An Optimal Information Hiding Approach Based on Pixel Value Differencing and Modulus Function

Abstract

This paper proposes an image steganography approach based on pixel value differencing and modulus function (PVDMF) to improve the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and hiding capacity (HC). The proposed approach has two variants, (1) PVDMF 1 and (2) PVDMF 2. Both the variants use the difference between a pair of consecutive pixels to embed the secret data based on an adaptive range table. The modulus operations with pixel readjustment have been utilized to reduce the distortion in the stego-image. The experimental results prove that the PVDMF 1 offer higher PSNR and PVDMF 2 offers larger HC as compared to the existing approaches. In addition, the fall off boundary problem which exists in most of the pixel value differencing approaches has been avoided. Furthermore, it has been experimentally verified that the proposed approach is resistant against RS attack.