Energy based image steganography using dynamic programming

Ron Shmueli; Tal Shmueli; Ofer Hadar

doi:10.1117/12.2530319

6 September 2019 Energy based image steganography using dynamic programming

Ron Shmueli, Tal Shmueli, Ofer Hadar

Proceedings Volume 11137, Applications of Digital Image Processing XLII; 111371R (2019) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2530319
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2019, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Image steganography is the art of hiding information in a cover image in such a way that a third party does not notice the hidden information. This paper presents a novel technique for image steganography in the spatial domain. The new method hides and recovers hidden information of substantial length within digital imagery, while maintaining the size and quality of the original image. The image gradient is used to generate a saliency image, which represent the energy of each pixel in the image. Pixels with higher energy are more salient and they are valuable for hiding data since their visual impairment is low. From the saliency image, a cumulative maximum energy matrix is created; this matrix is used to generate horizontal seams that pass over the maximum energy path. By embedding the secret bits of information along the seams, a stego-image is created which contains the hidden message. In the stegoimage, we ensure that the hidden data is invisible, with very small perceived image quality degradation. The same algorithms are used to reconstruct the hidden message from the stego-image. Experiments have been conducted using two types of image and two types of hidden data to evaluate the proposed technique. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has a high capacity and good invisibility, with a Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) of about 70, and a Structural SIMilarity index (SSIM) of about 1.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Ron Shmueli, Tal Shmueli, and Ofer Hadar "Energy based image steganography using dynamic programming", Proc. SPIE 11137, Applications of Digital Image Processing XLII, 111371R (6 September 2019); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2530319

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available