Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
530111 Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation 2011 10 Pages PDF
Abstract

This paper proposes a reversible data hiding method based on image interpolation and the detection of smooth and complex regions in the cover images. A binary image that represents the locations of reference pixels is constructed according the local image activity. In complex regions, more reference pixels are chosen and, thus, fewer pixels are used for embedding, which reduces the image degradation. On the other hand, in smooth regions, less reference pixels are chosen, which increases the embedding capacity without introducing significant distortion. Pixels are interpolated according to the constructed binary image, and the interpolation errors are then used to embed data through histogram shifting. The pixel values in the cover image are modified one grayscale unit at most to ensure that a high quality stego image can be produced. The experimental results show that the proposed method provides better image quality and embedding capacity compared with prior works.

Research highlights► The distribution of reference pixels controls the payload and image quality. ► More reference pixels reduce the image degradation. ► Less reference pixels increase the payload.

Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Computer Science Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Authors
, ,