On the multi-level embedding of crypto-image reversible data hiding

Abstract

Crypto-space reversible image steganography has attracted increasing attention, given its ability to embed authentication information without revealing the image content. This paper presents an efficient reversible data hiding scheme for crypto-images: a block predictor is applied to compute prediction errors, then an adaptive block mapping algorithm is utilized to compress them whose amplitudes are within a small threshold, finally, this strategy can be applied in a multi-level manner to achieve a higher embedding capacity. Due to the correlations among adjacent pixels in the block, images can be sufficiently compressed to reserve abundant space for additional data embedding. Different from the prior arts, the compression code of the image is fully encrypted. Experimental results verify that the embedded data and original image can be perfectly recovered, the security is higher compared with the state-of-the-arts, and a significant improvement in the average embedding rate is achieved on two large-scale image datasets.