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Very High Capacity Image Steganography Technique Using Quotient Value Differencing and LSB Substitution

  • Research Article - Computer Engineering and Computer Science
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Abstract

This article proposes a very high capacity steganography technique using differencing and substitution mechanisms. It divides the image into non-overlapped \(3{\times }3\) pixel blocks. For every pixel of a block, least significant bit (LSB) substitution is applied on two LSBs and quotient value differencing (QVD) is applied on the remaining six bits. Thus, there are two levels of embedding: (i) LSB substitution at lower bit planes and (ii) QVD at higher bit planes. If a block after embedding in this fashion suffers with fall off boundary problem, then that block is undone from the above hybrid embedding and modified 4-bit LSB substitution is applied. Experimentally, it is evidenced that the hiding capacity is improved to a greater extent. It is also experimentally proved that pixel difference histogram and RS analysis techniques cannot detect the proposed steganography technique.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation, Vaddeswaram, Andhra Pradesh, 522502, India

    Gandharba Swain

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  1. Gandharba Swain
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Correspondence to Gandharba Swain.

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Swain, G. Very High Capacity Image Steganography Technique Using Quotient Value Differencing and LSB Substitution. Arab J Sci Eng 44, 2995–3004 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-018-3372-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-018-3372-2

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