An image-hiding method with high hiding capacity based on best block matching

• Main Authors: Yao-De Tsai, 蔡耀德
• Other Authors: Ran-Zan Wang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2005
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/7ba465

碩士 === 銘傳大學 === 資訊傳播工程學系碩士班 === 93 === Image hiding is an important image protection mechanism. It works by embedding the important image invisibly in a cover image and obtains the stego-image, and the stego-image is used and transmitted normally to the receiver. In this paper, a high data payload image hiding method is proposed. The method utilizes a two-stage block matching procedure to search for a best similar block for each block of the important image, and a k-means clustering algorithm to build the representative blocks for those not well-matched blocks. The indexes of the matching result are then embedded in the LSB of the cover image using a hop-embedding scheme. The proposed method owns the following advantages: (1) the quality of the extracted important image is high, which preserves the value and function of the important image; (2) the data payload of the cover image is high, hence the important image can be transmitted and stored more efficiently; (3) the quality of the stego-image is high, indicating that the hidden image is well camouflaged, and guarantees the secrecy of the important image. Experimental results show that the quality of both the extracted important image and the stego-image are acceptable. The photographer who works in the enemy area can use the proposed method to transmit the pictures secretly.