An Improved Reversible Image Transformation Using K-Means Clustering and Block Patching

Recently, reversible image transformation (RIT) technology has attracted considerable attention because it is able not only to generate stego-images that look similar to target images of the same size, but also to recover the secret image losslessly. Therefore, it is very useful in image privacy protection and reversible data hiding in encrypted images. However, the amount of accessorial information, for recording the transformation parameters, is very large in the traditional RIT method, which results in an abrupt degradation of the stego-image quality. In this paper, an improved RIT method for reducing the auxiliary information is proposed. Firstly, we divide secret and target images into non-overlapping blocks, and classify these blocks into K classes by using the K-means clustering method. Secondly, we match blocks in the last (K-T)-classes using the traditional RIT method for a threshold T, in which the secret and target blocks are paired with the same compound index. Thirdly, the accessorial information (AI) produced by the matching can be represented as a secret segment, and the secret segment can be hided by patching blocks in the first T-classes. Experimental results show that the proposed strategy can reduce the AI and improve the stego-image quality effectively.

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Reversible Data Hiding Based on Statistical Correlation of Blocked Sub-Sampled Image

International Journal of Computer Vision and Image Processing ◽

10.4018/ijcvip.2012010103 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 42-59

Author(s):

Mona Nafari ◽

Mansour Nejati Jahromi ◽

Gholam Hosein Sheisi

Keyword(s):

Image Quality ◽

Data Hiding ◽

Reversible Data Hiding ◽

Statistical Correlation ◽

Experimental Results ◽

Data Embedding ◽

Embedding Capacity ◽

Stego Image

In this paper, a reversible data hiding scheme has been proposed which is based on correlation of subsample images. The proposed method modifies the blocks of sub-sampled image to prepare vacant positions for data embedding. The PSNR of the stego image produced by the proposed method is guaranteed to be above 47.5 dB, while the embedding capacity is at least, almost 6.5 times higher than that of the Kim et al. techniques with the same PSNR. This technique has the capability to control the capacity-PSNR. Experimental results support that the proposed method exploits the correlation of blocked sub-sampled image outperforms the prior works in terms of larger capacity and stego image quality. On various test images, the authors demonstrate the validity of the proposed method by comparing it with other existing reversible data hiding algorithms.

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A Location Map Reduced Reversible Data Hiding Method Using Prediction Error Modification

Advanced Engineering Forum ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/aef.6-7.428 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 6-7 ◽

pp. 428-433

Author(s):

Yan Wei Li ◽

Mei Chen Wu ◽

Tung Shou Chen ◽

Wien Hong

Keyword(s):

Image Quality ◽

Data Hiding ◽

Prediction Error ◽

Reversible Data Hiding ◽

Experimental Results ◽

Cover Image ◽

Prediction Errors ◽

Secret Data ◽

Location Map ◽

Comparable Image Quality

We propose a reversible data hiding technique to improve Hong and Chen’s (2010) method. Hong and Chen divide the cover image into pixel group, and use reference pixels to predict other pixel values. Data are then embedded by modifying the prediction errors. However, when solving the overflow and underflow problems, they employ a location map to record the position of saturated pixels, and these pixels will not be used to carry data. In their method, if the image has a plenty of saturated pixels, the payload is decreased significantly because a lot of saturated pixels will not joint the embedment. We improve Hong and Chen’s method such that the saturated pixels can be used to carry data. The positions of these saturated pixels are then recorded in a location map, and the location map is embedded together with the secret data. The experimental results illustrate that the proposed method has better payload, will providing a comparable image quality.

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Reversible data hiding method based on pixel expansion and homomorphic encryption

Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems ◽

10.3233/jifs-191478 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 39 (3) ◽

pp. 2977-2990

Author(s):

R. Anushiadevi ◽

Padmapriya Praveenkumar ◽

John Bosco Balaguru Rayappan ◽

Rengarajan Amirtharajan

Keyword(s):

