Reversible data hiding method using meaningful encrypted images

Abstract

Encrypted image-based reversible data hiding methods have recently been introduced to conduct research on data encryption. In these methods, an image provider generates encrypted images that are supplied to a data sender. The data sender embeds secret data into the images in order to securely communicate with a data receiver. The data receiver can extract secret data and recover the cover image from the encrypted images. Past research has shown that attackers can easily become suspicious in such cases since all images are scrambled during communication. In this paper, we propose a reversible data hiding method that uses meaningful encrypted images. The proposed method is independent from image provider, data sender, and data receiver respectively by separating the images used and the secret data hidden from each other. In addition, the proposed method reduces distortion during image encryption, and features a data embedding scheme to conceal the existence of secret data from attackers. Experimental results show that the proposed method has high embedding capacity and yields satisfactory image quality with a meaningful image.