INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY (IJECET)

ISSN 0976 6464(Print) ISSN 0976 6472(Online) Volume 4, Issue 1, January- February (2013), pp. 230-235 IAEME: www.iaeme.com/ijecet.asp Journal Impact Factor (2012): 3.5930 (Calculated by GISI) www.jifactor.com

International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering & Technology (IJECET), ISSN 0976 6464(Print), ISSN 0976 6472(Online) Volume 4, Issue 1, January- February (2013), IAEME

IJECET
IAEME

CONCEALOGRAM: DIGITAL IMAGE IN IMAGE USING LSB INSERTION METHOD

Reena M Patel1, D J Shah2
1

EC department, LDRP Institute of Technology & Research, Near ITI, Sector 15, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India, 2 Principal, L C institute of technology, Bhandu 384124, Gujarat, India,

ABSTRACT In this paper, the authors propose a new algorithm for an image hiding steganographic method or concealing digital image in a cover image is introduced, and implemented. The proposed algorithm uses binary codes and pixels inside an image. For proposed paper author used spatial domain approach. The algorithm tested to see the viability of the proposed algorithm. Here using different algorithm, same sizes of data are stored inside the images and the PSNR (Peak signal-to-noise ratio) is also captured for each of the images tested. Various parameters like robustness against attack, data hiding capacity and quality of stego image are also considered. Hence this new steganography algorithm is very efficient to hide the digital image inside the image. Keywords: cover image, image processing, LSB insertion, Steganography, stegoimage 1. INTRODUCTION Steganography is the science of hiding information. The goal of steganography is to hide the information and be undetectable to human eyes. Steganography focuses on the means of communication and the development of a covert channel. Steganography focuses entirely on keeping the adversary completely unaware of the communication. There are several information hiding techniques, they could be classified according to the media where the information are hidden. First, Hiding in Text, methods such as line-shift coding, word shift coding, and feature coding are the commonly used methods to hide data in text. When using a text data as a host media, the embedded data are usually
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International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering & Technology (IJECET), ISSN 0976 6464(Print), ISSN 0976 6472(Online) Volume 4, Issue 1, January- February (2013), IAEME

codeword that are hidden within the text by altering their different textual features [1]. Second, data hiding in image, the least significant bit insertion method is a common simple approach for embedding information in image file. When applying LSB insertion method on each byte of a 24-bit image, three bits can be encoded into each pixel (because each pixel is represented by three bytes). Any changes in the pixel bits will be indiscernible to the human eye. When using LSB techniques on 8-bit color images (i.e., palate driven), more care need to be taken. So, for 8-bit images only the grey images are recommended for data hiding [2]. Three different aspects in information hiding systems contend with each other: capacity, security, and robustness. All steganographic methods have to comply be applied with a few basic requirements (i.e., invisibility, payload capacity, robustness against statistical attacks, robustness against image manipulation, independent of file format, and unsuspicious files [3]. 2. RELATED WORK Hiding data is the process of embedding information into digital content without causing perceptual degradation [4]. In data hiding, three famous techniques can be used. They are watermarking, steganography and cryptography. Steganography is defined as covering writing in Greek. It includes any process that deals with data or information within other data. According to Lou et al. [5], steganography is hiding the existence of a message by hiding information into various carriers. The major intent is to prevent the detection of hidden information. Research in steganography technique has been done back in ancient Greek where during that time the ancient Greek practice of tattooing a secret message on the shaved head of a messenger, and letting his hair grow back before sending him through enemy territory where the latency of this communications system was measured in months [6]. However, the majority of the development and use of computerized steganography only occurred in year 2000 [7]. There are several steganography techniques used for hiding data such as batch steganography, permutation stehanography, least significant bits (LSB), bit-plane complexity segmentation (BPCS) and chaos based spread spectrum image steganography (CSSIS). 3. PROPOSED METHODS FOR HIDING IMAGE IN IMAGE 3.1 4 bit data hiding method Each pixel contains 8 bits, the right most bit is Least Significant Bit (LSB) and left most bit is (Most Significant Bit) MSB. Four bit data hiding method, which embeds first four MSB bits (MSB,MSB-1,MSB-2,MSB-3) of secret image into last four LSB bits (LSB, LSB+1, LSB+2,LSB+3) of cover image. So last 4 bits of cover image is replace with first four bits of secret image. Now next pixel of cover image is taken and again 4 MSB bits of next pixel of secret image is inserted into 4 LSB bits of cover image.

