Original Cover Image Research Articles

Using dynamic pixel value mapping method to construct visible and reversible image watermarking scheme

A reversible and visible image watermarking scheme extracts a visibly embedded binary watermark image and recovers the original cover image. This paper presents a reversible and visible image watermarking scheme that embeds visible watermarks into a part of the cover image, called the embedded region R, and embeds required binary strings into the whole image through the conventional difference-expansion method. The size of the embedded visible watermark is determined by the coefficient k; a large k value leads to a large embedded region for the visible watermark. The embedded region R is first segmented to non-overlapped k×k blocks, and each block is related to one bit of the watermark image. For those blocks that are related to the logo bits of the watermark image, these k×k blocks are adjusted by the proposed dynamic pixel value mapping method for highly visual detection. The binary bit string S, composed of the binary watermark image and LSB bits of the logo watermark bits’ corresponding k×k blocks, is embedded into the cover image using the conventional difference-expansion method. Experimental results show that the watermark is clearly embedded into the embedded region R and that the distortion of the reversible embedding is limited.

A Capable System for Hiding Image in an Image

In this paper, we have proposed a new method by for hiding an image using steganographic called GanKan. This method is based on Least Significant Bit (LSB) replacement and can be used for 24 bit color image capable of producing a secret-embedded image. This paper clearly showed that this GanKan new method is better than LSB technique for 8 bit color image and 24 bit color image. Firstly LSB method for both 8 bit and 24 bit color image are described and then the GanKan method for 24 bit color image, compare their result by calculating Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR), Mean Squared Error (MSE), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and histogram analysis. LSB Algorithm embedded MSB of secret image into LSB of cover image. In the case of 24 bit color image two methods are described. In first method, last 2 LSB of each plane (RGB) of cover image, is replaced by 2 MSB of secret image. In the second method, last LSB of each red plane is replaced by first MSB of secret image, last 2 LSB of each green plane by next 2 MSB of secret image and then last 3 LSB of blue plane is replaced by next 3 MSB of secret image. This means that total 6 bits of secret image can be hided in 24 bit color image. Experimental results showed that the embedded-image is visually indistinguishable from the original cover-image in the case of 24 bit.

Reversible data hiding scheme based on significant‐bit‐difference expansion

This study presents a lossless robust data hiding scheme based on significance-bit-difference expansion. The original cover image can be recovered without any distortion after the hidden data have been extracted if the stego image remains intact, on the other hand, the hidden data can be robust against unintentional changes applying to the stego image, such as image compression and sometimes unavoidable addition of random noise which is below a certain level and does not change the content of an image. The proposed scheme decomposes pixels in a cover image into two parts, that is, the higher significant bits (HSB) and the least significant bits (LSB), and calculates the HSB difference between adjacent pixels. Bits are embedded into HSBs by shifting the HSB difference value histogram bins. The shift and shifting rule are fixed for all HSB difference values, and reversibility is achieved. Furthermore, owing to the separation of HSBs and LSBs, minor alteration applying to the stego image generated by non-malicious attacks such as Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) compression, which will not change the HSB values as well as the HSB difference values, and robustness is achieved. Experimental results show that, compared with previous works, the performance of the proposed scheme is significantly improved.

Reversible integer wavelet transform for blind image hiding method.

In this article, a blind data hiding reversible methodology to embed the secret data for hiding purpose into cover image is proposed. The key advantage of this research work is to resolve the privacy and secrecy issues raised during the data transmission over the internet. Firstly, data is decomposed into sub-bands using the integer wavelets. For decomposition, the Fresnelet transform is utilized which encrypts the secret data by choosing a unique key parameter to construct a dummy pattern. The dummy pattern is then embedded into an approximated sub-band of the cover image. Our proposed method reveals high-capacity and great imperceptibility of the secret embedded data. With the utilization of family of integer wavelets, the proposed novel approach becomes more efficient for hiding and retrieving process. It retrieved the secret hidden data from the embedded data blindly, without the requirement of original cover image.

Dual image based reversible data hiding scheme using (7,4) hamming code

In this paper, we propose a new dual-image based reversible data hiding scheme through (7,4) Hamming code (RDHHC) using shared secret key. A block of seven pixels are collected from cover image and copied into two arrays then it is adjusted redundant Least Significant Bits (LSBs) using odd parity such that any error creation is encountered at the sender end and recovered at the receiver end. Before data embedding, we first complement the bit at shared secret position. After that, secret message bit is embedded by error creation caused by tamper in any suitable position except secret position and that error is detected as well as corrected at the receiver end using Hamming error correcting code. One shared secret position κ and one shared secret key ξ help to perform data embedding, data extraction and recovery of the original image. The secret data and original cover image are successfully recovered at the receiver end from dual stego image. Finally, we compare our scheme with other state-of-the-art methods and obtain reasonably better performance in terms of PSNR.

