An image-in-image communication scheme using secret sharing and M-ary spread spectrum watermarking

Abstract

Secret image sharing is a means of secure transmission of images on an open network through meaningful share generation that reduces suspiciousness of conventional image encryption. This paper proposes, an image-in-image communication scheme as SIS for progressive quality access control coupled with data hiding. The secret image is partitioned into few noise-like shadows of reduced size. These are then embedded into a group of host images to generate stego images. Since spread spectrum watermarking meets data imperceptibility and retain hidden data even after different deliberate attacks and unintentional operations, an M-ary SS modulation based watermarking scheme is performed to embed the shadows into the respective set of cover images. Progressive quality access for the secret image depends on the number of the authenticated users participated in the decoding process. Extensive simulation results are reported to highlight the performance of the proposed scheme.