Spatial-domain image hiding using image differencing

Abstract

A method to embed a secret image into a cover image is proposed. The method is based on the similarity among the grey values of consecutive image pixels as well as the human visual system's variation insensitivity from smooth to contrastive. A stego-image is produced by replacing the grey values of a differencing result obtained from the cover image with those of a differencing result obtained from the secret image. The process preserves the secret image with no loss and produces the stego-image with low degradation. Moreover, a pseudorandom mechanism is used to achieve cryptography. It is found from experiment that the peak values of signal-to-noise ratios of the method are high and that the resulting stego-images are imperceptible, even when the size of the secret image is about a half of the cover image.