This paper proposes a quantum watermarking scheme in spatial domain for quantum grayscale images, using the New Enhanced Quantum Image Representation (NEQR). The Quantum Majority Finder (QMF) is proposed and applied to determine the embedding rules of the watermark information. A Bit-plane Repositioning (BR) method is proposed to reconstruct the quantum watermark, in order to embed it uniformly into the quantum carrier image. The quantum circuits of the proposed scheme are designed. We simulate the proposed scheme on a classical computer using MATLAB and evaluate it with various metrics. The experimental results show that the proposed scheme can achieve good visual quality and robustness.
This paper proposes a quantum watermarking scheme in spatial domain for quantum grayscale images, using the New Enhanced Quantum Image Representation (NEQR). The Quantum Majority Finder (QMF) is proposed and applied to determine the embedding rules of the watermark information. A Bit-plane Repositioning (BR) method is proposed to reconstruct the quantum watermark, in order to embed it uniformly into the quantum carrier image. The quantum circuits of the proposed scheme are designed. We simulate the proposed scheme on a classical computer using MATLAB and evaluate it with various metrics. The experimental results show that the proposed scheme can achieve good visual quality and robustness.
Abstract This paper presents a spatial domain quantum watermarking scheme. For a quantum watermarking scheme, a feasible quantum circuit is a key to achieve it. This paper gives a feasible quantum circuit for the presented scheme. In order to give the quantum circuit, a new quantum multi-control rotation gate, which can be achieved with quantum basic gates, is designed. With this quantum circuit, our scheme can arbitrarily control the embedding position of watermark images on carrier images with the aid of auxiliary qubits. Besides reversely acting the given quantum circuit, the paper gives another watermark extracting algorithm based on quantum measurements. Moreover, this paper also gives a new quantum image scrambling method and its quantum circuit. Differ from other quantum watermarking schemes, all given quantum circuits can be implemented with basic quantum gates. Moreover, the scheme is a spatial domain watermarking scheme, and is not based on any transform algorithm on quantum images. Meanwhile, it can make sure the watermark be secure even though the watermark has been found. With the given quantum circuit, this paper implements simulation experiments for the presented scheme. The experimental result shows that the scheme does well in the visual quality and the embedding capacity.
This paper presents a spatial domain quantum watermarking scheme. For a quantum watermarking scheme,a feasible quantum circuit is a key to achieve it. This paper gives a feasible quantum circuit for the presented scheme. In order to give the quantum circuit, a new quantum multi-control rotation gate, which can be achieved with quantum basic gates, is designed. With this quantum circuit, our scheme can arbitrarily control the embedding position of watermark images on carrier images with the aid of auxiliary qubits. Besides reversely acting the given quantum circuit, the paper gives another watermark extracting algorithm based on quantum measurements. Moreover, this paper also gives a new quantum image scrambling method and its quantum circuit. Differ from other quantum watermarking schemes, all given quantum circuits can be implemented with basic quantum gates. Moreover, the scheme is a spatial domain watermarking scheme, and is not based on any transform algorithm on quantum images. Meanwhile, it can make sure the watermark be secure even though the watermark has been found. With the given quantum circuit, this paper implements simulation experiments for the presented scheme. The experimental result shows that the scheme does well in the visual quality and the embedding capacity.
