Performance Optimization of Discrete Wavelets Transform Based Image Watermarking Using Genetic Algorithms

The excellent spatial localization, frequency spread and multi-resolution characteristics of the Discrete Wavelets Transform (DWT), which were similar to the theoretical models of the human visual system, facilitated the development of many imperceptible and robust DWT-based watermarking algorithms. There had been extremely few proposed algorithms on optimized DWT-based image watermarking that can simultaneously provide perceptual transparency and robustness since these two watermarking requirements are conflicting, in this study we treat the DWT-based image watermarking problem as an optimization problem and solve it using genetic algorithms. We demonstrate through the experimental results we obtained that optimal DWT-based image watermarking can be achieved only if watermarking has been applied at specific wavelet sub-bands and by using specific watermark-amplification values.