Robust image hiding network with Frequency and Spatial Attentions

Abstract

Convert Image Communication (CIC) is a promising technology to protect the privacy of images. Recently, the emergence of robust CIC resistant to JPEG compression has gained due to the widespread use of JPEG compression in image communication. This paper introduces a R̲obust image hiding network with F̲requency and S̲patial A̲ttentions (RFSA) to implement robust CIC. RFSA can hide an image within another image with high robust. It incorporates multiple image attentions corresponding to imperceptibility, recovered image quality, and resistance to JPEG compression, which ensure that secret images are hidden within regions that cause little distortion and can well withstand JPEG compression. Additionally, two encoders, that is, a frequency encoder and a spatial encoder, are mixed to adaptively embed secret images across both frequency and spatial domains. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme not only maintains high image quality and capacity but also exhibits exceptional resistance to JPEG compression compared to other state-of-the-art image hiding methods. The average Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) of the recovered image remains at 24.96 dB even under JPEG compression with a quality factor of 55.