{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,2]],"date-time":"2026-03-02T15:21:28Z","timestamp":1772464888157,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,20]],"date-time":"2026-01-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1768867200000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,2]],"date-time":"2026-03-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1772409600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":41,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100014718","name":"Innovative Research Group Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["62302463"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["62302463"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100014718","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100015218","name":"Henan Key Laboratory of Non-ferrous Metal Materials Science and Processing Technology","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["252102211079"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["252102211079"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100015218","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["J. King Saud Univ. Comput. Inf. Sci."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,4]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>\n                    In the era of intelligent healthcare, medical images play a crucial role in remote diagnosis, disease detection, cloud storage, and data sharing. However, they are vulnerable to security threats such as data tampering, copyright disputes, and privacy breaches. Traditional digital watermarking algorithms struggle to balance imperceptibility and robustness, making them insufficient to meet the security requirements of medical image protection. Motivated by these challenges, this paper proposes an efficient, robust, secure digital watermarking scheme for medical images. The proposed method integrates Dual-Tree Complex Wavelet Transform (DTCWT), Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) to extract image features. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is then employed to adaptively adjust the watermark embedding parameters, enhancing imperceptibility and robustness. Moreover, Henon chaotic mapping is introduced to generate pseudo-random sequences for watermark encryption, further enhancing security. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves a PSNR of 34.59 dB, ensuring good imperceptibility. Under various attacks, the extracted watermark maintains high robustness, with an average NC of 0.99 under Gaussian low-pass filtering (5\n                    <jats:inline-formula>\n                      <jats:alternatives>\n                        <jats:tex-math>$$\\times $$<\/jats:tex-math>\n                        <mml:math xmlns:mml=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1998\/Math\/MathML\">\n                          <mml:mo>\u00d7<\/mml:mo>\n                        <\/mml:math>\n                      <\/jats:alternatives>\n                    <\/jats:inline-formula>\n                    5), 0.99 under JPEG compression (QF = 10), 0.97 under Gaussian noise, and 0.98 under rotation attacks (15\n                    <jats:inline-formula>\n                      <jats:alternatives>\n                        <jats:tex-math>$$^{\\circ }$$<\/jats:tex-math>\n                        <mml:math xmlns:mml=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1998\/Math\/MathML\">\n                          <mml:mmultiscripts>\n                            <mml:mrow\/>\n                            <mml:mrow\/>\n                            <mml:mo>\u2218<\/mml:mo>\n                          <\/mml:mmultiscripts>\n                        <\/mml:math>\n                      <\/jats:alternatives>\n                    <\/jats:inline-formula>\n                    ). Research shows that this method can effectively improve the secure storage and transmission capabilities of medical images, providing strong support for the security of medical image data in intelligent medical environments.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1007\/s44443-026-00480-5","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,20]],"date-time":"2026-01-20T10:46:12Z","timestamp":1768905972000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["A medical image watermarking method based on the combination of DTCWT and PSO optimization"],"prefix":"10.1007","volume":"38","author":[{"given":"Ruilong","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Li","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Xiaoju","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Yu","family":"Xiang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Haiyan","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,20]]},"reference":[{"issue":"9","key":"480_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1502","DOI":"10.1109\/TIFS.2014.2338274","volume":"9","author":"M Asikuzzaman","year":"2014","unstructured":"Asikuzzaman M, Alam MJ, Lambert AJ, Pickering MR (2014) Imperceptible and robust blind video watermarking using chrominance embedding: A set of approaches in the dt cwt domain. IEEE Trans Inf Forensics Secur 9(9):1502\u20131517","journal-title":"IEEE Trans