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International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering & Technology (IJECET), ISSN 0976 6464(Print), ISSN 0976 6472(Online) Volume 4, Issue 1, January- February (2013), IAEME

Pixel 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 LS LS B+ B+ 3 2

1 LS LS B+ B 1

Cover image Pixel 2 Pixel 3 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1

Secret image Pixel 1 Pixel 2 Pixel 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 MS MS MS MS B B-1 B-2 B-3

Stego image 1 0 1 Pixel 1 1 1 0 0 0 Pixel 2 Pixel 3 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0

Fig.1. Data hiding process using 4 bit method In this method only 4 MSB bits of each pixel of secret image is considered. Because of Lower bits of pixel is not contain more information here we omit remaining four bits (LSB, LSB+1, LSB+2, LSB+3) of secret image. The data to be hidden is converted to binary form. In Fig.1 gray shad shows that the last 4 LSB bit of cover image is replace with first 4 MSB bits of secret image. Image processing fundamental said that (LSB contain less information), so if we change LSB data it not disturb the quality of image. In proposed method we omit last 4 bits LSB of each Pixel from secret image. Now next pixel of cover image is taken for data hiding. The manipulation of the three bit alters the color of the pixel, but this manipulate change cannot easily be perceived by the human eye. 3.2 6 bit data hiding method Six bit data hiding method embeds first three MSB bits (MSB, MSB-1, MSB-2) of secret image into last three LSB bits (LSB, LSB+1, LSB+2) of cover image. Again three bits of secret image (MSB-3, MSB-4, MSB-5) is stored in 3 LSB bits of next pixel of cover image. So we are hiding total six MSB bits of secret image into cover image. Cover image embeds three bit data in each pixel byte. The data to be hidden is converted to binary form. In Fig.2 gray shad shows that the last 3 LSB bit of cover image is replace with first 3 MSB bits (1, 0, 0) of secret image. From MSB-3, next 3 bits (0, 0, 0) from Pixel 1 of Secret image is stored into 3 LSB bits of cover image Pixel 2. In proposed method we omit last 2bits LSB of each Pixel from secret image.

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International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering & Technology (IJECET), ISSN 0976 6464(Print), ISSN 0976 6472(Online) Volume 4, Issue 1, January- February (2013), IAEME

Pixel 1 1 0 0 LS B+ 2

1 1 LS LS B+ B 1

Cover image Pixel 2 Pixel 3 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1

Pixel 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 MS MS MS MS MS MS B B-1 B-2 B-3 B-4 B-5

Secret image Pixel 2 Pixel 3 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0

Stego image 1 0 1 Pixel 1 1 0 1 Pixel 2 Pixel 3 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 Fig.2. Data hiding process using 3 bit method

4. PSNR CALCULATION We then tested the algorithm using the PSNR (Peak signal-to-noise ratio). PSNR is a standard measurement used in steganograpy technique in order to test the quality of the stego images. The higher the value of PSNR, the more quality the stego image will have. If the cover image is C of size M M and the stego image is S of size N N, then each cover image C and stego image S will have pixel value (x, y) from 0 to M-1 and 0 to N-1 respectively. The PSNR is then calculated as follows: Where Note that R is the maximum possible pixel value of the images. For example, if the pixels are represented using 8 bits per sample, then the R value is 255. If the stego image has a higher PSNR value, then the stego image has more quality image. 5. RESULTS 5.1. 4 bit data hiding method Fig. 3 shows the application of this method. We have cover image as lena (size: 512x512) and secret image as cameraman (size: 256x256). Fig 3 shows stegno image after hidden image stored in cover image. We get index 143 (at location X=32, Y=100) for cover image while we get index 138 (at location X=32, Y=100) for stegno image i.e. index is changed. Also we get PSNR is equal to 38.41 dB.

