Reversible data hiding with automatic contrast enhancement for color images

Abstract

Automatic contrast enhancement (ACE) is a technique that can automatically enhance the image contrast. Reversible data hiding (RDH) with ACE (ACERDH) can achieve ACE while hiding data. However, some methods with good performance for color images suffer from insufficient enhancement. Therefore, an ACERDH method based on the R, G, B, and V channels enhancement is proposed. First, histogram shifting with contrast control is proposed to enhance the R, G, and B channels. It can prevent contrast degradation and histogram shifting from stopping prematurely. Then, the V channel is enhanced. Since some RDH methods with non-ACE that can well enhance the V channel have a low automation level, histogram shifting with brightness control that can realize ACE very well is proposed. It can effectively avoid over-enhancement by controlling the brightness. Experimental results verify that the proposed method improves the image quality and embedding capability better than some state-of-the-art methods.