Inf Forensics Secur"},{"key":"480_CR2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"208","DOI":"10.1016\/j.eswa.2018.06.024","volume":"112","author":"TK Araghi","year":"2018","unstructured":"Araghi TK, Abd Manaf A, Araghi SK (2018) A secure blind discrete wavelet transform based watermarking scheme using two-level singular value decomposition. Expert Syst Appl 112:208\u2013228","journal-title":"Expert Syst Appl"},{"key":"480_CR3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"113714","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2021.3104985","volume":"9","author":"A Alzahrani","year":"2021","unstructured":"Alzahrani A, Memon NA (2021) Blind and robust watermarking scheme in hybrid domain for copyright protection of medical images. IEEE Access 9:113714\u2013113734","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"480_CR4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1007\/s10916-018-1088-1","volume":"42","author":"SM Anwar","year":"2018","unstructured":"Anwar SM, Majid M, Qayyum A, Awais M, Alnowami M, Khan MK (2018) Medical image analysis using convolutional neural networks: a review. J Med Syst 42:1\u201313","journal-title":"J Med Syst"},{"key":"480_CR5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"72","DOI":"10.1016\/j.comcom.2020.01.038","volume":"152","author":"A Anand","year":"2020","unstructured":"Anand A, Singh AK (2020) An improved dwt-svd domain watermarking for medical information security. Comput Commun 152:72\u201380","journal-title":"Comput Commun"},{"issue":"6","key":"480_CR6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1594","DOI":"10.1109\/TCSS.2021.3126628","volume":"9","author":"A Anand","year":"2021","unstructured":"Anand A, Singh AK (2021) Health record security through multiple watermarking on fused medical images. IEEE Trans Comput Soc Syst 9(6):1594\u20131603","journal-title":"IEEE Trans Comput Soc Syst"},{"key":"480_CR7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.bspc.2023.105015","volume":"84","author":"G Azizoglu","year":"2023","unstructured":"Azizoglu G, Toprak AN (2023) A novel reversible fragile watermarking method in dwt domain for tamper localization and digital image authentication. Biomed Signal Process Control 84:105015","journal-title":"Biomed Signal Process Control"},{"issue":"3","key":"480_CR8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"199","DOI":"10.1136\/jamia.1997.0040199","volume":"4","author":"WD Bidgood Jr","year":"1997","unstructured":"Bidgood WD Jr, Horii SC, Prior FW, Van Syckle DE (1997) Understanding and using dicom, the data interchange standard for biomedical imaging. J Am Med Inform Assoc 4(3):199\u2013212","journal-title":"J Am Med Inform Assoc"},{"key":"480_CR9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"261","DOI":"10.1007\/s10462-010-9155-0","volume":"33","author":"MA Balafar","year":"2010","unstructured":"Balafar MA, Ramli AR, Saripan MI, Mashohor S (2010) Review of brain mri image segmentation methods. Artif Intell Rev 33:261\u2013274","journal-title":"Artif Intell Rev"},{"issue":"4","key":"480_CR10","first-page":"1901","volume":"15","author":"HS Devi","year":"2023","unstructured":"Devi HS, Mohapatra H (2023) A novel robust blind medical image watermarking using rank-based dwt. Int J Inf Technol 15(4):1901\u20131909","journal-title":"Int J Inf Technol"},{"key":"480_CR11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.bspc.2020.102403","volume":"66","author":"K Fares","year":"2021","unstructured":"Fares K, Khaldi A, Redouane K, Salah E (2021) Dct & dwt based watermarking scheme for medical information security. Biomed Signal Process Control 66:102403","journal-title":"Biomed Signal Process Control"},{"issue":"25","key":"480_CR12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"38589","DOI":"10.1007\/s11042-023-15048-y","volume":"82","author":"S Ge","year":"2023","unstructured":"Ge S, Xia Z, Fei J, Tong Y, Weng J, Li M (2023) A robust document image watermarking scheme using deep neural network. Multimedia Tools and Applications 82(25):38589\u201338612","journal-title":"Multimedia Tools and Applications"},{"key":"480_CR13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"318","DOI":"10.1109\/TIP.2020.3036727","volume":"30","author":"R Hu","year":"2020","unstructured":"Hu R, Xiang S (2020) Cover-lossless robust image watermarking against geometric deformations. IEEE Trans Image Process 30:318\u2013331","journal-title":"IEEE Trans Image Process"},{"issue":"3","key":"480_CR14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"671","DOI":"10.1093\/jamia\/ocaa310","volume":"28","author":"MS Jalali","year":"2021","unstructured":"Jalali MS, Landman A, Gordon WJ (2021) Telemedicine, privacy, and information security in the age of covid-19. J Am Med Inform Assoc 28(3):671\u2013672","journal-title":"J Am Med Inform Assoc"},{"issue":"9","key":"480_CR15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"652","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jacr.2007.06.004","volume":"4","author":"CE Kahn","year":"2007","unstructured":"Kahn CE, Carrino JA, Flynn MJ, Peck DJ, Horii SC (2007) Dicom and radiology: past, present, and future. J Am Coll Radiol 4(9):652\u2013657","journal-title":"J Am Coll