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International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering & Technology (IJECET), ISSN 0976 6464(Print), ISSN 0976 6472(Online) Volume 4, Issue 1, January- February (2013), IAEME

Fig: 3 Four bit data Hiding Method Results

5.2. 6 bit data hiding method

Fig: 4 Six bit data Hiding Method Results Fig 4 shows the application of this method. Once again we select lena as cover image and cameraman as secret image. And execute the algorithm. As shown in Fig 4 we get index 143 (at location X=32, Y=100) for cover image while we get index 141 (at location X=32, Y=100) for stegno image i.e. index is changed. Also we get PSNR is equal to 41.38 dB. We get better quality of stego image compare to 4 bit method since we are using 3 bits to embed data. Also the quality of received image is better than that of 4 bit method because 6 bits of original image is used instead of 4 bits.
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International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering & Technology (IJECET), ISSN 0976 6464(Print), ISSN 0976 6472(Online) Volume 4, Issue 1, January- February (2013), IAEME

6. CONCLUSION Results indicate that 6 bit data hiding method perform better than 4 bit data hiding method. We have less data hiding capacity in 6 bit data hiding method but at the same time we get better stego image & higher PSNR. When applying 6 bit data hiding method on each byte of a 24-bit image, nine bits can be encoded into each pixel (because each pixel is represented by three bytes). Also for 8-bit image, 3 bits can be encoded into each pixel. In this method any changes in the pixel bits will be barely visible to the human eye. REFERENCES [1] Jawad M. J., Hiding Audio Using Wavelet Transform,M.Sc. thesis, college of science, Al-Nahrain University, Iraq, 2005. [2] Kessler G. C., Hiding Data Within Data, paper, Champlain College in Burlington, 2001. http://www.garykessler.net/library/steganography.html [3] Morkel T., Eloff J. H. P., and Olivier M. S., An Overview of Image Steganography, Information and Computer Security Architecture (ICSA) Research Group, University of Pretoria, South Africa, 2005. [4] M. Chen, N. Memon, E.K. Wong, Data hiding in document images, in: H. Nemati (Ed.). Premier Reference SourceInformation Security and Ethics: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools and Applications, New York: Information Science Reference, 2008, pp. 438-450. [5] D.C. Lou, J.L. Liu, H.K. Tso, Evolution of information hiding technology, in H. Nemati (Ed.), Premier Reference SourceInformation Security and Ethics: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools and Applications, New York: Information Science Reference, 2008, pp. 438-450. [6] Schneider, Secrets & Lies, Indiana:Wiley Publishing, 2000. [7] E. Cole, Hiding in Plain Sight: Steganography and the Art of Covert Communication, Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing, 2003. [8] Nagham Hamid, Abid Yahya ,R. Badlishah Ahmad and Osamah M. Al-Qershi, An Improved Robust And Secured Image Steganographic Scheme International journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering &Technology (IJECET), Volume 3, Issue 3, 2012, pp. 22 - 33, Published by IAEME. [9] R. Pushpavalli and G.Sivaradjei, Nonlinear Filtering Technique For Preserving Edges and Fine Details of Digital Images International journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering &Technology (IJECET), Volume 3, Issue 1, 2012, pp. 29-40, Published by IAEME. [10] Ankit Vidyarthi and Ankita Kansal, A Survey Report On Digital Images Segmentation Algorithms International journal of Computer Engineering & Technology (IJCET), Volume 3, Issue 2, 2012, pp. 85 - 91, Published by IAEME. [11] Miss. Vismita Nagrale, Mr. Ganesh Zambre and Mr. Aamir Agwani, Image SteganoCryptography Based on LSB Insertion & Symmetric Key Encryption International journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering &Technology (IJECET), Volume 2, Issue 1, 2011, pp. 35-42, Published by IAEME.

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