Open Access

ARTICLE

Image Steganography by Pixel-Value Differencing Using General Quantization Ranges

by Da-Chun Wu^*, Zong-Nan Shih

Department of Computer and Communication Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung, 824005, Taiwan

* Corresponding Author: Da-Chun Wu. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Information Security and Trust Issues in the Digital World)

Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences 2024, 141(1), 353-383. https://doi.org/10.32604/cmes.2024.050813

Received 19 February 2024; Accepted 02 July 2024; Issue published 20 August 2024

Abstract

A new steganographic method by pixel-value differencing (PVD) using general quantization ranges of pixel pairs’ difference values is proposed. The objective of this method is to provide a data embedding technique with a range table with range widths not limited to powers of 2, extending PVD-based methods to enhance their flexibility and data-embedding rates without changing their capabilities to resist security attacks. Specifically, the conventional PVD technique partitions a grayscale image into 1 × 2 non-overlapping blocks. The entire range [0, 255] of all possible absolute values of the pixel pairs’ grayscale differences in the blocks is divided into multiple quantization ranges. The width of each quantization range is a power of two to facilitate the direct embedding of the bit information with high embedding rates. Without using power-of-two range widths, the embedding rates can drop using conventional embedding techniques. In contrast, the proposed method uses general quantization range widths, and a multiple-based number conversion mechanism is employed skillfully to implement the use of non-power-of-two range widths, with each pixel pair being employed to embed a digit in the multiple-based number. All the message bits are converted into a big multiple-based number whose digits can be embedded into the pixel pairs with a higher embedding rate. Good experimental results showed the feasibility of the proposed method and its resistance to security attacks. In addition, implementation examples are provided, where the proposed method adopts non-power-of-two range widths and employs multiple-based number conversion to expand the data-hiding and steganalysis-resisting capabilities of other PVD methods.

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Keywords

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