An Efficient Reversible Data Hiding Scheme Based on Reference Pixel and Block Selection

Abstract

In this paper, we propose an efficient data hiding scheme based on reference pixel and block selection to further improve the embedding performance of histogram shifting. Specifically, we first divide the original image into non-overlapping blocks of an adjustable size. Then for each block, we assign the median of pixels as the reference pixel and the number of pixels equal to the reference value as the smooth level. In this way, difference histograms for each smooth level can be constructed. We embed the secret data using histogram shifting from the highest level histogram to lower level ones instead of sequential embedding. By this means, our proposed reversible data hiding scheme can adaptively embed data in the smooth blocks and thus improve the marked image quality with a comparable embedding capacity. The experimental results also demonstrate its superiority over some state-of-the-art reversible data hiding works.

Reversible Data Hiding Based on Structural Similarity Block Selection

“…For pixels in B l,j , embedding by (24) 22: if σ T σ then 23: embedding by ( 24 For pixels in B l,j , keeping unchanged 27: end if 28: end for 29: Return X In particular, our proposed embedding algorithm is compared with Cai and Gui [36], Sachnev et al [22], and Wang et al [30]. Among them, Cai and Gui [36] proposed a method based on block selection, and assigned the median of each block as the reference pixel such that those pixels with the same reference value as the smooth level to select the block. Both Sachnev et al's method [22] and Wang et al's method [30] For the test image 'Lena', the performance in different subblock sizes is shown in Fig.…”

“…In the light of high efficiency of PEH-based method, many RDH technologies based on PEH have been proposed in recent years, for example, doublelayer embedding [22], adaptive embedding [23], [24], context modification [25], multi histogram modification [26]- [29], optimal expansion bins selection [30]- [33]. Furthermore, based on the principle of PEH-methods, other RDH methods are proposed, such as pixel-value-ordering-based methods [34]- [36]. In general, RDH methods strive to achieve better capacity-distortion performance, i.e., maintaining certain embedding capacity while minimizing the distortion.…”

“…Our curve is on average 2dB higher in PSNR FIGURE 10. PSNR comparison of between our method and three methods in [22], [30], [36].…”

“…So when the embedding capacity is not high enough (for 'Airplane' about 17500 bits, for 'Barbara' about 11000 bits), the embedding algorithm can not show the advantage of the block selection mechanism, but the influence of auxiliary information in 'Airplane' and 'Barbara' is more apparent. For 'Airplane', [36] has better PSNR when the embedding capacity is less than 17500 bits. For 'Barbara', the proposed method is pretty close to [36] and [22] when the embedding capacity is less than 11000 bits.…”

Pixel Value Ordering Based Reversible Data Hiding with Novel MPBS Strategy

“…Hiding with Novel MPBS Strategy M. Mahasree, N. Puviarasan, P. Aruna Siren Cai and Xinlu Gui proposed a data hiding scheme based on reference pixel and histogram shifting [13]. Jung proposed a scheme that considers three pixels block with pixel sorting and prediction.…”