Secure and Robust Dual Watermarking for Western Blot Images

The rapid growth of digital data sharing has created a pressing need to safeguard the integrity, authenticity, and security of bioanalytical images, such as Western blots, online. To address this challenge, we propose a novel hybrid biometric watermarking technique that combines randomised singular value decomposition (RSVD), discrete wavelet transform (DWT), schur transform, pseudo magic cube, and chaotic encryption, making the watermarking of Western blot images more secure, robust, and imperceptible. Our approach surpasses state-of-the-art methods, ensuring imperceptible watermarking and robust protection against tampering and unauthorised use. By integrating spatial and transform-domain techniques, we achieve superior performance, outperforming existing methods with a peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) of 48.7581, structural similarity index (SSIM) of 0.9998, a normalised correlation (NC) of 0.9996, an average number of changing pixel rate (NPCR) of 0.9961, and an average unified average changing intensity (UACI) of 0.3334. Our technique sets a new standard for digital image protection in scientific research, addressing critical challenges in tampering, copyright protection, and data security. With its high performance and security, our approach enables the trustworthy sharing and publication of Western blot images in the digital era.