Public-key image steganography using discrete cosine transform and quadtree partition vector quantization coding
Wen Yuan Chen · Optical Engineering · 2003
A public-key image hiding scheme is proposed to offer safe exchange of a stego image on the Internet. In the proposed scheme, the secret image is first compressed by quadtree partition vector quantiza- tion (QPVQ) coding into the indices bit stream, which is then embedded into the discrete cosine transform (DCT) of the cover image. In the em- bedding process, adaptive quantization and appropriate DCT coefficients are used to enhance the imperceptibility of the stago image. On the other hand, the Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman (RSA) algorithm is hired to pro- vide the mechanism of a public-key system for secure communication on the Internet. Our proposed method has two advantages compared with other data hiding techniques. One is the high safety and convenience offered by the RSA system to exchange data on the Internet. The other is that the stego image can pass through high-quality Joint Photograph Experts Group (JPEG) compression without noticeable degradation. © 2003 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.