The invention relates to 
image processing, the invention relates to the technical field of 
digital watermarking, and discloses a high-capacity reversible image watermarking 
algorithm with improved difference expansion. The 
algorithm comprises the steps of 
watermark embedding and 
watermark extraction, 
watermark embedding of an original image and watermark extraction of an image containing watermarks through cat face scrambling, a generalized difference expansion method, improved gray scale overflow 
processing and a difference quantification method. Compared with the prior art, the 
algorithm hasthe advantages that the pixel mean value before and after 
watermark embedding through a generalized difference expansion method is invariant, so that the smoothness value before and after 
watermark embedding is invariant, and watermark extraction is facilitated; an improved gray overflow 
processing method is used, on the premise that certain visual quality is guaranteed, 
watermark embedding can be conducted multiple times, and the watermark embedding capacity is increased; auxiliary information is embedded through a difference quantization algorithm, so that the method has relatively good imperceptibility and relatively high effective 
load capacity; and after the watermark is extracted, the original image can be completely recovered, the similarity between the extracted watermark and theoriginal watermark is extremely high, and the error is small.