A survey of color image watermarking: State-of-the-art and research directions

Abstract Color image watermarking has achieved great success in various applications such as copy protection, content authentication, tamper detection and recovery, etc. The present paper provides a detailed overview of watermarking along with its characteristics, evaluation metrics, and current applications. We then provide a comprehensive survey of different approaches along with their merits and limitations. Furthermore, we summarize each of the approaches in detail, including objectives, goals, embedding location, evaluation metrics, and weaknesses, and discuss recent challenges and their possible solutions. We believe this paper will provide readers with comprehensive insight into the field of watermarking research.