Reversible Data Hiding Algorithm Using Dual Domain Embedding

Abstract

The image data hiding technique can embed the secret message into the digital image. For military or medical applications the reversible data hiding technique is preferred because it offers the advantage to recover the original image after the message extraction, yet it still maintains the reversibility. In order to achieve reversibility, we propose a reversible data hiding algorithm that explores the spatial and frequency domains. Predictive coding is employed to embed the secret message in the spatial domain. The proposed algorithm applies an integer-to-integer transformation to convert the image originating in the spatial domain into the frequency domain. We then modify the high frequency coefficients only when embedding the secret message. Consequently, the low frequency coefficients are unchanged enabling the embedded image to preserve the image quality due to the hidden message. In addition, the algorithm further increases the embedding capacity because it takes advantage of both the spatial and frequency domains. Keywords-Data hiding; reversible data embedding; predictive coding; wavelet transform