Image and AES Inspired Hex Symbols Steganography (IAIS) for Anti-Forensic Artifacts

Technology (including mobiles and computers) has become a basic, indispensable need in our daily life. With an initial purpose of achieving basic functions such as communication, technology has evolved into a virtual gate to the whole world connecting individuals through social media and various websites and applications. Most importantly, technology became the reservoir of our personal information and important, sensitive data. This has led to increased risks of security breaches and data thefts demanding countermeasure approaches. One of these approaches is Steganography. Steganography is a data hiding approach that allows for invisible, relatively safe communication. Several forms of steganography have been developed, among which are Image steganography and our previously developed AES Inspired Steganography. In this paper we propose a new variation in which we combine both of these approaches, Image and AES Inspired Steganography (IAIS). This approach proposes hiding the hex symbol format of the encrypted secret data into a carrier image file. The image file is converted to a hexadecimal representation in which the hex symbol could be embedded without applying any noticeable changes to the original image. Deciphering the hidden information requires secret keys agreed upon by the communicating parties confidentially. These carrier files can be exchanged among mobile devices and/or computers. Comparisons between the original cover images and the cover images with the hidden text have shown that no changes occurred in the colour histogram of the images. However, the noise test has shown that exposure to noise can affect the hexadecimal content of the image, hence the embedded hex symbol representation of the secret text.

Enhancing Security for Data Hiding in Radiographic Images using Burrows Wheeler Transform

Objectives: This paper proposes a new method to enhance security for data hiding in radiographic images through distortion of original data. Method: The process involves applying a Burrows-Wheeler Transform (BWT) to the original data, which groups and stores similar patterns in data, causing distortion. This distorted data is then further encoded in a safe format before hiding it in the cover image. The decoding process decoding from the safe format and applying Inverse Burrows-Wheeler Transform (IBWT) to retrieve the original data from the stego image. Findings: Thus, a 2-level security scheme is implemented. Cryptanalysis of the hidden data becomes difficult since the original data is distorted, thus enhancing the security of the hidden data. Nevertheless, the stego image obtained from this method is less deviated from the original cover image. This is shown from the satisfactory PSNR (Peak Signal to Noise Ratio) and MSE (Mean Square Error) obtained. Application/Improvements: This proposed method can be used wherever steganography or data hiding has its applications. This method can be used in commercial communication, military communication etc.

Digital Image Steganography based on Seven Way Pixel Value Differencing

Background/Objectives: This paper presents a steganographic method by calculating the pixel value differences along seven directions using nine-pixel blocks. Methods/Statistical Analysis: The centrally located pixel in nine-pixel block is used to form seven pairs with its seven neighboring pixels. The eighth neighbor pixel is used as the indicator to identify whether a block suffers with Fall Off Boundary Problem (FOBP) or not. Findings: Seven pixel value differences are calculated and based on these differences embedding is done. After embedding, the central pixel value is normalized to have a single value for all the seven pairs by suitable adjustments. After adjustments if any pixel value in the block falls off boundary, then the entire block is exempted from embedding. This is noted at the eighth neighbor pixel, so that it can also be exempted during extraction. Furthermore, to increase the capacity and peak signal-to-noise ratio, the nine-pixel blocks which suffer with FOBP are embedded using Wu and Tsai’s PVD method. The extraction process is very simple and the secret message can be extracted from the stego-image without using the original cover image. Application/ Improvements: Without compromising the security and imperceptibility the hiding capacity is almost 50% increased as compared to Wu and Tsai’s Pixel Value Differencing (PVD) method.

A Block Based Reversible Data Hiding Scheme for Digital Images Using Optimal Value Computation

Recently, more importance is given to reversible data hiding (RDH) schemes because it restores original cover image without loss after the secret data is extracted and it is useful in authentication and integrity checking. In this paper, a novel RDH scheme for digital images is proposed that has high capacity with low distortion. The cover image is divided into blocks and all the pixels in the block are converted into odd value or even value by computing the optimal value of the block. The optimal value is mean, median, max histogram or min---max average which is very nearer to the pixels in the block. Secret data is directly embedded into blocks using odd even property. In the receiving end, after extracting secret data cover image can be recovered to its original form by computing the same optimal value. The proposed scheme is tested with several monochrome images and color images. The experimental results reveal that the proposed scheme has high hiding capacity with low distortion.