Radiol"},{"issue":"2","key":"480_CR16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"523","DOI":"10.1148\/rg.242025724","volume":"24","author":"V Kapoor","year":"2004","unstructured":"Kapoor V, McCook BM, Torok FS (2004) An introduction to pet-ct imaging. Radiographics 24(2):523\u2013543","journal-title":"Radiographics"},{"issue":"2","key":"480_CR17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"177","DOI":"10.1016\/j.eij.2020.07.003","volume":"22","author":"I Keshta","year":"2021","unstructured":"Keshta I, Odeh A (2021) Security and privacy of electronic health records: Concerns and challenges. Egyptian Inf J 22(2):177\u2013183","journal-title":"Egyptian Inf J"},{"issue":"1","key":"480_CR18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"24","DOI":"10.1186\/s13638-022-02106-6","volume":"2022","author":"T Li","year":"2022","unstructured":"Li T, Li J, Liu J, Huang M, Chen Y-W, Bhatti UA (2022) Robust watermarking algorithm for medical images based on log-polar transform. EURASIP J Wirel Commun Netw 2022(1):24","journal-title":"EURASIP J Wirel Commun Netw"},{"key":"480_CR19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"95","DOI":"10.1016\/j.eswa.2017.12.003","volume":"97","author":"Y Liu","year":"2018","unstructured":"Liu Y, Tang S, Liu R, Zhang L, Ma Z (2018) Secure and robust digital image watermarking scheme using logistic and rsa encryption. Expert Syst Appl 97:95\u2013105","journal-title":"Expert Syst Appl"},{"key":"480_CR20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Moad MS, Kafi MR, Khaldi A (2022) A wavelet based medical image watermarking scheme for secure transmission in telemedicine applications. Microprocess Microsyst 90:104490","DOI":"10.1016\/j.micpro.2022.104490"},{"key":"480_CR21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Marini F, Walczak B (2015) Particle swarm optimization (pso). a tutorial. Chemom Intell Lab Syst 149:153\u2013165","DOI":"10.1016\/j.chemolab.2015.08.020"},{"key":"480_CR22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ma J, Zhang Y, Gu S, Zhu C, Ge C, Zhang Y, An X, Wang C, Wang Q, Liu X et al (2021) Abdomenct-1k: Is abdominal organ segmentation a solved problem? IEEE Trans Pattern Anal Mach Intell 44(10):6695\u20136714","DOI":"10.1109\/TPAMI.2021.3100536"},{"key":"480_CR23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"326","DOI":"10.1007\/s10278-012-9527-x","volume":"26","author":"H Nyeem","year":"2013","unstructured":"Nyeem H, Boles W, Boyd C (2013) A review of medical image watermarking requirements for teleradiology. J Digit Imaging 26:326\u2013343","journal-title":"J Digit Imaging"},{"key":"480_CR24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ins.2023.119810","volume":"653","author":"SA Nawaz","year":"2024","unstructured":"Nawaz SA, Li J, Bhatti UA, Shoukat MU, Li D, Raza MA (2024) Hybrid watermarking algorithm for medical images based on digital transformation and mobilenetv2. Inf Sci 653:119810","journal-title":"Inf Sci"},{"key":"480_CR25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Padhi SK, Tiwari A, Ali SS (2024) Deep learning-based dual watermarking for image copyright protection and authentication. IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence","DOI":"10.1109\/TAI.2024.3485519"},{"key":"480_CR26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"45","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cosrev.2017.11.003","volume":"27","author":"AF Qasim","year":"2018","unstructured":"Qasim AF, Meziane F, Aspin R (2018) Digital watermarking: Applicability for developing trust in medical imaging workflows state of the art review. Comput Sci Review 27:45\u201360","journal-title":"Comput Sci Review"},{"key":"480_CR27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.optlaseng.2020.106376","volume":"137","author":"G Qu","year":"2021","unstructured":"Qu G, Meng X, Yang X, Wu H, Wang P, He W, Chen H (2021) Optical color watermarking based on single-pixel imaging and singular value decomposition in invariant wavelet domain. Opt Lasers Eng 137:106376","journal-title":"Opt Lasers Eng"},{"issue":"4","key":"480_CR28","first-page":"28","volume":"19","author":"JNB Salameh","year":"2019","unstructured":"Salameh JNB (2019) A new approach for securing medical images and patient\u2019s information by using a hybrid system. Int J of Computer Sci Netw Secur 19(4):28\u201339","journal-title":"Int J of Computer Sci Netw Secur"},{"key":"480_CR29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.eswa.2021.115058","volume":"179","author":"T Salehnia","year":"2021","unstructured":"Salehnia T, Fathi A (2021) Fault tolerance in lwt-svd based image watermarking systems using three module redundancy technique. Expert Syst Appl 179:115058","journal-title":"Expert Syst Appl"},{"key":"480_CR30","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"171","DOI":"10.1016\/j.patrec.2021.02.011","volume":"145","author":"R Sinhal","year":"2021","unstructured":"Sinhal R, Jain DK, Ansari IA (2021) Machine learning based blind color image watermarking scheme for copyright protection. Pattern Recogn Lett 145:171\u2013177","journal-title":"Pattern Recogn Lett"},{"key":"480_CR31","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.compeleceng.2024.109278","volume":"117","author":"OP Singh","year":"2024","unstructured":"Singh