DCT-domain robust data hiding using chaotic sequence

In this paper, we propose DCT-domain robust data hiding algorithm using chaotic sequence. The algorithm works by dividing the cover into blocks of equal sizes and then embeds the watermark in middle band of DCT coefficient. Performance evaluation for robustness and imperceptibility of proposed algorithm has been made using the bit error rate (BER) and the peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) value for cover image and watermarked image. This algorithm is compared to PN sequence based DCT algorithm. The proposed algorithm provides more robustness against several common image processing attacks, such as JPEG compression, low-pass filtering and addition of noise. In case of JPEG compression attacks, for low quality compression (Q-60) it has been analyzed that more than 92% of the hidden data was recovered without any error and for same quality compression in PN sequence based DCT algorithm has more than 89% of the hidden data recovered without any error.