A high payload steganographic algorithm based on edge detection

Abstract

The least-significant-bit (LSB) technique is one of the commonly used steganographic algorithms in the spatial domain. In most existing schemes, they didn’t carefully analyze the relationship between the image content itself. Hence, the smooth areas in the cover image will inevitably be contaminated after hiding even at a low embedding rate, thereby leading to poor visual quality and low security. In recent years, diverse steganography methods using edge detection have been proposed. However, their schemes employ certain pixels in the cover image for the sake of storing edge information, resulting in significant embedding distortion and low payload. In this study, a novel steganography approach based on the combination of LSB substitution mechanism and edge detection is proposed. To avoid the excavation of human visual system (HVS) when more secret bits are embedded into pixels, we classify the cover pixels into edge areas and non-edge areas. Then, pixels that belong to the edge area are used to carry more secret bits. In addition, to further increase the payload as well as preserve good image quality, we adopt a skillful way that the edge information is determined by most significant bits (MSBs) of the cover image so that it does not need to be stored. In the extraction phase, the same edge information is obtained. Therefore, the secret data can be correctly extracted without confusion. The experimental results demonstrate that our scheme achieves a much higher payload and better visual quality than those of state-of-the-art schemes.