A real-time dual-image-based reversible data hiding scheme using turtle shells

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a novel real-time dual-image-based reversible data hiding (RDH) scheme using turtle shells (TS) which decomposes and hides secret data into two shadows. After constructing a novelly designed TS-based reference matrix, one secret bit is concealed in the first shadow and four secret bits are embedded in the second shadow. According to the orientation relationship of the pixel pairs selected from the two shadows, the hidden secret data and the cover image can be extracted and restored without errors. In the experiment, the proposed scheme achieved higher embedding capacity and maintained better visual quality than some state-of-the-art dual-image-based schemes. Meanwhile, according to the lower computational complexity of the proposed scheme, it is suitable for diverse real-time applications. In addition, the proposed scheme has good performance on resisting static attacks on pixel-value differencing (PVD) histogram.