@Article{cmes.2026.084391,
AUTHOR = {Shu-Chuan Chu, Libin Fu, Jeng-Shyang Pan},
TITLE = {A Competitive Parallel Animated Oat Optimization Algorithm for Reversible Digital Watermarking<sup>#</sup>},
JOURNAL = {Computer Modeling in Engineering \& Sciences},
VOLUME = {},
YEAR = {},
NUMBER = {},
PAGES = {{pages}},
URL = {http://www.techscience.com/CMES/online/detail/27573},
ISSN = {1526-1506},
ABSTRACT = {The Animated Oat Optimization Algorithm (AOO) is a novel evolutionary algorithm inspired by the behavior of animated oats. This paper proposes a Competitive Parallel Animated Oat Optimization Algorithm (CPAOO) comprising two components. First, a parallel strategy is employed in which inter-subpopulation communication is triggered at predefined iteration thresholds to balance exploration and exploitation. Second, a grouped competition strategy with incentive mechanisms is introduced, enabling the prioritized evolution of superior individuals to enhance the algorithm’s efficiency. Furthermore, building on the Prediction Error Expansion (PEE) algorithm, this paper proposes a Dual-Layer PEE (DLPEE) algorithm for reversible digital watermarking. Based on differences in pixel values around embedding points, image blocks are classified as either smooth or textured regions. The CPAOO algorithm is used to optimize the weights of the pixel predictor and to prioritize embedding secret information in smooth blocks. This approach enhances both the embedding capacity and the invisibility of the watermarked data. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed methods achieve satisfactory performance.},
DOI = {10.32604/cmes.2026.084391}
}