Log in

Medical image watermarking: a survey on applications, approach and performance requirement compliance

  • Trends and Surveys
  • Published:
International Journal of Multimedia Information Retrieval Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Medical images are fundamentally utilized for rendering diagnostic and treatment to patients. Medical images are a patient body or part captured using medical imaging devices such as CT, X-Ray, PET, MRI, and US. Technological advancement introduces E-Healthcare systems, Telemedicine, and Electronic Health Information Systems (EHIS) enabling medical images to flow over the public network for remote healthcare services. The manipulation or replacement of medical images is fatal to the well-being of a patient, thereby requiring protection using watermarking. Watermarking is a data security approach toward protecting medical images against abuse by unauthorized personnel via providing confidentiality, authentication, and integrity verification. The dynamism and importance of medical image watermarking require constant literature update on trends, issues, and challenges which leading to the forgoing research survey. The survey proposes to highlight trending application areas in medical image watermarking research and evaluation of the recent approach adopted by researchers. Furthermore, the survey evaluates existing work in compliance with the standard benchmark requirement in design and performance and presents a discussion on the way forward to other possible research opportunities in the medical image watermarking domain.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
EUR 32.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Krupinski EA (2010) Current perspectives in medical image perception. Atten Percept Psychophys 72(5):1205–1217

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Rathi SC, Inamdar VS (2012) Medical images authentication through watermarking preserving roi. Health Informatics-An International Journal (HIIJ) 1(1)

  3. Mukhopadhyay SC, Suryadevara NK (2014) Internet of Things: Challenges and Opportunities. Springer, Berlin

    Book  Google Scholar 

  4. Pramanik PKD, Pareek G, Nayyar A (2019) Security and privacy in remote healthcare: Issues, solutions, and standards. In: Telemedicine Technologies, pp 201–225. Elsevier

  5. Rajani D, Kumar PR (2022) An optimized hybrid algorithm for blind watermarking scheme using singular value decomposition in rdwt-dct domain. J Appl Sec Res 17(1):103–122

    Google Scholar 

  6. Zainol Z, Teh JS, Alawida M, Alabdulatif A et al (2021) Hybrid svd-based image watermarking schemes: a review. IEEE Access 9:32931–32968

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Begum M, Uddin MS (2020) Digital image watermarking techniques: a review. Information 11(2):110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Wan W, Wang J, Zhang Y, Li J, Yu H, Sun J (2022) A comprehensive survey on robust image watermarking. Neurocomputing 488:226–247

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Qasim AF, Meziane F, Aspin R (2018) Digital watermarking: Applicability for develo** trust in medical imaging workflows state of the art review. Comput Sci Rev 27:45–60

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  10. Mousavi SM, Naghsh A, Abu-Bakar S (2014) Watermarking techniques used in medical images: a survey. J Digit Imaging 27:714–729

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Fares K, Khaldi A, Redouane K, Salah E (2021) Dct& dwtbased watermarking scheme for medical information security. Biomed Signal Process Control 66:102403

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Ramzan M, Habib M, Khan SA (2022) Secure and efficient privacy protection system for medical records. Sustain Comput Inform Syst 35:100717

    Google Scholar 

  13. Allaf AH, Kbir MA (2018) Usage of watermarking techniques in medical imaging. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Smart City Applications, pp 1–6

  14. De Capitani di Vimercati S, Paraboschi S, Samarati P (2003) Access control: principles and solutions. Softw Pract Exp 33(5):397–421

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Hema M, Shyry P (2022) An improved hybrid dct-dwt blind watermarking technique for securing multimedia images

  16. Navas K, Sasikumar M, Sreevidya S (2007) A benchmark for medical image watermarking. In: 2007 14th International Workshop on Systems, Signals and Image Processing and 6th EURASIP Conference Focused on Speech and Image Processing, Multimedia Communications and Services, pp 237–240. IEEE

  17. Satbirkaur M, Kantveer M International journal of engineering sciences & research technology a review paper on medical image watermarking for copyright protection based on visual cryptography using genetic algorithm

