ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the genetic algorithm (GA) and presents the concept of GA-based watermarking. The GA, introduced by Hollard in seminal work is commonly used as an adaptive approach to providing randomized, parallel, and global searching based on the mechanics of natural selection and natural genetics in order to find solutions to a problem. The procedure of crossover starts by randomly selecting two chromosomes as parents from the current generation, followed by the exchange of part genes from the two parent chromosomes. The requirement for the ideal chromosome is that it be the same as shown in the reproduction operation. The purpose of mutation is to provide a local minimum/maximum searching approach by slightly modifying the gene of a chromosome. The mutation operation works especially well in cases in which the difference between an existing chromosome and a desired one is very small.
