Optical Color Zero-Watermarking via Phase-Shifting Digital Holography Coupled with High-Robustness Bimodal Biometric Keys

Abstract

In this paper, an optical color zero-watermarking scheme based on robust bimodal biometric keys and phase-shifting digital holography is proposed. The color watermark is first encrypted into three amplitude ciphertexts through an optical encryption framework combining grating modulation, Fresnel-domain double random phase encoding (DRPE), and phase-shifting digital holography, where the phase masks are generated from biometric keys derived from the iris and three-dimensional (3D) face features of the encryption user. These high-level biometric features are extracted by a bimodal biometric high-order feature extraction network (BBHEN), including an iris high-order data extraction network and a 3D face high-order data extraction network. The extracted features of the color host image are then XORed with the corresponding ciphertexts, and the results are merged to construct a single zero-watermark image containing both host and watermark information. During extraction, biometric authentication is first performed to verify the identity of the decryption user. Only authorized users can recover the original watermark through zero-watermark reconstruction and extraction; otherwise, the process is terminated. Numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness, security, and robustness of the proposed scheme, particularly the strong protection capability of the bimodal biometric keys.