Robustness of a 3D Watermarking Algorithm Against Vertex Re-Ordering Attack in Forensics

A 3D watermarking scheme based on a modified Kirchoff matrix and visual cryptography is proposed. It is shown that the proposed scheme is resilient to vertex-reordering attacks. Numerical experiments are performed to strengthen the underlying objectives. The effectiveness of the watermarking method was assessed by subjecting 3D objects (Mushroom, Nefertiti, Pipes, and Sphere), created using MATLAB's 3D Mesh generation tool, to various attacks. The Nefertiti object yielded the most impressive results, with a remarkable 99.89% recovery of the original watermark, even when 5–6 vertices were perturbed in each object. Various stages involved in the owner registration and identification phase, including 3D image processing, ownership share generation, attacked and restored host objects and watermarks, are depicted with the help of pictorial illustrations. It is found that the resilience of the proposed scheme to vertex re-ordering has applications in medical science, especially in forensics.