Adaptive data hiding based on VQ compressed images

Data hiding involves embedding secret data into various forms of digital media such as text, image, audio, and video. With the rapid growth of network communication, data-hiding techniques are widely used in protecting copyright, embedding captions and communicating secretly. The authors propose an adaptive algorithm to embed data into VQ compressed images. This method adaptively varies the embedding process according to the amount of hidden data. The proposed method provides more effective hiding and higher quality images than conventional methods. The results of experimental comparisons are also presented.     

Reversible data hiding in encrypted color images using cross-channel correlations

In recent years, the increasing requirements in cloud storage and cloud computing have made it necessary to encrypt digital images for privacy protection. Meanwhile, many reversible data hiding (RDH) algorithms in the encrypted domain have been proposed. However, most of these algorithms are for gray-level images, and the intrinsic cross-channel correlations of color images cannot be utilized to improve the embedding capacity. In this paper, we propose a novel data hiding method for encrypted color images. In the encryption stage, the homomorphic property of encryption is achieved by basic modular addition. During the data hiding process, the cross-channel correlations between R, G and B channels are generated in encrypted domain, and data hiding is performed by the difference histogram shifting. Analysis and experiments demonstrate that the proposed method is secure and the RDH performance is superior.     

Adaptive reversible data hiding for JPEG images with multiple two-dimensional histograms

Joint photographic experts group (JPEG) can provide good quality with small file size but also eliminate extensively the redundancies of images. Therefore, hiding data into JPEG images in terms of maintaining high visual quality at small file sizes has been a great challenge for researchers. In this paper, an adaptive reversible data hiding method for JPEG images containing multiple two-dimensional (2D) histograms is proposed. Adaptability is mainly reflected in three aspects. The first one is to preferentially select sharper histograms for data embedding after $K$ histograms are established by constructing the $k$th ($k\in \{1,2,\dots ,K\}$) histogram using the $k$th non-zero alternating current (AC) coefficient of all the quantized discrete cosine transform blocks. On the other hand, to fully exploit the strong correlation between coefficients of one histogram, the smoothness of each coefficient is estimated by a block smoothness estimator so that a sharply-distributed 2D-histogram is constructed by combining two coefficients with similar smoothness into a pair. The pair corresponding to low complexity is selected priorly for data embedding, leading to high embedding performance while maintaining low file size. Besides, we design multiple embedding strategies to adaptively select the embedding strategy for each 2D histogram. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can achieve higher rate–distortion performance which maintaining lower file storage space, compared with previous studies.     

基于互补嵌入的彩色图像可逆数据隐藏

针对传统差值直方图平移算法嵌入容量偏低、多重嵌入时图像质量严重下降等缺陷,提出一种基于互补嵌入的彩色图像可逆数据隐藏算法。利用色彩分量之间的相关性和整数小波系数之间的关系减小差值,以增加差值直方图的峰值。采用双重直方图平移方法提高嵌入容量,两次嵌入过程的像素值扩展方向相反,部分像素值扩展量相互抵消,扩展量最大值为1。实...     

基于双直方图平移的彩色图像可逆数据隐藏

提出一种基于双直方图平移的彩色图像可逆数据隐藏算法.利用色彩分量间的相关性减小差值,使差值直方图更加紧凑、直方图的峰值更大.采用直接调整像素值的方法在差值中嵌人数据,由像素值的二次可调整性定位不可调整像素,并嵌入少量的标志信息代替定位图,从而提高嵌入容量.实验结果表明,本文算法在保证图像质量的同时大幅提高了嵌入容量,与...     

基于自适应差值扩展的彩色图像可逆数据隐藏

针对Tian差值扩展嵌入算法存在过分修改像素值、须嵌入定位图等缺点,提出一种基于自适应预测误差差值扩展的彩色图像可逆数据隐藏算法.利用色彩分量间的相关性减小差值,用分布表将差值分为单向和双向差值,结合单向和双向差值扩展的优势提高图像质量并消除溢出定位图.采用调整像素值的方法解决像素溢出问题.并用少量的调整信息代替定位图...     

