High-capacity reversible data hiding in binary images using pattern substitution

Abstract

Data hiding, as the term itself suggests, means the hiding of secret data in a cover image. The result is a so-called stego-image. Reversible data hiding is technique, where not only the secret data can be extracted from the stego-image, but the cover image can be completely rebuilt after the extraction of secret data. Therefore, reversible data hiding is the choice in cases of secret data hiding, where the recovery of the cover image is required. In this paper, we propose a high-capacity reversible data hiding scheme based on pattern substitution. Our scheme gathers statistical data concerning the occurrence frequencies of various patterns and quantifies the occurrence frequency as it differs from pattern to pattern. In this way, some pattern exchange relationships can be established, and pattern substitution can thus be used for data hiding. In the extraction stage, we reverse these patterns to their original forms and rebuild an undistorted cover image. Our experimental results demonstrate the practicability of the proposed method. In fact, our new scheme gives a better performance than pair-wise logical computation (PWLC) in terms of both hiding capacity and stego-image visual quality.