Digital Authentication Technique using Content-based Watermarking in DCT Domain

In this paper, we present a digital authentication technique using content-based watermarking in digital images. To digest the image contents, Hopfield network is employed on the block-based edge image. The Hopfield function extracts the same tit fur similarly looking blocks so that the values are unlikely to change to the innocuous manipulations while being changed far malicious manipulations. By inputting the extracted bit sequence with secret key to the cryptographic hash function, we generate a watermark for each block by seeding a pseudo random number generator with a hash output Therefore, the proposed authentication technique can distinguish between malicious attacks and innocuous attacks. Watermark embedding is based on the block-based spread spectrum method in DCT domain and the strength of watermark is adjusted according to the local statistics of DCT coefficients in a zig-zag scan line in AC subband. The numerical experiments show that the proposed technique is very efficient in the performance of robust authentication.