Multi-block dependency based fragile watermarking scheme for fingerprint images protection

For traditional fragile watermarking schemes, isolated-block tamper which will destroy the minutiae of the fingerprint image can hardly be efficiently detected. In this paper, we propose a multi-block dependency based fragile watermarking scheme to overcome this shortcoming. The images are split into image blocks with size of 8 × 8; a 64-bit watermark is generated for each image block, and then equally partitioned into eight parts. Each part of the watermark is embedded into another image block which is selected by the corresponding secret key. Theoretic analysis and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method not only can detect and localize the isolated-block tamper on fingerprint images with high detection probability and low false detection probability, but also enhances the systematic security obviously.