A hybrid-Sudoku based fragile watermarking scheme for image tampering detection

Protection of intellectual property rights has become one of the focuses of social concerning. To reduce those disputations, the watermark is implanted into the media by the content owner to declare original copyright. Among which, the high payload can achieve the accurate tampering localization, but maybe bring low visual quality watermarked image. Both accurate tampering localization and high watermarked image quality seem contradictory. For this, this paper proposes a hybrid-Sudoku based fragile watermarking scheme for digital image tampering detection. The hybrid-Sudoku based scheme provides a double perspective mechanism to embed the watermark. In the first perspective of the Sudoku, the watermark is virtually embedded into each pixel pair, resulting in the temporary coordinate information. Then, the temporary coordinate information is concealed into cover image based on the second perspective of the Sudoku. Finally, several common attacks are utilized to evaluate the tampering detection performance of the proposed method. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme can achieve a considerable accuracy in tampering localization and provide the satisfactory visual quality of watermarked image, with PSNR of 47.80 dB. Additionally, the design enhances the security and imperceptive of the hidden watermark.