  18. Priya S, Varathrajan R (2017) A hybrid frequency domain approach for blind embedding of data in mr images for hospital data management—a review. In: 2017 International Conference on Algorithms, Methodology, Models and Applications in Emerging Technologies (ICAMMAET), pp 1–6. IEEE

  19. Singh AK, Kumar B, Singh G, Mohan A (2017) Medical image watermarking techniques: a technical survey and potential challenges. Medical Image Watermarking: Techniques and Applications, 13–41

  20. Sajedi H (2018) Applications of data hiding techniques in medical and healthcare systems: a survey. Netw Model Anal Health Inform Bioinform 7:1–28

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Ouazzane H, Mahersia H, Hamrouni K (2019) Digital watermarking in medical imaging: a review. Int J Med Eng Inform 11(4):330–356

    Google Scholar 

  22. Thabit R (2021) Review of medical image authentication techniques and their recent trends. Multimed Tools Appl 80(9):13439–13473

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Roˇcek A, Javorn´ık M, Slav´ıcˇek K, Dost´al O (2021) Zero watermarking: critical analysis of its role in current medical imaging. J Digit Imag 34:204–211

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Benyoussef M, Mabtoul S, Aboutajdine D, et al. (2014) Medical image watermarking for copyright protection based on visual cryptography. In: 2014 International Conference on Multimedia Computing and Systems (ICMCS), pp 93–98. IEEE

  25. Rani A, Bhullar AK, Dangwal D, Kumar S (2015) A zero-watermarking scheme using discrete wavelet transform. Procedia Comput Sci 70:603–609

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Guo Z, Zhang L, Zhang D (2010) A completed modeling of local binary pattern operator for texture classification. IEEE Trans Image Process 19(6):1657–1663

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  27. Seenivasagam V, Velumani R (2013) A qr code based zero-watermarking scheme for authentication of medical images in teleradiology cloud. Comput Math Methods Med 2013:516465

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  28. Nyeem H, Boles W, Boyd C (2013) A review of medical image watermarking requirements for teleradiology. J Digit Imag 26:326–343

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Langelaar GC, Setyawan I, Lagendijk RL (2000) Watermarking digital image and video data a state-of-the-art overview. IEEE Signal Process Magaz 17(5):20–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Kumar S, Singh B.K (2018) A review of digital watermarking in healthcare domain. In: 2018 3Rd International Conference on Computational Systems and Information Technology for Sustainable Solutions (CSITSS), pp 156– 159. IEEE

  31. Hu K, Wang X, Hu J, Wang H, Qin H (2021) A novel robust zero-watermarking algorithm for medical images. Vis Comput 37:2841–2853

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Alshanbari HS (2021) Medical image watermarking for ownership & tamper detection. Multimed Tools Appl 80:16549–16564

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Sinhal R, Sharma S, Ansari IA, Bajaj V (2022) Multipurpose medical image watermarking for effective security solutions. Multimed Tools Appl 81(10):14045–14063

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Novamizanti L, Wahidah I, Wardana N (2020) A robust medical images watermarking using fdcut-dct-svd. Int J Intell Eng Syst 13(6):266–278

    Google Scholar 

  35. Venkatram N, Reddy L, Kishore P, Fields G, Vaddeswaram G, Pradesh A (2014) Blind medical image watermarking with lwt–svd for telemedicine applications. Image 20:23

    Google Scholar 

  36. Mehto A, Mehra N (2016) Adaptive lossless medical image watermarking algorithm based on dct & dwt. Procedia Comput Sci 78:88–94

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Thanki R, Borra S, Dwivedi V, Borisagar K (2017) A roni based visible watermarking approach for medical image authentication. J Med Syst 41:1–11

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Kumar S, Singh BK (2021) Entropy based spatial domain image watermarking and its performance analysis. Multimed Tools Appl 80(6):9315–9331

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Thanki R, Borra S, Dwivedi V, Borisagar K (2017) An efficient medical image watermarking scheme based on fdcut–dct. Eng Sci Technol Int J 20(4):1366–1379

    Google Scholar 

  40. Borra S, Thanki R (2020) Crypto-watermarking scheme for tamper detection of medical images. Comput Methods Biomech Biomedi Eng Imag Vis 8(4):345–355

