An innovative information hiding technique utilizing cumulative peak histogram regions
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13287261211255356 |
| Published date | 10 August 2012 |
| Pages | 246-263 |
| Date | 10 August 2012 |
| Author | Faruq A. Al‐Omari,Osama D. Al‐Khaleel,Ghassan A. Rayyashi,Sameh H. Ghwanmeh |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
An innovative information hiding
technique utilizing cumulative
peak histogram regions
Faruq A. Al-Omari
Computer Engineering Department,
Hijjawi Faculty for Engineering Technology, Yarmouk University,
Irbid, Jordan
Osama D. Al-Khaleel and Ghassan A. Rayyashi
Computer Engineering Department,
Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan, and
Sameh H. Ghwanmeh
Computer Science Department, WISE University, Amman, Jordan
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop an innovative information hiding algorithm.
Design/methodology/approach – The proposed algorithm is based on image histogram statistics.
Cumulative-peak histogram regions are utilized to hide multiple bits of the secret message by
performing histogram bin substitution. The embedding capacity, otherwise known as payload, and
peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR), as well as security, are the main metrics used to evaluate the
performance of the proposed algorithm.
Findings – According to the obtained results, the proposed algorithm shows high embedding
capacity and security at comparable PSNR compared with existing hiding information techniques.
Originality/value – The simplicity, security, random distribution of embedding pixels, and
on-demand high capacity are the key advantages of the proposed approach.
Keywords Information technology, Data encapsulation, Informationsecurity, Steganography,
Information hiding, Watermarking
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Information hiding is a technique used to hide secret information within another cover
medium (Lu, 2004). In cryptography, the goal is to secure communication from a spire
(eavesdropper) by scrambling a message and converting it into unreadable format.
Contrary, information hiding endeavors to encapsulate a secret message by another
meaningful cover medium. This medium can be digital image, video or audio (Barni and
Bartolini, 2004). Although cryptography secures communication in public networking,
it causes the content of the secret message to be meaningless (Lu, 2004; Barni and
Bartolini, 2004). This might, in turn, either guide the spire to guess the importance of the
transmitted message and then drop or alter it before reaching its ultimate destination, or
might not be allowed to move freely through the network in the presence of firewalls that
are configured to block encrypted data. Therefore, information hiding is strongly
recommended to exchange secret messages between sender and receiver through a
public network, such as internet, without the knowledge of other parties.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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JSIT
14,3
246
Journal of Systems and Information
Technology
Vol. 14 No. 3, 2012
pp. 246-263
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1328-7265
DOI 10.1108/13287261211255356
Information hiding can be classified into two main categories; namely steganography
and digital watermarking. Steganography is the art of hiding information imperceptibly
in a cover medium (Provos and Honeyman, 2003). Digital watermarking, on the other
hand, is a method used to embed extra information into digital multimedia content.
Such extra information can be, later on, extracted for a variety of purposes such as
copyrighting, authentication or integrity of digital media content (Lu, 2004; Barni and
Bartolini, 2004). The major difference s between these two categories are the
implementation and purpose of use, as shown in Figure 1. In steganography the
objective of communication is the hidden message. On the other hand, the objective of
communication in watermarking is the cover multimedia file itself (www.
watermarkingworld.org (accessed December, 2008)). Throughout this paper we will
use the terms steganography and information hiding interchangeably.
The image steganography framework consists of a cover image, an embedding
algorithm, a secret message, an extracting algorithm and a stego-image, as shown in
Figure 2. The stego-image refers to the cover image in which the secret data has been
embedded. Image steganographic algorithms proposed during the past few years can
be categorized into spatial domain algorithms (Chan and Cheng, 2004; Potdar and
Chang, 2004; Sutaone and Khandare, 2008; Thien and Lin, 2003; Wang, 2005; Wu and
Tsai, 2003; Chang and Tseng, 2004; Wu et al., 2005; Chang et al., 2006; Zhicheng et al.,
2006; Fallahpour and Sedaaghi, 2007; Lee and Chen, 2007; Chang et al., 2008),
Figure 2.
Image steganography
framework
Figure 1.
Information hiding
categories and primary
objectives
An information
hiding technique
247
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