On the Design of Multi-Party Reversible Data Hiding over Ciphered Overexposed Images

Abstract

Multi-party reversible data hiding over ciphered images (MRDH-CI) has high restorability since the image is split into multiple ciphered images by secret sharing. However, the MRDH-CI methods either fail to produce satisfied results, or only work well for conventional images. This paper introduces a multi-party reversible data-hiding approach over ciphered overexposed images. First, the pixels of the overexposed images are decomposed into two parts, each of which can be used for secret sharing. Then, the decomposed overexposed images are converted into multiple ciphered overexposed images by using a modified secret sharing method, in which the differences of the ciphered overexposed images are retained. The symmetry of the difference retaining makes the secret data conceal within the ciphered overexposed images such that the marked ciphered overexposed images can be created. Finally, by collecting sufficient marked ciphered overexposed images, it is possible to symmetrically reconstruct the concealed data and primitive overexposed image. Experimental results illustrate that the presented method can efficiently deal with overexposed images while maintaining a low computational overhead.