performed without the original cover image. The experimental results demonstrate that the watermarked images have good visual quality and this scheme is better than the existing techniques, especially when the image is attacked by cropping, noise pollution and so on. Analysis and discussion on robustness and security issues were also presented.