To address the problem that existing quantum image watermarking schemes have only a single watermarking mode with weak robustness, in this paper we propose a novel multi-modal quantum watermarking (MMQW) scheme using the generalized model of novel enhanced quantum representation. Our scheme provides four quantum watermarking modes (G_G, G_C, C_C, C_G), covering both types of grayscale and color images for the watermark and the carrier image. To enhance the robustness, we propose the Block Bit-plane Centrosymmetric Expansion (BBCE) method, which utilizes controlled quantum gates to extend the watermark, making our method resistant to noise and geometric attacks. Moreover, we propose a Brightness-based Watermarking Mechanism (BWM) for embedding and extraction. By uniform embedding, BWM not only minimizes the impact on the carrier image but also reduces the visual distortion of the extracted watermark. In the proposed MMQW, we implement three adaptive embedding strategies using controlled quantum gates, each of which is adaptively triggered according to the corresponding modalities. Detailed quantum circuits for quantum computing are provided. To evaluate imperceptibility and robustness of the MMQW, we conduct experiments using high-resolution images from the USC-SIPI dataset. The results show that PSNR of the watermarked image ranges from 36 dB to 56 dB, indicating the high visual quality. The PSNR of the extracted watermark is about 34 dB when the noise density is 0.05, while the PSNR is higher than 48 dB under common quantum rotation attacks, which indicate the high robustness against noise addition and geometric attacks. In addition, the proposed MMQW can resist to cropping attack with cropping percentage up to 55%. A comprehensive comparison with existing state-of-the-art works shows that our method has significant advantages.
Quantum watermarking technology embeds invisible watermark images into carrier images to mark ownership, which has broad application prospects. In the paper, with using the novel enhanced quantum representation (NEQR) of the image, a quantum watermarking scheme based on a novel space geometric transformation and Fibonacci scrambling is proposed. Combined with the Quantum Majority Finder (QMF) method, the watermark information is embedded into various positions of the carrier image. The Fibonacci scrambling disperses the pixel information of the watermark image into the entire image range, and the space geometric transformation rearranges the individual watermark pixel information. These methods improve the robustness and security of watermarked images against noise and cropping attacks and ensure the watermark's visual invisibility. Applying simulation experiments, these quantum processes are implemented on a classical computer. The visual quality quantified by Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) and robustness of the proposed method are analyzed. Our watermarking scheme has good visual quality, and the PSNR of the watermarked image is approximately 45. Compared to existing methods, our scheme exhibits robustness to resist noise and cropping attacks. Especially in large-scale cropping, the proposed scheme has excellent advantage. Experiment results verify the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed scheme and provide new ideas and methods for developing quantum watermarking technology.
Quantum watermarking technology, which is used in anti-counterfeiting and copyright protection, play an important role in the future quantum computer era. To embed more data and reduce image distortion, a novel quantum watermarking method of combining spatial domain and frequency domain is proposed. To this end, the carrier and watermark image are prepared by the novel quantum model of color digital images. The proposed quantum watermarking method is divided into two parts according to the needs of the owner and the importance of the watermarks. These two parts of watermark are embedded into the cover using the spatial and frequency domain. Analysis indicates that the complexity of the watermark separation process increases the difficulty for the attacker to reconstruct the quantum watermarking. Numerical simulation results using MATLAB software shows that this algorithm has better embedding capacity. Not only that, it also has good invisibility and can ensure the security.
Quantum watermarking can be used for image ownership protection. This paper proposes a quantum watermarking scheme based on Novel Enhanced Quantum Representation (NEQR), DNA encoding, and quantum error correction (QEC). First, XOR operations are performed between the watermark image and a DNA key sequence. Then, performing DNA addition between the resulting image and DNA key image, the encrypted watermark image is obtained. Using the quantum parity determination (QPD) method, the encrypted quantum watermark image is embedded into the least significant bit (LSB) of the carrier image. The quantum circuits for the scheme are also provided. In order to evaluate the effect of the scheme, the watermarking scheme is simulated using MATLAB. The simulation results show that the embedded watermark has good visual quality, and the PSNR of watermarked image is about 51 dB. When ‘salt and pepper’ noise with a density of 0.10 is added to the watermarked image, the PSNR for extracted watermark is 20.38 dB. When the cropping proportion is 50%, the PSNR for extracted watermark is 22.08 dB. These results indicate that the proposed watermarking scheme has strong robustness against noise and cropping attacks. The extraction of watermark is also simulated for cases where the DNA key sequence or key image is damaged. If there is a small amount of damage to DNA key sequence or key image, the watermark cannot be extracted effectively. The watermark encryption further increases the difficulty of unauthorized watermark extraction. Applying DNA encoding to quantum watermarking research also offers significant novelty.