Improved hiding data in images by optimalmoderately-significant-bit replacement

An improved data hiding technique by optimal moderately-significant-bit replacement is presented, which can significantly reduce the computational cost and enhance the visual quality of the resulting stego-image     

基于单向差值扩展的彩色图像可逆数据隐藏

针对Tian差值扩展算法存在过分修改像素值、须嵌入定位图等缺点,提出一种基于单向差值扩展的彩色图像可逆数据隐藏算法。利用色彩分量间的相关性减小差值,并用较小的差值扩展量扩展单个色彩分量的像素值,扩展方向由上溢和下溢像素的数量决定;采用预先调整像素值的方法避免像素溢出,少量的调整信息即可代替定位图,嵌入容量大幅提高;提取端根据临界像素值的顺序定位调整像素的位置,用调整信息恢复调整像素,因此不需要嵌入定位图,在提取信息的同时可无损地恢复原始图像。实验结果表明,本文算法在保证图像质量的同时,嵌入容量有很大的提高。     

Efficient reversible data hiding in encrypted images

This paper proposes a novel scheme of reversible data hiding in encrypted images based on lossless compression of encrypted data. In encryption phase, a stream cipher is used to mask the original content. Then, a data hider compresses a part of encrypted data in the cipher-text image using LDPC code, and inserts the compressed data as well as the additional data into the part of encrypted data itself using efficient embedding method. Since the majority of encrypted data are kept unchanged, the quality of directly decrypted image is satisfactory. A receiver with the data-hiding key can successfully extract the additional data and the compressed data. By exploiting the compressed data and the side information provided by the unchanged data, the receiver can further recover the original plaintext image without any error. Experimental result shows that the proposed scheme significantly outperforms the previous approaches.     

Adaptive multi-histogram reversible data hiding with contrast enhancement

Unlike existing reversible data hiding with contrast enhancement (RDHCE) methods, which excessively improve the image contrast for achieving the required capacity, the proposed method improves the image contrast appropriately while providing satisfactory embedding capacity. To this end, an adaptive multi-histogram RDHCE method is proposed in this study to improve the local and global contrast by considering the local properties of the histograms. On the one hand, fuzzy C-means clustering combining multiple features that are deliberately designed for contrast enhancement is employed to generate seven sharply-distributed prediction error histograms (PEHs). Subsequently, the genetic algorithm is utilized to adaptively select the optimal pairs achieving the best embedding performance for each PEH according to the local characteristics of PEH distribution, resulting in improving the local contrast adaptively and embedding significant amount of data. Additionally, two-sided histogram shifting (HS) is utilized to improve the global contrast appropriately while embedding reasonable amount of data. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves better local and global contrast while providing a high embedding capacity compared with other existing RDHCE methods.     

话音通信中的数据自适应隐藏算法

基于话音通信的PCM量化编码,导出了数据嵌入强度因子的选取准则,给出了两种自适应选取的实现策略,进而提出了根据载体信号的幅度以及信道的噪声强度自适应调整的数据隐藏算法.隐藏信息为二进制比特数据时,仿真实验结果表明该自适应隐藏方法具有良好的隐蔽信息传输性能.     

基于重复压缩的密文图像可逆数据隐藏方法

为了提高密文图像上的可逆数据隐藏方法的性能,在加密前处理图像以获得数据嵌入空间。首先,分析了在解压缩分块上进行可逆嵌入的可行性;其次,计算了成功恢复解压缩分块的理论概率;最后,提出了基于解压缩分块的密文图像可逆数据隐藏算法,主要过程包括预处理、加密、数据嵌入、数据提取与图像恢复。从图像恢复错误率、嵌入容量和PSNR这3个方面与3种已有方法进行对比,表明所提方法实现了数据提取和图像解密在操作上的完全分离,且图像恢复错误率更低,嵌入容量更大,PSNR更高。     

Improved joint reversible data hiding in encrypted images

This paper proposes an improved method of reversible data hiding in encrypted images (RDH-EI). Three parties constitute the proposed system: the image owner, the remote server and the recipient. To preserve privacy, an image owner encrypts the original image using a stream cipher algorithm and uploads the ciphertext to a remote server. On server side, a data-hider is allowed to embed additional message into the encrypted image using a swapping/shifting based algorithm. After downloading the marked encrypted image from the server and implementing the decryption, a recipient can extract the hidden messages and losslessly recover the original image. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves a larger payload than the related works. Meanwhile, a limitation in the related works that few bits can be embedded into the encrypted medical images is also eliminated in the proposed method.     

Capacity estimates for data hiding in compressed images

We present an information-theoretic approach to obtain an estimate of the number of bits that can be hidden in still images, or, the capacity of the data-hiding channel. We show how the addition of the message signal or signature in a suitable transform domain rather than the spatial domain can significantly increase the channel capacity. Most of the state-of-the-art schemes developed thus far for data-hiding have embedded bits in some transform domain, as it has always been implicitly understood that a decomposition would help. Though most methods reported in the literature use DCT or wavelet decomposition for data embedding, the choice of the transform is not obvious. We compare the achievable data hiding capacities for different decompositions like DCT, DFT, Hadamard, and subband transforms and show that the magnitude DFT decomposition performs best among the ones compared.     

