Efficient Image Reversible Data Hiding Technique Based on Interpolation Optimization

Abstract

Reversible data hiding (RDH) within images is the process of hiding secret data into a cover image in a way that the image can be completely recovered after extracting the embedded data. The performance of the RDH methods depends on making a trade of between the embedding capacity and the image quality. The aim of this paper is to improve RDH method within images using interpolation-based scheme. The proposed interpolation-based RDH (IRDH) scheme improves the embedding capacity of the state-of-the-art Lee and Huang's IRDH scheme with better image quality. The proposed scheme is choosing the existing enhanced neighbor mean interpolation (ENMI) and modified neighbor mean interpolation (MNMI) techniques to scale-up the original image before embedding the secret data. It is then hiding the sensitive bits via smartly benefitting from the principle idea of Lee and Huang's embedding technique. The experiments were conducted on eight standard images to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme. The investigational results demonstrate that the proposed technique achieves the highest embedding capacity among the most striking similar works of Jung and Yoo's scheme, Lee and Huang's method, and Chang et al.'s approach, winning with attractive image quality.