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Reversible data hiding in dual stego-images using frequency-based encoding strategy

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Abstract

Reversible data hiding methods can embed secret data into multimedia to prevent attacks from hackers. Reversible data hiding methods based on multiple stego-images have been proposed extensively in recent years. This type of method can embed large amounts of secret bits into several stego-images. However, data embedding may cause serious distortion of stego-images. To solve this problem, Lu et al. proposed a center-folding strategy to reduce secret digits to narrow down the distance between the original pixel and the stego pixel in 2015. Although the center-folding strategy works well, it can still be improved. In their proposed scheme, the maximum secret digit seriously damages the image quality of the stego-image. If the maximum secret digit occurs often, then the visual quality of the stego-image decreases quickly. In this paper, we propose a frequency-based encoding method to solve this problem. The secret digit that occurs most frequently is encoded as the minimum absolute digit, thereby decreasing the frequency and level of modification. Experimental results showed that the proposed method can achieve a greater peak signal-to-noise ratio value than previous methods, thereby confirming that the proposed method is effective.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Mr. Ying-Hsuan Huang who give us great advice and technical support and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republicof China, Taiwan, for financially supporting this paper under Contract no MOST 105-2221-E-324 -020.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Management, Chaoyang University of Technology, 168, Jifeng East Road, Wufeng District, Taichung, 41349, Taiwan

    Tzu-Chuen Lu

  2. Aeronautical Research Laboratory, National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, Taichung, 40722, Taiwan

    Li-Pin Chi

  3. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, 40227, Taiwan, People’s Republic of China

    Chang-Han Wu & Hsung-Pin Chang

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  1. Tzu-Chuen Lu
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  2. Li-Pin Chi
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  3. Chang-Han Wu
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  4. Hsung-Pin Chang
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Correspondence to Tzu-Chuen Lu.

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Lu, TC., Chi, LP., Wu, CH. et al. Reversible data hiding in dual stego-images using frequency-based encoding strategy. Multimed Tools Appl 76, 23903–23929 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-4135-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-4135-2

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