Visually imperceptible image hiding scheme based on vector quantization

A novel visually imperceptible image hiding scheme based on VQ compression and LSB modification is introduced in this article. Multiple secret images can be simultaneously and imperceptibly hid into another cover image with the same image size by the proposed scheme. In order to reduce the volume of secret images to be hid, a codebook is first generated from the secret images and these images are encoded into binary indices by the vector quantization technique. Then the compressed data of secret images are embedded into the VQ codebook used in the encoding procedure by an adaptive least-significant-bits (LSB) modification technique. For the security purpose, the slightly modified codebook is further encrypted into a meaningless data stream by the DES cryptosystem. Finally, the encrypted codebook is embedded into the cover image using the greedy LSB modification technique. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme provides a good improvement in the visual quality of the extracted secret images and the cover image at the receiver. In addition, the proposed scheme provides better hiding capacity for the cover image than earlier works.