Reversible data hiding in encrypted images with separability and high embedding capacity

In this paper, a high-capacity reversible data hiding (RDH) scheme for encrypted images with separability is proposed. The image is first divided into non-overlapping blocks, and each block is encrypted with the same random value. The advantage is that the correlation between adjacent pixels can be preserved. Utilizing the preserved correlation, the prediction difference in encrypted domain is exactly the same as that of plaintext domain, so that the separability can be achieved. Without accessing the original image content, the data-hider can embed additional data into encrypted image through histogram shifting and difference expansion. At the receiving end, the embedded additional data and the original image can be recovered without any error in separable manner. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed scheme.     

分区域的医学图像高容量无损信息隐藏方法

针对医学图像的分区域典型特征,提出一种基于区域和直方图平移的高容量无损信息隐藏方法。本方法用最大类间距分割法求得原始图像的前景区域,再用聚合多边形逼近和图像拟合法得到其数据嵌入区域。在数据嵌入过程中,提出利用差值直方图循环平移和基于编码的直方图平移方法分别在前景和背景区域嵌入数据,提高了原始直方图平移方法容量和解决了溢出问题。实验结果表明该方法总的嵌入容量可达1 bit/packet以上,并且隐秘图像质量在40dB左右,适用于具有区域特征的质量敏感图像的大容量信息隐藏。     

Reversible data hiding using multi-pass pixel value ordering and prediction-error expansion

Pixel value ordering (PVO) prediction has become the most efficient method for high-fidelity reversible data hiding (RDH). In this approach, only the maximum and minimum of pixel block are predicted and modified to embed data and the preservation of pixel value order guarantees the reversibility. To achieve larger embedding capacity and superior performance, more blocks suitable for RDH are utilized in recent improved schemes. However, their performance is still unsatisfactory. In this paper, a novel RDH scheme is proposed by extending original PVO into multi-pass PVO embedding. Specially, the k largest or smallest pixels are taken as independent data bit carriers to fulfill k-pass PVO embedding. Although the pixel value order may change after data embedding, reversibility still can be guaranteed and image redundancy can be far better exploited. Moreover, embedding performance can be further enhanced by optimal combined embedding. Experimental results verify that the proposed scheme outperforms previous PVO-based schemes and some other state-of-the-art works.     

Reversible data hiding with contrast enhancement using adaptive histogram shifting and pixel value ordering

Existing image-based reversible data hiding (RDH) methods tend to focus on increasing embedding capacity, but few consider keeping or improving visual image quality. Wu et al. proposed a new RDH method with contrast enhancement (RDH-CE) by pair-wisely expanding the histogram to the lower end and upper end. RDH-CE is especially valuable in exploiting the details of poorly illustrated images for which the visibility of image details is more important than just keeping PSNR high. However, obvious visual image distortion appears when embedding level gets high, and embedding capacity is relatively low when embedding level is small. In this paper, Wu et al.'s work is improved from three perspectives, namely image contrast enhancement, visual distortion reduction, and embedding capacity increment. The image contrast is improved by making the histogram shifting process adaptive to the histogram distribution characteristics, the image visual distortion is reduced by cutting off half the modification range of pixels induced in histogram pre-shifting, and the embedding capacity is increased by exploiting the pixel value ordering technique at the early stage of data embedment. Experimental result proves that the proposed work is effective in improving image contrast, reducing visual image distortion, and increasing embedding capacity.     

A ROI-based reversible data hiding scheme in encrypted medical images

A novel ROI-based reversible data hiding scheme in encrypted medical images is proposed. Firstly, a content owner partitions an original medical image into the region of interest (ROI) and the region of noninterest (RONI), and then encrypts the image using an encryption key. A data-hider concatenates the least significant bits (LSB) of the encrypted ROI and Electronic Patient Record (EPR), and then embeds the concatenated data into the encrypted image by LSB substitution algorithm. With the encrypted medical image containing the embedded data, the receiver can extract the embedded data with the data-hiding key; if the receiver has the encryption key, a medical image similar to the original image can be obtained by directly decrypting the encrypted medical image; if the receiver has both the data-hiding key and the encryption key, the embedded data can be extracted without any error and ROI can be losslessly recovered after extracting the embedded data.