Quantum Image Watermarking Algorithm Based on Haar Wavelet Transform

• Published in: IEEE access 2019, Vol.7, p.121303-121320
• Main Authors: Hu, Wen-Wen, Zhou, Ri-Gui, El-Rafei, Ahmed, Jiang, She-Xiang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Algorithms; circuit simulation; computational complexity; Computational modeling; Decomposition; digital images; discrete wavelet transforms; Frequency-domain analysis; image decomposition; Logic gates; Quantum computing; Qubit; Transforms; Watermarking; wavelet coefficients; Wavelet transforms
• ISSN: 2169-3536; 2169-3536
• DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2937390

In this paper, a novel frequency domain quantum watermarking scheme is proposed based on the Flexible Representation of Quantum Images, which can embed a 2^{n1}\times 2^{n1} binary watermark image into a 2^{n}\times 2^{n} grayscale carrier image. The quantum Haar wavelet transform is developed and used to decompose quantum images. The diagonal detail coefficients of the carrier image are obtained from the image decomposition. Then, according to the watermark image information, the diagonal wavelet coefficients are either unchanged or slightly modified. Since all of the used quantum operations are invertible, extraction of the watermark image is performed in a straightforward manner by reversing the watermarking embedding process. Finally, the proposed quantum image watermarking scheme is simulated on a classical computer and evaluated under different carrier and watermark images. The simulation results and performance analyses indicate the high performance of the presented watermarking scheme in terms of the similarity between the watermarked and carrier images.