OP, Singh KN, Singh AK, Agrawal AK, Zhou H (2024) An improved robust algorithm for optimisation-based colour medical image watermarking. Comput Electr Eng 117:109278","journal-title":"Comput Electr Eng"},{"key":"480_CR32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Singh HK, Singh KN, Singh AK (2025) Split ways: using gan watermarking for digital image protection with privacy-preserving split model training. Futur Gener Comput Syst 163:107523","DOI":"10.1016\/j.future.2024.107523"},{"issue":"3","key":"480_CR33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"4307","DOI":"10.1007\/s11042-020-09941-z","volume":"80","author":"R Thanki","year":"2021","unstructured":"Thanki R, Kothari A (2021) Multi-level security of medical images based on encryption and watermarking for telemedicine applications. Multimedia Tools and Applications 80(3):4307\u20134325","journal-title":"Multimedia Tools and Applications"},{"key":"480_CR34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tan CK, Ng JC, Xu X, Poh CL, Guan YL, Sheah K (2011) Security protection of dicom medical images using dual-layer reversible watermarking with tamper detection capability. J Digit Imaging 24:528\u2013540","DOI":"10.1007\/s10278-010-9295-4"},{"key":"480_CR35","first-page":"1","volume-title":"Challenge on Head and neck tumor segmentation for MRI-guided applications","author":"KA Wahid","year":"2024","unstructured":"Wahid KA, Dede C, El-Habashy DM, Kamel S, Rooney MK, Khamis Y, Abdelaal MRA, Ahmed S, Corrigan KL, Chang E et al (2024) Overview of the head and neck tumor segmentation for magnetic resonance guided applications (hnts-mrg) 2024 challenge. Challenge on Head and neck tumor segmentation for MRI-guided applications. Springer, Cham, pp 1\u201335"},{"issue":"2","key":"480_CR36","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"771","DOI":"10.1007\/s00500-019-04524-z","volume":"24","author":"M Yousefi Valandar","year":"2020","unstructured":"Yousefi Valandar M, Jafari Barani M, Ayubi P (2020) A blind and robust color images watermarking method based on block transform and secured by modified 3-dimensional h\u00e9non map. Soft Comput 24(2):771\u2013794","journal-title":"Soft Comput"},{"issue":"3","key":"480_CR37","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"129","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ejmp.2008.05.006","volume":"24","author":"S-A Zhou","year":"2008","unstructured":"Zhou S-A, Brahme A (2008) Development of phase-contrast x-ray imaging techniques and potential medical applications. Physica Med 24(3):129\u2013148","journal-title":"Physica Med"},{"key":"480_CR38","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.forsciint.2021.110691","volume":"320","author":"N Zermi","year":"2021","unstructured":"Zermi N, Khaldi A, Kafi R, Kahlessenane F, Euschi S (2021) A dwt-svd based robust digital watermarking for medical image security. Forensic Sci Int 320:110691","journal-title":"Forensic Sci Int"},{"issue":"2","key":"480_CR39","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1735","DOI":"10.1007\/s12652-021-03539-5","volume":"15","author":"C Zeng","year":"2024","unstructured":"Zeng C, Liu J, Li J, Cheng J, Zhou J, Nawaz SA, Xiao X, Bhatti UA (2024) Multi-watermarking algorithm for medical image based on kaze-dct. J Ambient Intell Humaniz Comput 15(2):1735\u20131743","journal-title":"J Ambient Intell Humaniz Comput"},{"key":"480_CR40","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"4863","DOI":"10.1007\/s11042-016-3862-8","volume":"77","author":"A Zear","year":"2018","unstructured":"Zear A, Singh AK, Kumar P (2018) A proposed secure multiple watermarking technique based on dwt, dct and svd for application in medicine. Multimedia Tools and Applications 77:4863\u20134882","journal-title":"Multimedia Tools and Applications"}],"container-title":["Journal of King Saud University Computer and Information Sciences"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s44443-026-00480-5","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1007\/s44443-026-00480-5.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1007\/s44443-026-00480-5.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,2]],"date-time":"2026-03-02T14:03:28Z","timestamp":1772460208000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/10.1007\/s44443-026-00480-5"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,20]]},"references-count":40,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,4]]}},"alternative-id":["480"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s44443-026-00480-5","relation":{},"ISSN":["1319-1578","2213-1248"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1319-1578","type":"print"},{"value":"2213-1248","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,20]]},"assertion":[{"value":"17 October 2025","order":1,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"7 January 2026","order":2,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"20 January 2026","order":3,"name":"first_online","label":"First Online","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"order":1,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}},{"value":"The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing Interests"}}],"article-number":"77"}}