Image Quality ◽

Data Hiding ◽

Reversible Data Hiding ◽

Signal To Noise Ratio ◽

Homomorphic Encryption ◽

Secret Message ◽

Pixel Expansion ◽

Stego Image ◽

Encrypted Image ◽

Location Map

Digital image steganography algorithms usually suffer from a lossy restoration of the cover content after extraction of a secret message. When a cover object and confidential information are both utilised, the reversible property of the cover is inevitable. With this objective, several reversible data hiding (RDH) algorithms are available in the literature. Conversely, because both are diametrically related parameters, existing RDH algorithms focus on either a good embedding capacity (EC) or better stego-image quality. In this paper, a pixel expansion reversible data hiding (PE-RDH) method with a high EC and good stego-image quality are proposed. The proposed PE-RDH method was based on three typical RDH schemes, namely difference expansion, histogram shifting, and pixel value ordering. The PE-RDH method has an average EC of 0.75 bpp, with an average peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) of 30.89 dB. It offers 100% recovery of the original image and confidential hidden messages. To protect secret as well as cover the proposed PE-RDH is also implemented on the encrypted image by using homomorphic encryption. The strength of the proposed method on the encrypted image was verified based on a comparison with several existing methods, and the approach achieved better results than these methods in terms of its EC, location map size and imperceptibility of directly decrypted images.

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An Efficient Reversible Data Hiding Scheme for Encrypted Images

International Journal of Digital Crime and Forensics ◽

10.4018/ijdcf.2018040101 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 1-22 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Kai Chen ◽

Dawen Xu

Keyword(s):

Data Hiding ◽

Efficient Method ◽

Reversible Data Hiding ◽

Additional Data ◽

Emerging Technology ◽

Experimental Results ◽

Cover Image ◽

Original Image ◽

Secret Data ◽

Encrypted Images

Reversible data hiding in the encrypted domain is an emerging technology, as it can preserve the confidentiality. In this article, an efficient method of reversible data hiding in encrypted images is proposed. The cover image is first partitioned into non-overlapping blocks. A specific modulo addition operation and block-scrambling operation are applied to obtain the encrypted image. The data-hider, who does not know the original image content, may reversibly embed secret data based on the homomorphic property of the cryptosystem. A scale factor is utilized for selecting embedding zone, which is scalable for different capacity requirements. At the receiving end, the additional data can be extracted if the receiver has the data-hiding key only. If the receiver has the encryption key only, he/she can recover the original image approximately. If the receiver has both the data-hiding key and the encryption key, he can extract the additional data and recover the original content without any error. Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed scheme.

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Enhanced stego-image quality and embedding capacity for the partial reversible data hiding scheme

Multimedia Tools and Applications ◽

10.1007/s11042-019-7220-5 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 78 (13) ◽

pp. 18595-18616

Author(s):

Ching-Nung Yang ◽

Song-Yu Wu ◽

Yung-Shun Chou ◽

Cheonshik Kim

Keyword(s):

Image Quality ◽

Data Hiding ◽

Reversible Data Hiding ◽

Embedding Capacity ◽

Stego Image

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Histogram-based multilayer reversible data hiding method for securing secret data

Bulletin of Electrical Engineering and Informatics ◽

10.11591/eei.v8i3.1321 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 1128-1134

Author(s):

Chaidir Chalaf Islamy ◽

Tohari Ahmad

Keyword(s):

Data Hiding ◽

Reversible Data Hiding ◽

Experimental Results ◽

Histogram Shifting ◽

Secret Data ◽

Stego Image ◽

Sensitive Data ◽

Modern Age ◽

Potential Methods

In this modern age, data can be easily transferred within networks. This condition has brought the data vulnerable; so they need protection at all times. To minimize this threat, data hiding appears as one of the potential methods to secure data. This protection is done by embedding the secret into various types of data, such as an image. In this case, histogram shifting has been proposed; however, the amount of secret and the respective stego image are still challenging. In this research, we offer a method to improve its performance by performing some steps, for example removing the shifting process and employing multilayer embedding. Here, the embedding is done directly to the peak of the histogram which has been generated by the cover. The experimental results show that this proposed method has a better quality of stego image than existing ones. So, it can be one of possible solutions to protect sensitive data.

