Dual encoding approach with sequence folding for reversible data hiding in dual stego images.

This paper proposes a dual encoding approach with sequence folding for reversible data hiding in dual stego images. This method initially encodes the secret data by creating two encoding tables that contain index as well as code sequence based on message intensities and the two encoding tables are updated. The code sequence in the second encoding table is folded if the preceding half or succeeding half of the two encoding tables gets matched. The folding is also done if the maximum intensity in the code of two encoding tables lies in the most succeeding end. The same encoding process is repeated for all message intensities. After encoding the message intensities, the encoded indices are embedded on the cover image to obtain the dual stego images. In the data extraction phase, the encoded indices are initially extracted and is decoded by using the dual decoding table. The behavior of the proposed data hiding is evaluated using the metrics such as embedding capacity, embedding rate, PSNR, and SSIM using the standard test images. Experimental verification reveals that the proposed data hiding algorithm shows outstanding performance when compared to the traditional dual stego based data hiding methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]