TY - JOUR
T1 - Color local complexity estimation based steganographic (CLCES) method
AU - Carvajal-Gamez, Blanca E.
AU - Gallegos-Funes, Francisco J.
AU - Rosales-Silva, Alberto J.
N1 - Funding Information:
The work is supported by National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico (IPN) , and National Council on Science and Technology (CONACYT) Mexico.
PY - 2013/3
Y1 - 2013/3
N2 - In this paper we present the color local complexity estimation based steganographic (CLCES) method that is able of both preventing visual degradation and providing a large embedding capacity. A preprocessing stage is applied in the proposed scheme to improve the steganography security. The embedding capacity of each pixel is determined by the local complexity of the cover image, allowing good visual quality as well as embedding a large amount of secret messages. We classify the pixels using a threshold based on the standard deviation of the local complexity in the cover image to provide a compromise between the embedding capacity and the image visual quality. The experimental results demonstrated that the algorithm CLCES proposed produces insignificant visual distortion due to the hidden message. It provides a high embedding capacity that is superior respect to the offered by the existing schemes. The proposed method is a secure steganographic algorithm; it can resist the image quality measures (IQM) steganalysis attack. The RGB, YCbCr, and HSV color spaces are incorporated in the proposed scheme to ensure that the difference between the cover image and the stego-image which is indistinguishable by the human visual system (HVS). Finally, the proposed scheme is simple, efficient, and feasible for the adaptive steganographic applications.
AB - In this paper we present the color local complexity estimation based steganographic (CLCES) method that is able of both preventing visual degradation and providing a large embedding capacity. A preprocessing stage is applied in the proposed scheme to improve the steganography security. The embedding capacity of each pixel is determined by the local complexity of the cover image, allowing good visual quality as well as embedding a large amount of secret messages. We classify the pixels using a threshold based on the standard deviation of the local complexity in the cover image to provide a compromise between the embedding capacity and the image visual quality. The experimental results demonstrated that the algorithm CLCES proposed produces insignificant visual distortion due to the hidden message. It provides a high embedding capacity that is superior respect to the offered by the existing schemes. The proposed method is a secure steganographic algorithm; it can resist the image quality measures (IQM) steganalysis attack. The RGB, YCbCr, and HSV color spaces are incorporated in the proposed scheme to ensure that the difference between the cover image and the stego-image which is indistinguishable by the human visual system (HVS). Finally, the proposed scheme is simple, efficient, and feasible for the adaptive steganographic applications.
KW - Color spaces
KW - Local complexity estimation
KW - Steganalysis
KW - Steganographic method
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84870240657&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.eswa.2012.08.024
DO - 10.1016/j.eswa.2012.08.024
M3 - Artículo
SN - 0957-4174
VL - 40
SP - 1132
EP - 1142
JO - Expert Systems with Applications
JF - Expert Systems with Applications
IS - 4
ER -