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AN EFFECTIVE REVERSIBLE DATA HIDING METHOD BASED ON PIXEL-VALUE-ORDERING

Journal of Computer Science and Cybernetics ◽

10.15625/1813-9663/36/2/14084 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 36 (2) ◽

pp. 139-158

Author(s):

Nguyen Kim Sao ◽

Nguyen Ngoc Hoa ◽

Pham Van At

Keyword(s):

Image Quality ◽

Data Hiding ◽

Reversible Data Hiding ◽

New Method ◽

Embedding Capacity ◽

Stego Image ◽

Pixel Value ◽

Using Data ◽

Location Map ◽

Better Than

This paper presents a new effective reversible data hiding method based on pixel-value-ordering (iGePVO-K) which is improvement of a recent GePVO-K method that recently is considered as a PVO-used method having highest embedding capacity. In comparison with GePVO-K method, iGePVO-K has the following advantages. First, the embedding capacity of the new method is higher than that of GePVO-K method by using data embedding formulas reasonably and reducing the location map size. Second, for embedding data, in the new method, each pixel value is modified at most by one, while in GePVO-K method, each pixel value may be modified by two. In fact, in the GePVO-K method, the largest pixels are modified by two for embedding bits 1 and by one for bits 0. This is also true for the smallest pixels. Meanwhile, in the proposed method, the largest pixels are modified by one for embedding bits 1 and are unchanged if embedding bits 0. Therefore, the stego-image quality in proposed method is better than that in GePVO-K method. Theoretical analysis and experiment results show that the proposed method has higher embedding capacity and better stego image quality than GePVO-K method.

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Reversible Data Hiding in Encrypted Image Based on (7, 4) Hamming Code and UnitSmooth Detection

Entropy ◽

10.3390/e23070790 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 23 (7) ◽

pp. 790

Author(s):

Lin Li ◽

Chin-Chen Chang ◽

Chia-Chen Lin

Keyword(s):

Data Hiding ◽

Privacy Protection ◽

Reversible Data Hiding ◽

Signal To Noise Ratio ◽

Data Extraction ◽

Hamming Code ◽

Hiding Capacity ◽

Encrypted Images

With the development of cloud storage and privacy protection, reversible data hiding in encrypted images (RDHEI) plays the dual role of privacy protection and secret information transmission. RDHEI has a good application prospect and practical value. The current RDHEI algorithms still have room for improvement in terms of hiding capacity, security and separability. Based on (7, 4) Hamming Code and our proposed prediction/ detection functions, this paper proposes a Hamming Code and UnitSmooth detection based RDHEI scheme, called HUD-RDHEI scheme for short. To prove our performance, two database sets—BOWS-2 and BOSSBase—have been used in the experiments, and peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and pure embedding rate (ER) are served as criteria to evaluate the performance on image quality and hiding capacity. Experimental results confirm that the average pure ER with our proposed scheme is up to 2.556 bpp and 2.530 bpp under BOSSBase and BOWS-2, respectively. At the same time, security and separability is guaranteed. Moreover, there are no incorrect extracted bits during data extraction phase and the visual quality of directly decrypted image is exactly the same as the cover image.

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Lossless Contrast Enhancement of Color Images with Reversible Data Hiding

Entropy ◽

10.3390/e21090910 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 21 (9) ◽

pp. 910 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Hao-Tian Wu ◽

Yue Wu ◽

Zhihao Guan ◽

Yiu-ming Cheung

Keyword(s):

Image Quality ◽

Contrast Enhancement ◽

Data Hiding ◽

Information Entropy ◽

Reversible Data Hiding ◽

Color Images ◽

Experimental Results ◽

Original Version ◽

Color Model ◽

Made In

Recently, lossless contrast enhancement (CE) has been proposed so that a contrast-changed image can be converted to its original version by maintaining information entropy in it. As most of the lossless CE methods are proposed for grayscale images, artifacts are probably introduced after directly applying them to color images. For instance, color distortions may be caused after CE is separately conducted in each channel of the RGB (red, green, and blue) model. To cope with this issue, a new scheme is proposed based on the HSV (hue, saturation, and value) color model. Specifically, both hue and saturation components are kept unchanged while only the value component is modified. More precisely, the ratios between the RGB components are maintained while a reversible data hiding method is applied to the value component to achieve CE effects. The experimental results clearly show CE effects obtained with the proposed scheme, while the original color images can be perfectly recovered. Several metrics including image entropy were adopted to measure the changes made in CE procedure, while the performances were compared with those of one existing scheme. The evaluation results demonstrate that better image quality and increased information entropy can be simultaneously achieved with our proposed scheme.

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