A Novel Digital Watermarking Approach for Accurate Authenticati on Using of Integer Wavelet Transform Coefficients

2 Abstract: The prominence of digital image processing domain has been increased from last few decades due to its advanced res earch areas such as medicine, biometrics, military, robotics etc. In this work an important issue has taken as area of research i .e. protecting the privacy information from the unauthenticated users either as accidental or incidental ways. Although tremen dous progress has been made in the past years but still protecting the privacy information is concerned area in the field of secu rity. A novel image authentication scheme for gray scale images are implemented in this work and the process of the embeddin g digital watermark is carried by performing the quantization process on the image. The novel things implemented in the propo sed work is detection of tampered parts of the image and to detect minute modification of an image and to embed the watermar k mid frequency band of a second level DWT transform was used. An approximation of the original image based on LL band w as stored as a recovery mark for restoration of the image. Watermarked image has achieved a good PSNR value of 40 dB comp ared to original cover image. Restored image quality was also very good with a PSNR of more than 35 dB compared to unmodi fied watermarked image even when 25% of the received image is cropped. Finally the simulation results reveals that the propos ed method provides the reliable balance between fidelity of the watermarked image and the quality of the restored image.

Reversible data hiding algorithm using spatial locality and the surface characteristics of image

In this paper, we propose a very efficient reversible data hiding algorithm using spatial locality and the surface characteristics of image. Spacial locality and a variety of surface characteristics are present in natural images. So, it is possible to precisely predict the pixel value using the locality and surface characteristics of image. Therefore, the frequency is increased significantly at the peak point of the difference histogram using the precisely predicted pixel values. Thus, it is possible to increase the amount of data to be embedded in image using the spatial locality and surface characteristics of image. By using the proposed reversible data hiding algorithm, visually high quality stego-image can be generated, the embedded data and the original cover image can be extracted without distortion from the stego-image, and the embedding data are much greater than that of the previous algorithm. The experimental results show the superiority of the proposed algorithm.

Dual-Image Based Reversible Data Hiding Scheme Using Pixel Value Diffierence Expansion

In this paper, we propose a dual-image based reversible data hiding scheme. Here, we divide a secret message into sub-stream of size n bits, where n-1 bits are embedded using Pixel Value Diffierencing (PVD) and 1 bit is embedded using Diffierence Expansion (DE). We consider two consecutive pixels from cover image, calculate the difference between them and then embed n-1 bits secret message by modifying the pixel pair. Again, we consider that modified pixel pair to embed 1 bit secret message using embedding function. After that, we distribute these two stego pixel pairs among dual image depending on a shared secret key bit stream. At the receiver end, we ex- tract the secret message successfully and recover original cover image from dual stego image without any distortion. Finally, we compare our scheme with other state-of-the-art methods and obtain reasonably better performance in terms of data embedding capacity.

SARDH: A novel sharpening-aware reversible data hiding algorithm

Reversible data hiding (RDH) algorithms allow data protection and exact recovery of the original cover image upon data extraction. Most of RDH algorithms attempt to embed data while maintaining high peak signal-to-noise ratio. However, it has been deemed recently that some applications may demand improving the image contrast while embedding data. Additionally, stego images with better contrast could be less attractive to attacker, given the fact they have no idea about the original cover image. In this paper, we propose a sharpening-aware RDH (SARDH) algorithm that is capable of embedding significant amount of data in addition to sharpening the image. Experimental results proved the ability of SARDH algorithm in embedding large payloads and providing sharper stego images.

Sensitive Patient Data Hiding using a ROI Reversible Steganography Scheme for DICOM Images.

The exchange of medical images over the Internet has evoked significant interest over the past few years due to the introduction of web and cloud based medical information systems. The protection of sensitive data has always been a key indicator in the performance of such systems. In this context, this work presents an algorithm developed for Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) medical images, which applies secret-sharing steganography methods for ensuring the integrity of sensitive patient data as well as the important parts of the image. In the proposed algorithm, images are divided into two parts: the region of interest (ROI) and the region of non interest (RONI). Patient data and integrity hashes are positioned inside the ROI while the information (map) needed to recover the ROI before insertion is positioned in the RONI. Security of the extraction process is assured through the use of cryptography. The experimental results prove that the original (cover) images and the stego images provide an excellent visual equality result in terms of PSNR. Furthermore, they prove that the proposed scheme can be efficiently used as a steganography scheme in DICOM images with limited smooth areas.

