Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has significantly developed nowadays, making things easier for users. However, alongside the ease of communication, several concerns arise, particularly regarding data authenticity. Security, which affects the authenticity of data, is a major concern. Quantum watermarking offers a much better solution for this problem in the next generation of technology, as it provides superior security compared to classical watermarking. In this paper, we propose a quantum watermarking method using Taylor sequence modification and rotation gates for watermark embedding. Before the embedding process, we convert the images into the quantum domain using the Flexible Representation of Quantum Images (FRQI). We then calculate the phase representation of the host and watermark pixels. Using a Taylor sequence, we modify the watermarked phase and calculate the difference between the host and watermarked phases. Several rotation gates are used to modify the host phase on the quantum circuit. At the end of the embedding process, we reconstruct the watermarked quantum images into a classical images. The experimental results demonstrated watermarking imperceptibility, represented by Peak Signal to Noise Ratio-H (PSNR-H) and watermark robustness, represented by Peak Signal to Noise Ratio-W (PSNR-W). The PSNR-H values ranged between 10–80 dB, while the PSNR-W values reached up to 20 dB. This proposed method has a unique outcome even when the PSNR-H value is infinite, the watermark can still be detected and is subjectively visible to the human eye.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has significantly developed nowadays, making things easier for users. However, alongside the ease of communication, several concerns arise, particularly regarding data authenticity. Security, which affects the authenticity of data, is a major concern. Quantum watermarking offers a much better solution for this problem in the next generation of technology, as it provides superior security compared to classical watermarking. In this paper, we propose a quantum watermarking method using Taylor sequence modification and rotation gates for watermark embedding. Before the embedding process, we convert the images into the quantum domain using the Flexible Representation of Quantum Images (FRQI). We then calculate the phase representation of the host and watermark pixels. Using a Taylor sequence, we modify the watermarked phase and calculate the difference between the host and watermarked phases. Several rotation gates are used to modify the host phase on the quantum circuit. At the end of the embedding process, we reconstruct the watermarked quantum images into a classical images. The experimental results demonstrated watermarking imperceptibility, represented by Peak Signal to Noise Ratio-H (PSNR-H) and watermark robustness, represented by Peak Signal to Noise Ratio-W (PSNR-W). The PSNR-H values ranged between 10–80 dB, while the PSNR-W values reached up to 20 dB. This proposed method has a unique outcome even when the PSNR-H value is infinite, the watermark can still be detected and is subjectively visible to the human eye.
Purpose: This work aims to apply Quantum Hilbert Scrambling to enhance the security and integrity of image watermarking without affecting visual quality degradation. Further conception of the surveyed methods could result in a very good solution to conventional methods of watermarking in solving some problems of digital image security and integrity with new concepts of quantum computing. Methods: The paper reviews Quantum Hilbert Scrambling, whose computational complexity is . The process involves encoding the image into a quantum state, permuting qubits by the Hilbert curve, and embedding a watermark using quantum gates. Result: The quantitative performance evaluation metrics, like Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Structural Similarity Index (SSIM), have shown high Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) values from 56.13 dB to 57.87 dB and Structural Similarity Index (SSIM) from 0.9985 to 0.9990, correspondingly. This justifies the fact that the quality degradation is very slight and the fine details of the structure are well maintained. Novelty: The proposed method uniquely integrates quantum computing with traditional watermarking steps for a secure and effective approach in digital watermarking. Further development should focus on improving the quantum circuit regarding computation efficiency, extending the applicability of the method to a wide range of images, and various situations in watermarking, and finding hybrid approaches by combining quantum and classical approaches towards better performance and scalability.
The Flexible Representation of Quantum Images (FRQI) is widely used for encoding images into normalized quantum states for secure processing. However, it suffers from high computational and qubit complexity, limiting its scalability. In addition, quantum comparator models, often employed for qubit comparison, remain vulnerable to geometric attacks such as scaling and rotation and require a slow embedding and extraction rate. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a novel quantum watermarking technique that integrates Quantum Image Representation (QIR) with the Novel Enhanced Quantum Representation (NEQR), offering improved efficiency, robustness, and security for quantum image processing (QIP). The proposed technique initiates watermark qubit (QB) generation by integrating pixel position bits (PPB) with an arithmetic average (AA)-based logic, implemented through a quantum circuit comprising reverse parallel adder (RPA), dividing-4 (D4) models, and controlled-NOT (CNOT) gates. For watermark embedding, the proposed circuit employs RPA, quantum equal (QE) models, CNOT gates, and Pauli-X gates, embedding the watermark via a least significant bit (LSB) strategy within the NEQR-encoded image. The extraction process mirrors the embedding architecture, utilizing reverse parallel subtractor (RPS), QE models, CNOT, and Pauli-X gates to ensure accurate watermark retrieval. Experimental results demonstrate high robustness by achieving the highest peak-signal-to-noise-ratio(PSNR) values of 59.97 decibels (dB) along with a structural similarity index matrix (SSIM) of 0.9999. The proposed framework is validated using IBM Qiskit-based quantum circuit simulation on classical computing hardware and is not intended to demonstrate fault-tolerant quantum hardware execution or provable quantum computational advantage. Rather, the work focuses on simulation-level reversible quantum-circuit modelling for secure image watermarking using NEQR-based image representation and quantum-compatible reversible logic structures. Furthermore, the proposed technique is subjected to a range of image processing attacks, quantum noise and decoherence to rigorously evaluate its resilience and performance. In addition, an AI-assisted attack classification module is incorporated to automatically identify the type of distortion applied to the attacked watermarked images. A lightweight Random Forest classifier is trained to classify different attack categories, including no attack, Gaussian noise, salt-and-pepper noise, median filtering, histogram equalization, JPEG compression, cropping, rotation, and text addition. The proposed AI-assisted module achieves an overall classification accuracy of 96.56%, demonstrating its effectiveness in automatic attack identification and further strengthening the applicability of the proposed quantum watermarking framework for secure image authentication. Resource analysis shows that the watermark generation circuit requires 354 QBs (including 320 for RPA, 10 for D4, and 24 for CNOT), while both embedding and extraction consume 400 QBs each. Theoretical evaluation and empirical validation confirm the technique’s effectiveness in preserving image integrity and confidentiality, establishing it as a viable approach for secure quantum image watermarking in real time applications.
