Robust digital image watermarking based on discrete wavelet transform and harmony search algorithm optimization technique

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel optimization method for digital images watermarking in the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) domain. Digital image watermarking has proved its efficiency in protecting illegal authentication of data. The visibility factor of the watermark is the significant parameter that helps in improving the perceptual transparency and robustness of digital watermarking system. The swap between the transparency and robustness is considered as an optimization problem and is solved by applying Harmony search algorithm (HSA) Optimization technique. The Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), Mean Square Error (MSE), and computational time are evaluated for a set of images using the MATLAB R2014b software.