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Zear A, Singh AK, Kumar P (2018) Multiple watermarking for healthcare applications. J Intell Syst 27(1):5–18

    Google Scholar 

  42. Liu X, Lou J, Fang H, Chen Y, Ouyang P, Wang Y, Zou B, Wang L (2019) A novel robust reversible watermarking scheme for protecting authenticity and integrity of medical images. Ieee Access 7:76580–76598

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Singh P, Devi KJ, Thakkar HK, Kotecha K (2022) Region-based hybrid medical image watermarking scheme for robust and secured transmission in iomt. IEEE Access 10:8974–8993

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Anand S, Singh J. International journal of engineering sciences & research technology a watermarking relational database based on 5level dwt using genetic algorithm & pso

  45. Singh A, Dutta MK (2017) A reversible data hiding scheme for efficient management of teleophthalmological data. Int J E-Health Med Commun (IJEHMC) 8(3):38–54

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Kumar B, Kumar SB, Chauhan DS (2015) Wavelet based imperceptible medical image watermarking using spread-spectrum. In: 2015 38th International Conference on Telecommunications and Signal Processing (TSP), pp 1–5. IEEE

  47. Rahman AU, Sultan K, Musleh D, Aldhafferi N, Alqahtani A, Mahmud M (2018) Robust and fragile medical image watermarking: a joint venture of coding and chaos theories. J Healthcare Eng 2018:8137436

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Pan W, Bouslimi D, Karasad M, Cozic M, Coatrieux G (2018) Imperceptible reversible watermarking of radiographic images based on quantum noise masking. Comput Methods Programs Biomed 160:119–128

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. Parah SA, Ahad F, Sheikh JA, Bhat GM (2017) Hiding clinical information in medical images: a new high capacity and reversible data hiding technique. J Biomed Inform 66:214–230

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. Turuk M, Dhande A (2018) A novel texturequantization-based reversible multiple watermarking scheme applied to health information system. J Digit Imag 31:167–177

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Navas K, Sasikumar M (2007) Survey of medical image watermarking algorithms. In: Proc. Internation Conf. Sciences of Electronics, Technologies of Information and Telecommunications, pp 25–29

  52. Gangadhar Y, Akula VG, Reddy PC (2018) An evolutionary programming approach for securing medical images using watermarking scheme in invariant discrete wavelet transformation. Biomed Signal Process Control 43:31–40

    Article  Google Scholar 

  53. Kelkar V, Tuckley K, Nemade H (2017) Novel variants of a histogram shift-based reversible watermarking technique for medical images to improve hiding capacity. J Healthcare Eng 2017:3538979

    Article  Google Scholar 

  54. Khor HL, Liew S-C, Zain JM (2017) Region of interest-based tamper detection and lossless recovery watermarking scheme (roi-dr) on ultrasound medical images. J Digit Imag 30:328–349

    Article  Google Scholar 

  55. Ebrahimnejad J, Naghsh A (2021) Adaptive removal of high-density salt-and-pepper noise (arspn) for robust roi detection used in watermarking of mri images of the brain. Comput Biol Med 137:104831

    Article  Google Scholar 

  56. Ustubioglu A, Ulutas G (2017) A new medical image watermarking technique with finer tamper localization. J Digit Imag 30:665–680

    Article  Google Scholar 

  57. Soualmi A, Alti A, Laouamer L (2022) An imperceptible watermarking scheme for medical image tamper detection. Int J Inform Secur Priv (IJISP) 16(1):1–18

    Google Scholar 

  58. Al-Haj A, Mohammad A, Amer A (2017) Crypto-watermarking of transmitted medical images. J Digit Imag 30:26–38

    Article  Google Scholar 

  59. Lakshmi C, Thenmozhi K, Rayappan JBB, Amirtharajan R (2018) Encryption and watermark-treated medical image against hacking disease—an immune convention in spatial and frequency domains. Comput Methods Programs Biomed 159:11–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  60. Giri KJ, Bashir R, Bhat JI (2019) A discrete wavelet based watermarking scheme for authentication of medical images. Int J E-Health Med Commun (IJEHMC) 10(4):30–38