As one of the important branches of quantum image processing, quantum image watermarking technology has been studied by many related personnel. However, most of them are performed in the time domain, and there are relatively few algorithms for quantum image watermarking in the transform domain. This paper proposes a quantum image watermarking technology based on quantum D4 wavelet transform, which specifically includes several aspects. Combining quantum wavelet transform and controlled-rotating gate, this paper proposed a quantum image watermarking algorithm for the modified flexible representation of quantum images (FRQIM) and the normal arbitrary superposition state (NASS). Firstly, the wavelet coefficients of the image are obtained by quantum wavelet transform, then the rotating gate is designed by the information of the watermark image, then the embedding position of the watermark image information is controlled by the controlled gate, and finally the watermark information is embedded in the carrier image by the controlled-rotating gate. This scheme makes full use of the parallelism of quantum computing and can operate on two images at the same time. The simulation results show that for different image combinations, the embedded image is not significantly different from the original image. Compared with the quantum image watermarking algorithm that uses the quantum Fourier transform, the image distortion after watermarking is smaller, and there are more options for embedding the image.
Abstract The crazy, unconscious use of the Internet, and the increase in cybercrime and hacking, which resulted in the loss of a large number of sensitive data, the risk of piracy, etc. were the motivation for protecting rights, securing and hiding essential information such as images, audio, etc. Watermarking was a popular security, copyright and privacy approach and one of the problems in modern quantum digital computing that produced more powerful quantum protection techniques than the classical one that used classical techniques such as digital wavelet transformation and Hungarian algorithms. Recent advances in quantum image representation and processing help to manipulate data hidden. This paper proposes a new watermark technique in which a color watermark image is hidden within another color-carrying image after transformation into the quantum domain using the recently completed quantum color image representation technique. Finally, a comparison is made between the proposed method and the most recent watermarking techniques is establish in terms of PSNR (peak signal-to-noise ratio), which shows the high precision of the proposed technique and improves the imperceptibility compared to the related schemes.
As one of important research branches of quantum information hiding, quantum steganography embeds secret information into quantum images for covert communication by integrating quantum secure communication technology and classical steganography. In this paper, based on the novel enhanced quantum representation (NEQR), a novel quantum steganography algorithm is proposed to transfer secret information by virtue of quantum watermarked image. In order to achieve this goal, the least significant qubit (LSQb) of quantum carrier image is replaced with the secret information by implementing quantum circuit. Compared with the previous quantum steganography algorithms, the communicating parties can recover the secret information tampered, meanwhile the tampers can be located effectively. In the experiment result, the peak signal-to-noise ratios (PSNRs) are calculated for different quantum watermarked images and quantum watermarks, which demonstrate the imperceptibility of the algorithm is good and the secret information embedded can be recovered by virtue of its self-adaptive mechanism.
The development of future technology allows the transfer of information transmission in quantum form to be more widely used. However, research related to data security is still in progress and is limited so that it can provide greater potential for data theft with quantum technology. One of them is the theft of visual information data (image). Thus, we need a data security system that can protect image information in quantum computing. Quantum image watermarking is a data security technique by inserting a watermark that aims to protect property rights for multimedia products, such as images. This study proposes a quantum image watermarking scheme based on (Least Significant Bits) LSB for copyright protection for color images. In the embedding process, the watermark image is inserted into the cover image using the LSB method, then transformed into a quantum state. In the receiver, the quantum value detection is carried out on the watermarked image to extract back the watermark that has been inserted. From simulation result, the quantum watermarking system obtains high imperceptibility, the watermark robustness to Pauli-X and Pauli-Controlled-NOT (CNOT) noise and high watermark payload.