An improved steganographic approach to diminish data modification for enhancing image quality

Abstract

This paper introduces a hybrid approach to steganography which is based on the least significant bit substitution. It is a standalone steganographic technique that is focused on reducing the changes in the least significant bits of cover image by finding identical matches between image pixel values and message bits. The two least significant bits of cover image are changed only in case when no identical match is found between them. Hence, it aims to minimize the image degradation factor when message is embedded in cover image to form steganographic image by diminishing the data modification in least significant bits. In order to improve the security of message, the concept of jump table is used, i.e., message is scattered on the blocked image rather than embedding it on continuous pixels which makes extraction a semi-blind process. The proposed algorithm is validated using peak signal to noise ratio, correlation coefficient and structural similarity index matrix.