A high payload hybrid data hiding scheme with LSB, EMD and MPE

Abstract

Data hiding in a cover image can be used to assist in secure message communication on the Internet. In this paper, we proposed a hybrid data hiding scheme that is a combination of least significant bit substitution (LSB), exploiting modification direction (EMD) and modification of prediction errors (MPE). The aim is to maintain a balance between embedding quality and embedding capacity where high payload is the motive. The image is first embedded by EMD, or LSB followed by EMD only if the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) is greater or equal T₁ dB (45 dB). The remainder payload will be embedded by recursive MPE until the PSNR of the stego-image reaches T₂ dB (35 dB). Experimental results showed that the proposed scheme has a higher embedding capacity while maintaining high visual quality of the stego-image than any of the individual method.

Keywords:

• Data hiding
• Least significant bit substitution (LSB)
• Exploiting modification direction (EMD)
• Modification of prediction errors (MPE)