    Article  Google Scholar 

  61. Swaraja K, Meenakshi K, Kora P (2020) An optimized blind dual medical image watermarking framework for tamper localization and content authentication in secured telemedicine. Biomed Signal Process Control 55:101665

    Article  Google Scholar 

  62. Swaraja K, Meenakshi K, Kora P (2021) Hierarchical multilevel framework using rdwtqr optimized watermarking in telemedicine. Biomed Signal Process Control 68:102688

    Article  Google Scholar 

  63. Verma U, Sharma N (2022) A ‘divide and embed’approach in a robust cryptowatermarking technique for enhancing the embedding capacity. Biomed Signal Process Control 76:103694

    Article  Google Scholar 

  64. Soualmi A, Alti A, Laouamer L (2021) Multiple blind watermarking framework for security and integrity of medical images in e-health applications. Int J Comput Vis Image Process (IJCVIP) 11(1):1–16

    Google Scholar 

  65. Soualmi A, Alti A, Laouamer L (2021) A novel blind watermarking approach for medical image authentication using mineigen value features. Multimed Tools Appl 80:2279–2293

    Article  Google Scholar 

  66. **a Z, Wang X, Wang C, Wang C, Ma B, Li Q, Wang M, Zhao T (2022) A robust zerowatermarking algorithm for lossless copyright protection of medical images. Appl Intell 52(1):607–621

    Article  Google Scholar 

  67. Nyeem H, Boles W, Boyd C (2014) Digital image watermarking: its formal model, fundamental properties and possible attacks. EURASIP J Adv Signal Process 2014(1):1–22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  68. Liew S-C, Liew S-W, Zain JM (2013) Tamper localization and lossless recovery watermarking scheme with roi segmentation and multilevel authentication. J Digit Imag 26:316–325

    Article  Google Scholar 

  69. Hisham SI, Liew S, Zain J (2013) A quick glance at digital watermarking in medical images. Biomed Eng Res 2(2):79–87

    Article  Google Scholar 

  70. Zaidan B, Zaidan A, Karim HA, Ahmad NN (2017) A new digital watermarking evaluation and benchmarking methodology using an external group of evaluators and multicriteria analysis based on ‘large-scale data.’ Softw Pract Exp 47(10):1365–1392

    Article  Google Scholar 

  71. Rao N, Pandit S (2011) Computational image quality metrics for watermarking applications. CVR J Sci Technol 1:1–7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  72. Borra S, Thanki R, Dey N, Borisagar K (2019) Secure transmission and integrity verification of color radiological images using fast discrete curvelet transform and compressive sensing. Smart Health 12:35–48

    Article  Google Scholar 

  73. Rajkumar S, Malathi G (2016) A comparative analysis on image quality assessment for real time satellite images. Indian J Sci Technol 9(34):1–11

    Article  Google Scholar 

  74. Kandi H, Mishra D, Gorthi SRS (2017) Exploring the learning capabilities of convolutional neural networks for robust image watermarking. Comput Secur 65:247–268

    Article  Google Scholar 

  75. Mohanarathinam A, Kamalraj S, Prasanna Venkatesan G, Ravi RV, Manikandababu C (2020) Digital watermarking techniques for image security: a review. J Ambient Intell Humaniz Comput 11:3221–3229

    Article  Google Scholar 

  76. Bhalerao S, Ansari IA, Kumar A (2021) A secure image watermarking for tamper detection and localization. J Ambient Intell Humaniz Comput 1:1057–1068

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agencies either in the public, commercial or non-profit sectors. Emphatically, there is no funding received with respect to this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

Conceptualization was contributed by SA and WMNWZ. Methodology was contributed by SA. Formal Analysis and investigation were contributed by SA. Writing original draft preparation was contributed by SA. Writing—review and editing, was contributed by WMNWZ. Supervision was contributed by WMNWZ.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shehu Ayuba.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interest relevant to this article.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ayuba, S., Zainon, W.M.N.W. Medical image watermarking: a survey on applications, approach and performance requirement compliance. Int J Multimed Info Retr 12, 33 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13735-023-00290-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13735-023-00290-9

Keywords

Navigation