Difference-expansion based reversible and visible image watermarking scheme

A reversible image watermarking scheme recovers the original cover image after extracting the embedded watermarks. A visible image watermarking scheme embeds watermarks to create a visible watermar...

An advanced reversible data hiding algorithm based on the similarity between neighboring pixels

In this paper, an advanced reversible data hiding algorithm which takes the advantage of the spatial locality in image was proposed. Natural image has a spatial locality. The pixel value of a natural image is similar to the values of neighboring pixels. So, using the neighboring pixel values, it is possible to precisely predict the pixel value. Frequency increases significantly at the peak point of the difference histogram using the predicted values. Therefore, it is possible to increase the amount of data to be embedded. By using the proposed algorithm, visually high quality stego-image can be generated, the original cover image and the embedded data can be extracted from the stego-image without distortion. The embedding data into the cover image of the proposed algorithm is much lager than that of the previous algorithm. The performance of the proposed algorithm was verified by experiment. The proposed algorithm is very useful for the reversible data hiding.

An efficient multi-predictor reversible data hiding algorithm based on performance evaluation of different prediction schemes

With the broad development and evolution of digital data exchange, security has become an important issue in data storage and transmission since digital data can be easily manipulated and modified. Reversible data hiding algorithms are special class of steganography that are capable of recovering the original cover image upon the extraction of the secret data. This issue is of interest in medical and military imaging applications. Many algorithms in this class exploit the idea of prediction in order to increase the embedding capacity as well as the quality of the stego image. However, the performance of these algorithms depends on the type of predictor that is being used. The main goal in this paper is to survey different predictors and evaluate their performance when employed in two classical reversible data hiding algorithms. The evaluation considered plugging 22 predictors in the two algorithms to process 1438 test images. Experimental results validated the varying capabilities of different predictors and showed that the non-causal median predictor had the best performance in the two algorithms. Further more, the paper proposes a new multi-predictor reversible data hiding algorithm. Basically, the algorithm employs multiple predictors in an extended version of the modification of prediction errors (MPE) algorithm. The algorithm takes advantage of the results obtained from the performance evaluation of different predictors to select the best set of predictors. Performance evaluation proved the ability of the proposed algorithm in increasing the embedding capacity while maintaining high stego image quality.

A Low Distortion Reversible Data Hiding Technique Using Improved PPVO Predictor

Reversible data hiding is a technique that embeds additional information into some distortion-unacceptable cover media, such as military images, in a reversible manner so that the original cover image can be restored after extraction of the hidden information. This work extends a recently proposed reversible data hiding (RDH) scheme of Qu et al. which is based on pixel-based pixel- value-ordering(PPVO) and prediction-error expansion. In Qu et al.’s method, each pixel is predicted using its sorted context pixels. In this work, the pixel neighborhood of each pixel is expanded to optimize the embedding performance in terms of capacity- distortion behavior. This can better exploit image redundancy; achieve superior embedding performance and low distortion. Thus, the proposed method is able to embed adequate data into a cover image with limited distortion. The superiority of this predictor is verified through extensive experimental results. The proposed method outperforms prior works in terms of PSNR. The PSNR of a modified image versus its original one is guaranteed to be above 57.0dB.

ILSBMR: improved LSBMR (ILSBMR) method

The Least Significant Bit Matching Revisited (LSBMR) is among the most commonly used methods on image steganography, aiming to make only smaller changes in an image. While security is considered as one of the basic evaluation criteria for steganography techniques and notably, LSBMR can be easily recognized due to its well-known structure, it is important to find a way to help improve this approach so that it might cause less variation in the image and also increase security. To this end, the current paper deploys divided blocks of the original cover image and a selection of the best layout to embed secret message bits from each block into color images by using LSBMR. The simulation results indicate that this improved method makes small changes in the image and increases its security, compared to the LSBMR technique.

Reversible data hiding based on histogram modification of difference images by s-type and Hilbert curve scanning

Reversible data hiding technology has currently attracted great attention recently. Using reversible data hiding methods, original cover images can be recovered losslessly from the cover image embedded information. In this paper, spatial reversible data hiding schemes based on histogram modification of difference images are discussed, in which the pixel gray values of difference image are altered slightly to perform the embedding and extraction. Specifically, we design two reversible data hiding schemes based on S-type scanning and Hilbert curve scanning, and compare them with the reversible data hiding scheme by difference between adjacent columns of the cover image. Embedding capacity and PSNR are calculated to figure out how block size, difference manner and embedding level influence the effect of hiding.