A Robust Data Hiding Scheme Using Generated Content for Securing Genuine Documents

Data hiding is an effective technique, compared to pervasive black-and-white code patterns such as barcode and quick response code, which can be used to secure document images against forgery or unauthorized intervention. In this work, we propose a robust digital watermarking scheme for securing genuine documents by leveraging generative adversarial networks (GAN). To begin with, the input document is adjusted to its right form by geometric correction. Next, the generated document is obtained from the input document by using the mentioned networks, and it is regarded as a reference for data hiding and detection. We then introduce an algorithm that hides a secret information into the document and produces a watermarked document whose content is minimally distorted in terms of normal observation. Furthermore, we also present a method that detects the hidden data from the watermarked document by measuring the distance of pixel values between the generated and watermarked document. For improving the security feature, we encode the secret information prior to hiding it by using pseudo random numbers. Lastly, we demonstrate that our approach gives high precision of data detection, and competitive performance compared to state-of-the-art approaches.