Image self-embedding with high-quality restoration capability

In this paper, we present a new fragile watermarking method aimed at providing improved restoration capability. A mechanism of block classification is used to compress the original image according to the DCT coefficients, in which blocks corresponding to different types are encoded to variable lengths. The compressed bits are expanded as reference bits, and then embedded into the entire image along with some authentication bits generated from each block. On the receiving side, the authentication bits are extracted to localize the tampered areas, and the reference bits are used to reconstruct a reference image for restoring the contents of the tampered regions. Results show that the proposed method provides a better restoration quality. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.